Spirit Bound

"Don't," he said in a hushed voice. "Don't start–not in here." "Wouldn't dream of it, comrade," I murmured back. "Just came for the good of my soul, that's all."

He probably knew the sound of my heartbeat and breathing.

It was Dimitri. Always Dimitri. Dimitri, the man I'd loved. Dimitri, the Strigoi I wanted to save. Dimitri, the monster I'd most likely have to kill. The love we'd shared always burned within me, no matter how often I told myself to move on, no matter how much the world did think I'd moved on. He was always with me, always on my mind, always making me question myself.

As he looked at me, he seemed to send a message of his own: that he would still fight for me, that he would fight until he collapsed to keep them from taking me.

My heart twisted with both sorrow and jealousy—and a bit of anger too. I was the one he should have looked at that way. How dare he? How dare he act like Lissa was the greatest thing in the world? She’d done a lot to save him, true, but I was the one who’d traveled around the globe for him. I was the one who had continually risked my life for him. Most importantly, I was the one who loved him. How could he turn his back on that?

“You’re beautiful in battle,” said Dimitri. His cold voice carried to me clearly, even above the roar of combat. “Like an avenging angel come to deliver the justice of heaven.”

No matter what happened, I would lose one of them tonight. If we rescued Lissa, Dimitri would die. If he survived, she would die. There was no happy ending for this story, nothing that could save my heart from being crushed into pieces.

“Don’t be sorry you loved him. That’s part of you, part you have to let go, yeah, but still something that’s made you who you are.”

“Why? Why did you have to be so difficult? We could have spent eternity together . . .”

“Damn it,” he said. “Will you let me finish a sent—”

“No,” Lissa interrupted. And she leaned over and kissed him, a hard and powerful kiss that burned through her body, one that told her there was no one else in the world for her either.

Well. Apparently Tasha had been right: I was the only one who could bring them back together. I just somehow hadn’t expected my arrest to play a role.

I pulled awa