Sophia’s POV

“Lucian—” His name tore out of me, my voice breaking.

I clutched his body, trembling so hard the gun slipped from my hand and clattered against the floor. The silence pressed in thick and heavy, broken only by the weak rise and fall of his chest.

“Please,” I whispered, my voice cracking. My tears smeared hot across his blood-slick shirt. “Please wake up! I tapped him on the cheek. “Don’t leave me, please.”

He fluttered his eyelids in slow motion, painfully, his ...