Chloe’s chest rose and fell too quickly, as though her lungs couldn’t keep up with the weight of her panic. The walls pressed in around her, suffocating, while her ears roared with Valerius’s confession.

“You killed me.” The words tore out of her again, brittle, broken. “I was dead.”

Valerius reached for her, anguish written all over his face, but she slapped his hand away. The touch of him burned.

“Stay away from me!”

Her tears blurred her vision, but she saw Lucius ...