You clench your hands in Evan’s robes, clinging to him as though you can stop time if you hold on tightly enough.
“I don’t understand,” you whisper, your voice shaking. “You said you wouldn’t—”
“I know what I said.” His voice cracks. He won't look at you because if he does, he’ll crumble. “But my family’s given the order.”
“So you’re choosing to be a De4th Eater? Over us?”
He finally meets your gaze. There’s pain there. So much of it. “I’m choosing survival.”
“But what about what we had? What about our plans?” you ask, stepping forward. “We were going to leave all of this behind and start over.”
“I wanted that. God, I still want that,” he says. “But you don’t know what they do to traitors.”
“You were never supposed to be one of them,” you choke.
Evan reaches out and cups your cheek, his thumb brushing away the tear slipping down. “I thought loving you would save me from becoming this. But it’s not enough. I’m not enough.”
You lean into his touch for a moment before he pulls away. You feel the cold of the world crashing back in.
He turns and walks away.
The sky is still the same deep shade of violet as the night he left. You find him in the ruins of that memory: the edge of the tower, where you once whispered about running away together.
Evan is sitting on the ledge, staring out across the grounds. He hears you before he sees you.
“You came back,” you say.
He doesn’t turn right away. “You and I — we were supposed to burn the world down together, remember?”
You do. You remember everything.
Evan stands and finally turns to you. His eyes are older. Sadder. But when they land on your hand, they freeze.
The ring glints in the fading light.
He nods to it with a small, humorless smile. “Barty?”
You hesitate. “Yes.”
“I spent years turning every mistake I made into something I could survive,” he says. “I did it because I thought that if I survived, I'd get back to you.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t blame you,” he adds. “You waited longer than anyone should have.”
He steps closer, his voice raw. “Tell him to hold you as though you're the most beautiful thing in the world. That’s how I always saw you. Even when I had nothing else.”
Your heart lurches in your chest. But you don’t speak. You can’t.
Because even now, even after all these years, a piece of you still burns for the boy who wanted to burn the world with you.