Lyra's POV
Zarek might be right that this version of Draziel, even with how distant and guarded he was, would be miserable if I left. But would he really? I thought, biting down on my lips, and I weaved a portal into existence before me. He'd always labeled us a mistake that shouldn't happen—a big mistake, he'd called it—what we shared. He'd always wanted us to be far apart.
I could vividly remember the cold look he gave me after we got back from the parallel realm, remembering him dropping me in the bathtub then.
Yet as the heat from the portal materializing before me burned my hands, the black mass swirling like a spiral, memories of the good times we had together stung my mind. The time we had the kitchen soup in the market, the kiss we had, even the sex in the parallel realm—they had all been the best moments of this lifetime of mine.
