The five who were never meant to love me
Then, without warning, he slammed the stone bowl against the ground hard enough to shatter it completely, the dark liquid inside splashing across the floor and sinking instantly into the stone, disappearing entirely.
"If I can't have it," he said, voice cold and final, "then neither will you. Not fully. Not ever."
Before anyone could stop him, he pressed his palm flat against the cracked wall behind him, and the stone dissolved beneath his touch like it had never been solid at all, swallowing him into darkness that closed behind him instantly, leaving nothing but silence and the faint, dying pulse of scattered power soaking into the ground where the bowl had broken.
Aurora dropped to her kne