A genuine love between two people must always be protected. It is rare—so rare that when it finds a way to exist and endure, it becomes something sacred. That binding force is more powerful than any ability in the world, and no greater pain or hatred can be born than from its loss.

  Milo was a poor, humble boy who grew up in the same town as Cassia, a girl born into wealth. As children, they despised each other. They couldn’t stand being in the same room. Yet just as surely as we must breathe to live another moment, a budding love cannot be denied.

  By high school, Milo finally found the courage to admit his feelings, and from that moment on, the couple was inseparable. They walked everywhere together, as if the world beyond them simply did not exist.

  As seniors, they knew nothing but how to love one another. And just as love can be our greatest strength, it can also become our greatest enemy.

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  When the destruction of the world loomed before them, the couple made an unspeakable decision. They would kiss one final time, stab each other through the heart, and leave this broken world together—peacefully, hand in hand, facing the only end that mattered to them.

  They believed it was mercy.

  They believed it was love.

  First came the kiss—one meant to last through the afterlife. Then came the release, exactly as planned.

  Except it didn’t.

  Both knives plunged in. Both bodies fell. Consciousness faded—until one of them returned.

  As Milo lay bleeding in the arms of the woman he loved, he felt his body reject death itself. The knife forced its way out of his back as breath rushed into his lungs. Flesh knitted together. Pain vanished.

  A twisted laugh sang through with painful tears of realization.

  He couldn’t die.

  And in surviving, he had killed the only reason he ever wanted to live.