Lyriat’s eyes finally left her to narrow on Caius. “Interesting point.”
Goosebumps spread over the entirety of Lunara’s body. This wasn’t actually happening.
Not real.
Thad shook his head. “No one else offered their home to stay in. No one else was able to wake and soothe her. Lunara’s the only reason I got to speak to her a final time.”
“Regardless”—Lyriat raised an imperious hand at Thad—“none of this is relevant to the fact that we had a deal and, in the end, she deemed it appropriate to venture into the most dangerous part of our world instead of honoring it. And you, Brand, are now withholding the details.”
“It isn’t fucking like that!” Brand bellowed. “You want to make us relive it? Fine!” His fist hit the table, power rippling over its surface. “She nearly died! I watched my mate try to save a child and be skewered for her kindness. I held her insides together with my own fucking hand! Felt her heart stutter?—”
Lunara couldn’t hear the rest of his words, ears ringing, chest constricting with every shallow exhale. The others were shouting now too, she could see that much. Fingers wagging. Arms waving.
Too much. Not your fight. Just go, get out of here.
Lyriat thoughtshewas the one who’d done this? She couldn’t handle it. Shouldn’t be here. Was out of her depth.
She was a single breath from bolting—from taking her chances with the mystical murder door, racing up the stairs, and flinging herself straight through the portal—when a flame jumped in the fireplace and hit Brandjust so.
She was back in the cave, wrapped in his misery. His passion. His trust.
The way he’d relied on her to help him forget, and given himself in return. The way he’d rocked her back and forth in a ravaged patch of broken wildflowers after their battle with the beast, every other breath catching as he tried not to be crushed beneath the weight of his own anguish.
She heard Hedda’s screams and her dash for the chasm’s edge.
Felt Magnus nearly dying, Pet panting beneath her hands.
Watched Thaddeus and Sorcha’s fearless heroics, their first real triumph in battle.
What they’d accomplished and discovered… The reasons they’d done it…
Lyriat was the one who’d wanted her to ‘account for the intensity of the days’spent in their company. To embrace their friendship. Now he was throwing it back at her?
Exactly the sort of thing she’d been running from all her life. Arrogant leaders demanding their due and having no thought for anything else.
Lunara refused to run from him as well.
If he wanted to bring up their deal, she’d make damned sure he remembered it exactly.
Bleeding, fucking eejit.
“Faldir was gone!”Her scream silenced the senseless cacophony. “A single soul had been left alive in Glynmor. If you’d seen it… There was no way we could’ve left Faldir to the same fate. So yes, Brand and I followed, while the other two protected the vulnerable.”
She leaned in towards Lyriat, no thought for how monumentally idiotic it was to do so. “I didexactlywhat you wanted, Your Majesty. What was it you said?‘Whatever trials come up, whatever ailments or surprises—you stay by their side and see them finished.’You should know by now that a Nachthellian never forgets a word of the deals they make, nor do they break them intentionally. Our society depends on them too completely.”
She was shaking, almost dizzy with the lightness each word brought. “Did I make mistakes? Yes. I was fully prepared to release you of our bargain, thinking I’d failed to meet my end by losing Faldir to the depths. But don’t you dare throw accusations at me. I did everything within my power to make it right and control the damage.”
Brand’s solid presence towered behind her, his hand on her lower back, and the slow, soothing circles of his thumb gave her strength.
She had no recollection of standing up.
Throwing her shoulders back, she raised a brow at the Demon King of Straelon like a complete numpty. “Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn’t have done precisely the same thing under the same conditions. That you could’ve wrangled these arseholes any better. As you so aggressively reminded me, they areImperial Sons. They pretty much do whatever they damned well please!”
Now you’ve got all that out, fucking run!
It was either the most foolish thing she’d ever done, or the most brilliant. Hard to tell with everyone gaping at her.
May as well add another stitch to the funeral shroud, as it were.
