She didn’t know where to go or how to get there. Argoph was a maze, almost as large as the whole of Starkeep.
Mist, then. Picture the great hall and mist there.
Her stomach turned at the thought. Lunara couldn’t stop the rise of bile, bending over and heaving.
A monster. She was a monster.
That’s when she made the mistake of looking down.
They were in one of the outermost towers of the palace. The mesa dropped off beneath her, one of the falls plummeting down directly below. The world swam, stretching further and further away, before snapping back to its true position.
Fucking shite, it’s a long way down.
A cold sweat broke out across her brow. She didn’t want to harm herself, she just couldn’t think of any other way to protect him. She couldn’tthinkat all.
Flash. Brand’s naked body, lying broken and bruised upon a blackened stone slab. No rise and fall of breath in his chest. No life beneath the caked blood and shattered bones. Naked. Broken. Gone, gone, gone.
“No!” Lunara sobbed, looking out over the Weeping City to replace that sight withanything elseas she inched to the edge of the heavy railing.
Maybe…
Maybe if she kept the image of his smiling face in her mind instead,alive, she could do it. For him, she could do it.
Just one step. One step to save him—all of them—from her very self.
She couldn’t be the Keeper of Illamiata if she was dead.
“Forgive me,” Lunara whispered to the wind, hoping it would carry her pleas to Brand.
And stepped off into nothing.
A callousedhand wrapped around Lunara’s arm and yanked her back.
She’d been so ready for the fall, for the ground to rise up beneath her, that the sudden backwards movement was somehow more jarring than anything else.
“What are youdoing?” Brand snarled, setting her back on her feet and pinning her body against the balustrade.
Pure, unadulteratedrage,as she’d never seen in him before—and it was all directed at her.
A fissure cracked open within, her heart stuttering and stopping and starting again. Why wasn’t she feeling it? Why couldn’t she find his anger in their bond?
It doesn’t matter. You should’ve run a thousand times before this, but you didn’t because you’re a hopeless eejit. Now you have reason, so get out of here. Go!
“Tell that whispering gobshite to fuck off. This is between you and me, not the deceiver in your head.”
It’s not a fucking deception if it’s the truth.
His markings whorled, hand still like a vice around her forearm, the other snapping up to snare her jaw. “You would dare harm yourself, mate, just to get away from me? Didittell you to do that?”
Brand’s voice was scarier for its softness, the accusation in his tone slicing through her like a hot knife.
“No, that’s not what I—No!You don’t understand.”
“Explain, then. Immediately.” When she didn’t respond right away, he flashed his fangs—not a threat, but agony. “Have I not earned an explanation from you? Do I not deserve that, at least?” he whispered, eyes glassy with unshed tears.
His face was twisted with something akin to disgust, and shehatedthat expression being directed at her. Not because he didn’t have every right to scorn her, but because Lunara knew she was everything the look implied.
Filth.
