Suddenly, his hands were on my shoulders, and I realized that we were not casting. There was no pattern. There was no spell. Wearily, I looked up. He drew me under one arm, his very body helping me to stand.
“Aro’el,” he said. “Aro’el, it is not enough.”
I didn’t know what he was saying. My ears could barely hear.
He turned me. I saw the Channel behind us, theTemplemorewith only three ships at her stern, and I knew we had lost two in the closing of this gap. But there was something else, a ripple, a darkness, a faint tear in the Dreadwall that was threatening to grow.
Forge, itwasgrowing.
The realization swept down from my head to my boots. It wasn’t enough. We weren’t enough. We couldn’t close this gap. It was massive, elemental, and Archaic, and we were out of our depth. I felt dizzy, weak, lightheaded at the realization that all this had been in vain.
“No. I have more chimeric,” I said weakly. “I can do more.”
“It is not that,” he said, and he drew my chin up, forcing me into the gold-shot depths of his eyes. “The problem is on the other side.”
The air rushed out of me, a sail robbed of wind.
“The other side,” I said, nodding woodenly, knowing it was true.
The ironmages couldn’t do it. They didn’t have the skill. Perhaps one day, they would, but that was not this day.
“It needs to be closed from both sides,” he said. “And the ironmages cannot close it.”
“I have the chimeric,” I panted. “We’re good. We can do it.”
“We can,” he said. “When I am on the island.”
Oh suns, no. The strength fled my bones, my stomach knotted,my breath locked tight. I wanted to scream. I wanted to rage. I wanted to pound my fists against his chest. I wanted to hide in his arms, in his shadows, under his wing. I wanted to reach up to cradle his face in my palms, trace the gold threads beneath his skin. Deep called to deep. Magik to magik. Runechasers both.
“No,” I gasped. “There’s another way. There’s always another way.”
“Aro’el.”
“You’ll be marooned on the Cloudgate!” My words spilled off my tongue. “Oh, Forge! No! You can’t!”
“I must,” he said, and I saw the tears gathering behind his lashes. “Aro’el, ten years ago, I started this war. Today, I must end it.”
My shoulders sagged, my head dropped low. He was right. Hehadstarted it, or at least given it a second wind. And I knew hecouldclose it from the island. The chimeric burned beneath his skin like it did mine. It made sense. It would work. It wasn’t fair, but it was the only way.
I wanted to hate him. For choosing sacrifice. For choosing chains. For choosing isolation as the price for his vengeance and pride. I wanted to hate him, but I couldn’t. It was his choice. He had the right to chart his own course.
“I know,” I said. My own eyes stinging now, my throat too tight to say more. My heart was a stone, sinking in the deep.
“I choose life,” he said, so close I could feel his breath on my cheek. “I do. I choose a path of life, and I know it will lead me back to you. I will close this gap and repair this wall…and then I will find my way back to you.”
I said nothing. What did a crab say when their shell was all gone?
“Remember, I am stubborn as well,” he said, smoothing my hair from my forehead. “I will find a way off that island. I will find a way back to you. I will not be marooned with your motherfor the rest of my days.”
His lips twitched, and I looked up at him. Finally, in this time of all times, a joke. I shook my head and smiled, tears spilling down my face. I didn’t fight them.
“I have loved you since the day we pulled you from the sea,” he said. “Fierce. Stubborn. Powerful. Strong. And now—glorious. My Aro’el.”
He pulled me into his arms. Oh suns, I didn’t want him to let go. My entire body shook as he kissed my brow and I breathed him in one last time. Salt and oil. The deep sea itself.
I took another heavy breath as an idea began to form, filling me as wind fills the sails.
He had the right to chart his own course.
