I grinned at her. “That was excellent! Only three more to go!”
She gaped at me. “I take it back,” she rasped. “You don’t want to scare me. You want totortureme.”
“Never.” I leaned next to her against the dome. “It might feel like that at first, but you get used to it.”
“Like with you being underground or in chains?”
I grimaced. “Admittedly, I’ve never shackled myself on purpose to overcome that fear.”
A glimmer of amusement lit Kiera’s eyes. “You let Maz bind your wrists for your night of survival in the Dagriel forest.”
I chuckled. “That was different. Icouldhave gotten myself out of those ropes. But the point was to prove that I didn’t need my hands to survive.”
Kiera smiled and looked up at the nearly violet sky. “Does being underground still frighten you?”
“Sometimes that fear will ambush me, yes. Especially if I’m already anxious about something. But I’m only everunderground because I have to be. Because there’s something more important than my fear.”
Her eyes narrowed in thought. “Perhaps that’s what I’m missing in my training with Ruru. Instead of thinking about who I’m running from, I should think about who I’m running toward. The other end of the tunnel—or bridge—so to speak.”
Gods, I couldn’t agree more. For the first time in years, I was also beginning to see beyond the one thing I’d been running toward for years—vengeance against Weylin and his allies, giving a better life to all Rellmirans.
For the first time—just as Maz hoped—I also wanted something for myself. A life free of the darkness that had haunted it for so long.
I wanted her. She was the light beyond the darkness.
But we were still so deep in the shadows.
“Aiden?” she whispered, searching my eyes.
I’d leaned closer to her without realizing it. I cleared my throat, shifting away. “Who do you want to visit next?”
“Who’s nearest the sunset?”
I led her around the dome, the air warmer here in the last of the sunlight. Crimson and gold painted the sky over the weakening sun. But she pulled up short when she realized what else she could see from here.
“The prison. Is—is Asher still down there?” She kept her head turned away.
I rubbed my thumb over her scarred fingers. “No. I heard someone stole his head several days ago.”
“Stole? Who in the deep, dark, wandering hell would—” She stopped, narrowing in on my perfectly composed expression. “It was you. Why?”
“I gave it to Floren so he could bring his ashes to the sea with the others. I doubt the rest of his body received the proper rites, but I did what I could.”
Kiera threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. Like the day we’d discovered him in the square.
I hugged her back just as hard. Gods, the relief nearly crushed me.
“Thank you,” she whispered in my ear.
A shiver coursed down my spine. Every muscle in my body grew taut, barely keeping from delivering her mouth to mine. Those lips had tasted like fire and honey, and they teased me every night in my dreams.
But what if she didn’t want that anymore? What if she was still afraid of me?
She pulled away from me, breaking the moment. “I’m ready for Terraum’s bell, I think,” she said with a brave smile.
She touched Terraum’s and then Viridana’s with my help, getting more confident each time. For Arduen’s, she placed a hand on my chest, telling me to stay put. Then she walked across the short bridge, arms aloft as if she were dancing on a stage once more. She laid a palm against the bell, smiling at me over her shoulder. I grinned, bursting with pride.
Then she came back to me and clasped our hands together. “Thank you,” she whispered. “That felt amazing.”
