I’m fucking this up. Eres is behind me. Darian in front, and Lyra pressed between us.
“I wanted you,” I say again. My heart feels as though it’s climbed up my throat. As if I’m spilling it for him. “I always wanted you. And so I forced you into a Binding, Dare, so youcouldn’tleave me. Not even if you wanted to.”
I stole his choice from him in the name of protection, so I could keep him.
And then I broke him.
His voice wavers. “Are you doing this because of what’s coming? Because you feel guilty? Is that it?”
My brows draw together. “What? No?”
“Because I’d rather there be truth between us. Don’t tell me things you think I want to hear, Kaelen.” He’s backing away again. “I have more pride than that, even if I’ve shredded most of it at your damned feet. Let me keep at least a small part of it.”
I did such a good job at breaking him that he doesn’t even believe me now.
Darian
He’s tearing me apart from the inside out.
This is agony. As if Kaelen is holding everything I ever wanted in his hands, only to reveal it as a cruel joke.
And everyone around us has a seat to the show.
Emboldened by wine and grief and the heaviness of our world caving in around us, I came to ask him for one thing. Just one, to carry with me through the fight.
I wanted them to be the last thing I see. But now he’s breaking me all over again. “I’m going to go now.”
“No.” His voice hardens. “We’re not walking away from this, Dare. Not again.”
“Then you should have said something sooner.” I need him to stop. To stop trying to make it right. “It’s too late for words, Kae.”
I need to lose myself in wine and memories while the rest of them spend their final night with someone they love. While Kaelen, Eres and Lyra stay together, and I’m left on the outside, looking in and wishing things had turned out differently. But I won’t let Kaelen lie to me for the sake of pretending. “Let me go.”
For a moment, I think he will. And my broken heart breaks a little fucking more.
I barely get a few steps away when the darkness creeps up around me. Kaelen’s hands are open, his erevas curling free from his palms and his eyes on me. “No.”
The shield grows, blocking out the room around us and creating thick, solid walls. I slam my fist against one, irritated when it doesn’t move. “Let me out.”
A solid band wraps around one wrist, then another and pulls me around to face him. I suck in a breath as the eravas yanks them up, pinning them in place above my head. “What are you doing?”
“It’s too late for words.” He steps closer. “You just said it, and you’re right. I’ve wasted enough of our time. So I’m going to show you.”
His shield has locked the four of us in a small, dark space. Opaque enough to let a little light through, but enough that I know the rest of the room won’t be able to see us. “This is ridiculous.”
Behind him, Eres and Lyra’s eyes are wide. It might be comical, if not for the burning behind my eyes.
Kae doesn’t stop until he’s right in front of me.“No, it’s not.”
We stare at each other for a long, silent moment.
He takes my face in his. Cups my cheeks, runs his thumb over my skin.
“I have been in love with you since we were fifteen years old.” He says it quietly, firmly, with enough conviction that shock and ecstasy war within my chest for dominance for a single, euphoricmoment. “And I don’t want you walking out there tomorrow without knowing, Dare. Every day. Every single day, I have loved you, and missed you, and I’msorry.”
My eyes close. “Kae. I don’t—”
His lips press against mine. Not demanding or dominating. A gentle, inquisitive question before he pulls back. “Stay with me tonight. With us. Say yes.”
