It’s not yours,Arawn’s mind hissed.She let you have it.
Soraya landed beside him, her face downcast. Her eyes were nolonger as bright as they had been, so high up in the sky. She pressed her hand to her eagle’s side, whispered something to her...and pressed a kiss to her beak as she slid down to the forest floor.
Few would be brave enough to do it.
Arawn waited until the others left to celebrate. They were Riders now, just as all the others who’d survived the Descent before them. They had reached the highest status of a Lordachian Sacred Knight. Their gods would be pleased with them.
But Soraya wasn’t smiling, and neither was Arawn.
“Soraya!”
He called her name as she headed to the barn, walking faster than normal. She took off her riding jacket and left it in a crumpled ball, as she always did, on the floor outside of her eagle’s stall. Still, she didn’t look back, as if this were any other day. As if she’d head to the woods and go right back to her daily life...without saying a word to him. “Soraya,please!”
She left the barn.
So, he followed, hot on her heels. They reached the trees, and it was just the two of them alone on the path when Arawn reached out and grabbed her hand.
“Sora.”
Finally, she paused.
She glanced down at the hand that held hers.
His heartthumpedagainst his ribcage. He sucked in a breath, because though they’d trained together, sparred together and soared across the sky together and bathed in the light of a sunrise.
Somehow...when her eyes slid slowly up to meet him, it was the closest he’d ever felt to her. The most connected, her skin pressed against his.
There were tears in her eyes, and she did not move to wipe them away.
He admired how boldly she had always let them fall.
“Why did you do it?” he asked.
She sniffed, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Dowhat?”
“Don’t,” Arawn said. “Don’t pretend you don’t know, Soraya. You had the win. First Rider wasyoursto claim. You pulled back.”
She looked down at their hands again.
He had the feeling he should let go. But no part of him wanted to. So, he stayed brave a little while longer, and held onto her, though he didn’t dare do what he wanted, and run his thumb across her skin.
“I...” She swallowed, sniffing again. And then she locked eyes with him. “I did it because Iseeyou, Arawn.”
He wasn’t sure what she meant, but he’d happily stare into that amber sea for as long as it took for her to explain it to him.
“Iseeyou for your crown,” she whispered. “Your future. The pressure put on you to always do what is best. I’d be a fool not to notice the way you flinch when the King is near. The way you look at him like you’re a child again.” She offered him a sad smile. He wondered if he could feel his heartbeat...how it raced when she touched him. “Kinlear says he never once tucked him in bed. Did you know that?”
Arawn said nothing.
Because for some reason...it sent a sad and sudden twinge through his heart, to hear his brother’s name on her lips.
It did not belong here.
Not in this moment.
“But that’s the way it is, in the Citadel. It’s the way it is for all Sacred. But Iknowwhat would have happened, if you took Second Rider,” Soraya said. “I know the penance, because it’s written all over my body, and...” She blinked back fresh tears. “You’re not broken by them yet, Arawn. Not the way we are.”
We.
