“Tell me you didn’t contact the Swords.” Adela had used communication tokens. Why wouldn’t the Swords, or Ulvarth himself? Why would she assume Taavin hadn’t been carrying one with him the whole time? Her eyes fell to his bare wrist; the bracelet she’d seen him wear through their whole journey was gone. “Tell me—”
“You wanted to go to Norin… and there was no time…” He had the decency to sound ashamed.
Vi pulled away. Her whole body had gone from acutely pained to completely numb. The word Yargen had told her vanished from her ears, replaced by ringing.
“You… You carried a token to contact Ulvarth on your wrist.” Taavin wouldn’t even look at her as she spoke. “Tell me, yes or no?”
He gave a small nod. Vi shifted onto her knees.
“You were contacting him the whole time, telling him where we were. You didn’t escape. He let you leave. He let you leave to get me. This was all one big game crafted by both of you.” Vi’s voice rose, cracking like her heart.
“No. I only contacted Ulvarth at the end. I tried not to the entire time—not even when I was near death in that cave. I only contacted him then because I knew he would be tracking us and there was no way we would make it to Norin. He’d stop us first. And this way I could try to salvage—” Taavin grabbed her hand.
“Don’t touch me,” she seethed. He slowly released his grasp. “Don’t you dare touch me.”
“Vi—”
She stared at him and slowly shook her head. It didn’t matter what he said or claimed. Whatever they were—whatever they’d shared—was breaking right before her eyes.
“Listen, please,” he pleaded. “The days are becoming shorter, the nights longer. Raspian’s power only grows. The end of the world is near andwe are not ready. We couldn’t afford a delay—if we even made it to Norin.”
Vi stood, turning her back to him. Still he spoke. She heard his boots sliding against the wooden floor as he stood as well, relentless.
“I knew if we came back, we would figure out the way to end this—the way to save us all. Your father, your mother. Then you would be reunited with your family not in the final hours, but for a lifetime together.
“I wanted to give you everything you desired, but this was the only way.”
Vi stared out at his small room—the lonely chair, the window to the world. The pity she’d felt was crumbling. It started a landslide that slipped underneath the dark waves she’d carried since her time aboard theStormfrost.
“You don’t know it was the only way.”
“I knew delays wouldn’t help.”
“You couldn’t know.” She slowly turned, lacing and unlacing her fingers to try to keep the spark from springing forth and burning him alive. “Because you do not see the future. That ismydestiny.”
“And you have.” He stared, unflinching in the face of her seething rage. “You have seen the future and it is one of failure. We must remove ourselves from this line of fate that leads only to our end.”
“Well, you have brought me here.” Her voice was quiet and quivering as Vi fought the urge to shout. “And the world is still headed toward its end.”
“What?” he breathed.
“I saw it here, now. The scythe still breaks. I still die. Raspian still wins.”
Taavin stared at her, dumbstruck. Vi watched him crumble under her unrelenting gaze. She looked down on him like the traitor he was, and he couldn’t stand under the weight of her judgment. Vi took a small step forward and he stepped back so hastily that he gripped the wall to prevent himself from tripping over his own feet.
“The only thing you changed is that now I will have to watch my father die at Ulvarth’s hand before I die fighting Raspian.”
“We can still figure it out,” he said weakly, less confident than she’d ever heard him. “We can still—”
“We? That’s the other thing you changed, Taavin.” Her voice cracked. Damn it all. It cracked. “There is no ‘we,’ not anymore.”
“Vi…” His tone was pleading, begging. So much said in the single syllable. Yet her heart ignored it.
She was the fire of her forefathers. She was the bitter ice that had hardened her. She was the frozen flames of the Goddess herself embodied in crystal: hard, unmoving, unfeeling.
“Count your blessings,” Vi whispered. “The last time someone betrayed me and my family, I killed her. But I guess I really did love you, Taavin. Because here you stand, and here you’ll stay.”
Vi started for the door. He didn’t move to stop her. She briefly considered leaving the lock broken and letting Ulvarth’s wrath befall Taavin—but if she sought revenge, now or ever, it would be by her own hand. Just as it had been with Jayme. Just as Arwin had shown her with Fallor.
