“Win? There is nothing to claim. I am nothing; these lands are poisoned with greed. Let them have them.”
His exhale is a hiss. “You turned your back on us so easily, but when you turn your neck, you will see us fighting to save you.”
He raises the letter and begins to read.
I have one more prediction to tell you. Once you’re free, one outcome makes everyone’s sacrifice useless. You take the swordand cut out the pages healed by Selene. It sets you back a century. During that time, your enemies grow. You all die.
The other outcome is that you listen to me and do as Elderan asked. You help your world become stable, usher the runes back in, and create a governing system that unifies all the broken lands. I promise you, in the end, saving others will be worth it, Titus. You’ll find peace. I’ve seen it.
I am sorry, Titus. I wish I could have made the road you walked paved, but how do we learn if we never fall?
Before Selene left, she wrote a letter to you, but she burned it. In doing so, she pushed you onto the path that kills us all. During one of my visions, I watched as she penned it, and I copied down her words on the following pages. Read them with an open heart.
Cyrus flips the page back. “Do you want me to continue?”
“My choices were robbed from me as a child. Picking a side has been an illusion.”
Cyrus understands that more than others.
“I’m gonna read what she wrote,” he states solemnly.
Titus, I just had the best night of my entire life. We made love.
I close my eyes, trying to ignore Cyrus, but as he continues, all I hear is Selene. I feel her in my heart, squeezing it, forcing me to listen. My eyes snap open, searching for a dagger on Cyrus. One I can use to stab my chest, but he’s come empty-handed.
I know Everett loved me, but he also used me. That’s tainted love. Our love is pure.
“Liar,” I hiss through my dry teeth.
But something has haunted me. It’s taken our pure love and bottled it, capped a limit on how much we can consume. Every one of Everett’s spies who has appeared only talks about you and your future. Never us.
I kept something from you, Titus, something I chose to ignore. I buried it deep, but your love eroded it. Everett warned me about sacrifices. He’d look at me with knowing eyes—he saw my ending. He was preparing me.
I turned a blind eye, but as more of the truth comes out, and our road grows narrower, I fear it will only be wide enough for one of us to walk down. If this happens, I need it to be you. The world Everett saw, a world I would gladly be called a mother in, is a world you live and thrive in.
I shake my head, and seal my eyes shut, my anger and grief turn my tears into steam.
I have never been mentioned in it. I think I know why. It shook me free of all my ignorance.
I just need you to know that if something happens to me, please don’t hate my brother. I’ll be furious that I never got to spend forever with you. But I’ll survive the here and after knowing you’re safe, and the world is too.
What good is our love if there is no world to house it?
What good is love at all?
If something happens to me, please don’t blacken the lands, please let others love for us, please let them live for the future we never got to have, and… I can’t believe I’m writing this, but please find love again, Titus.
I don’t want you to; I need you to. You deserve a happy ending. I do too, and having you as my mate was the happiest ending of all.
I’ve seen men who rule refuse to love and trust. I’ve been married to one. I don’t want that fate for any other.
I hope I’m wrong. I want to spend forever with you. I’ll hold on to that hope until I must let it go in order to save you.
I just need you to know everything I did and didn’t do was because I loved you. Love has no limits; it refuses to break, so it bends the rules. It allows me to gladly sacrifice myself if it means the love of my life gets to live.
We once spoke about long and short goodbyes. I remember you said you didn’t want long goodbyes, so now that I’ve said my peace. I’m going to bid it farewell and pray I misunderstood Everett’s vision. I’m going to pray I have the honor of standing by your side forever. But if I can’t, I will die happy,because unlike so many others, I found my fated mate, but more than that, he loved me; he never used me.
I never needed to be freed, Titus; I just needed you to make this world bearable. You can change the future. So change it for the better, my love.
