Roark’s body stopped thrashing, andhe looked more like he was sleeping. Emi leaned over him, checking his pastes. I finished securing torn bits of my dress around branches. We’d fashioned a makeshift bower to keep us concealed from nearby roads.
Emi placed her cloak over Roark’s shoulders, then came to sit by my side. I hugged my knees against my chest and looked to the few glimmers of stars overhead.
“Lyra.”
“Don’t.” I closed my eyes.
“Be angry if you wish, but at least allow me to explain something.”
I didn’t encourage her to speak, but neither did I tell her to stop. Emi’s eyes glistened. She used the back of her hand to wipe away tears. “First, we will find a way to get back to Darkwin.”
I pressed a fist against my mouth. With the threats Fadey and Ingir leveled at him, I could not stomach to think of what they would do.
“We love people in those gates too,” Emi said, voice soft. “People who will feel utterly betrayed—”
“Because youdidbetray them.” I tilted my head so my cheek rested on top of my knees. “You have kept this from everyone, from me. I told him I was being tormented by Skul Drek and all this time it washim.”
“Tormented.” Emi scoffed and looked to the sky. “You would know if you were tormented by Roark’s soul.”
“His…soul?” Soul craft.
“He should tell you his tale, for it is his. Not mine.” Emi hesitated. “You are angry, and I am sorry if you feel betrayed, but what you do not know is Roark has had very little control over his existence.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning Skul Drek—even as a piece of my cousin’s soul—has not answered to him. Beyond his control, blood has spilled for a duty he could never escape.”
“He seemed to command it fine enough against the Stav.”
“Because of you.” Emi shook her head, calming her tone. “Roark is a split soul. Divided between his darkest desires and the man he is in his heart. Skul Drek is a glimpse of his most brutal, cruelest, most inhumane attributes. A damn weapon to be summoned by the one who split his soul. And he was, for years. Until you.”
“I don’t understand.”
Emi folded her legs underneath her and held her hands, palm facing palm. “Imagine being divided in two and one side can reason and act on your own accord. The other is tethered to another mind and purpose. Half a prisoner.”
With slow movements Emi began drawing her palms closer together. “Now imagine new, stronger ropes begin pulling the two halves back together. One by one the old tethers begin to snap and the divide between the sides shrinks. They start to align and move as one again. Soon, this new rope entwines with both halves and the old bonds are broken. Two halves are restored and can work as one again.”
The gilded ropes in the mirror. Each time I spoke with Skul Drek one rope frayed more, and another strengthened.
I picked at a blade of tall grass at my side. “Are you saying he has drawn the two pieces of his soul back together?”
“I am saying your soul is the new rope, Lyra. You are entwined with him—both sides of him—and you fractured the craft curse that keeps him half a prisoner.” Emi played with the ends of her hair. “Roark is not the first Skul Drek. It is a curse that has been burdened on an unfortunate Draven soul since the first Jorvan king realized he could steal the souls of the fallen through bone. But he is the first Skul Drek I know of to restore his two sides because he fell in love with a melder.”
“Did Roark…know it was happening?” I lifted my gaze. “He fought Skul Drek in my chamber.”
“Not at first,” Emi said. “He could always sense a shift, but he wasn’t connected enough to know the actions or thoughts of his dark soul. He only knew when a soul was taken, Skul Drek would be summoned to slaughter any Jorvan or Myrdan to replace the stolen soul. But the more he was near you, the more control he gained. He struck Skul Drek that night, didn’t he?”
I nodded. “He threw his knife.”
“I don’t think either expected a wound to form. It was the first hint they were closer to converging than they were separate. The wound that should’ve appeared on the soul, appeared on Roark.”
“Why do it if it would bring him harm?”
Emi smiled. “You still don’t understand? Roark had no trust for his own divided soul since they had little connection. He took a strike to protect you.”
My eyes went wide. I thought he’d been cut by Skul Drek, but Roark had injured himself…defending me from the darkest piece of himself.
My head was spinning. I did not know what to think. Any thought that formed faded into the next just as swiftly, all to keep the chaos spiraling in my mind.
