“He was bound through his own curse and had no choice but to retaliate for every soul bone.” Emi tapped my knee and stood. “I don’t know much about entwined souls, but I believe you are his sjeleven. I’ve thought it since you admitted you can feel his words.”
My breath caught. Lore on sjeleven was a romantic myth, the notion of two lovers so connected it was as though they shared one soul.
“To what depth, I can’t say,” Emi went on. “But I know you have brightened the darkness that has consumed him more than anyone before.”
Emi left me to find a place to sleep. I looked at Roark’s sleeping form and all I heard was Skul Drek’s cold rasp.You brighten the night.
51
Lyra
I woke to the snap oftwigs underfoot. Mists curled through the small bower hut and the surrounding wood like serpents. On the edge of the camp, Roark stood, facing the darkness of the trees. He was still dressed in his Sentry black, but his weapons were shed and his tunic was half-untucked.
For a moment I could see him as before, the Sentry, handsome and mysterious, silent and passionate.
Those hands touched gently and killed brutally.
Then on the second look, I saw the eerie eyes of a darker soul, the cold touch, the hiss of a rasp. He was Skul Drek, the assassin who’d slaughtered many, an enemy living within the walls of Stonegate.
But if he didn’t realize…
I eased off the ground and rubbed the chill from my skin. Arms wrapped around my middle, I went to him.
One pace away, Roark turned his head, but he looked at meonly when I came to his side. For a breathless moment, we studied each other as if we’d forgotten how to speak.
When he made no move to form a gesture, I spoke first.
“I never saw the glow of your form.”
A groove formed between his brows.
One corner of my lips curved into a weak smile. “When I would meld, anyone in the room glowed while I was in the trance. But not you. I didn’t realize it until now.”
Roark squared to me. The pastes had dried and chipped off his scar. It looked as it always did now. Raised, red skin from jaw to the opposite side of his chest.
“Whenever I went into the mirror,” I repeated, “I didn’t see the light of your soul because you were there with me.”
He held out a hand, but recoiled when I flinched.
Roark dropped his chin.You did not see the light because it does not exist within meandyou were never meant to see my darker pieces.
“So you would’ve gone on lying to me, letting me love you?” My voice croaked. Roark’s head snapped up, but the words would not stop. “I told you about how I feared the shadows, how I feared him, how I wasdrawnto him, and you said nothing.
It should never have meant anything. Roark took a step closer.I was supposed to despise you, hunt you. Instead, you’ve brought me to my knees, begging for more of you.
He towered over me, our chests touched, and I didn’t step back. We faced each other, a challenge, a desire.
Roark’s eyes softened, and he spoke close to my face.Break me, I no longer care, as long as it is you who wields the destruction.
“I don’t know what to think. Emi told me you could not control it, but now you can.” I closed my eyes for a heartbeat, trying to slow the noise in my thoughts. “After all that has happened, all the lies from everyone, I only want a bit of truth.”
Roark swallowed, and when I sat on a fallen log, he sat beside me.
Yesterday was the first time I commanded the divide within me. His gestures were slow and deliberate. He did not want me to misunderstand a word.I think that is why it erupted with such violence.
Roark gestured at his scar.
I lifted a hand and ran my trembling fingertips along the jagged scar over his throat. “You told me this was done to you.”
