Truly, though, my mind spent the majority of its time trying and failing not to replay Tol’s confession. Every hour since he’d left, it had cycled through. And with each repetition, my stomach churned further.
“Fine,” I clipped. Rina rolled her eyes, drawing a sigh from me. “Conflicted.”
“I still can’t believe you didn’t know.” She added a few flower petals to her basket, their hue as vibrant as the clear sky.
I’d told her about Tol’s confession the day he left; not every vulnerable word we’d shared, only that he’d admitted feelings. When I finished, she’d stared at me blankly.
“I know how he feels. I assumed you did, too” was all she said.
Now, helping her clip ingredients, I looked back over my own actions these past two years. It was no secret that I loved Tol, but I’d never given thought tohowI loved him, too busy stewing in my own heartbreak and reeling from the betrayals it caused.
But a number of different types of love existed. There was the blood-bound familial level I had for Jezebel that couldn’t be severed from this planet. Or the pure adoration I held for Rina and Cyph,rooted in their passionate yet gentle hearts. There was the kind Malakai and I had shared, full of breathy innocence and starry-eyed hope, showing each other what it meant to love and be loved in return. That one was dazzling and all-consuming.
Tol had always been different. He’d always been a force I gravitated toward, pulling at different pieces of my soul as the moon did the tide. What I felt for him not only burned through me, but it also flowed at the deepest levels of myself, an intrinsic current, but a slow one, creeping up on us. He was who I called out for when I was breaking, who I let see every part of me.
Those were the undeniable facts I kept returning to as I sorted through the mess of my own heart.
In whatever capacity, I could not live without Tolek Vincienzo.
“I suppose I was blinded by circumstance.”
Santorina set her basket down, brushed her hands across her simple gown, and stared me squarely in the eye. “Circumstance has transformed into choice now.”
I swallowed the truth, not sure how to respond.
“Come on,” Rina encouraged, wrapping her arm through mine and grabbing her basket again. “Let’s go prepare these.”
We shuffled back up the path leading to the base of the palace, chatting idly about where the Bodymelders Brigiet had promised to send would be stationed and how quickly Daminius was approaching.
The clock was ticking on my time to win over the delegates, only two weeks left now. And Vale had yet to see anything that could expand on Titus’s destructive reading, though I figured whether we knew what caused it or not, we had to face darkness. All we could do was prepare.
I thought Esmond was warming to me. If he could convince Brigiet, then I’d have a sure grip on my title heading into Daminius. I only hoped it was enough.
As we walked, I fidgeted with the necklace I’d fashioned from the piece of Angelborn. My fingers missed the feeling of the pin I’d given to Tolek, but they now found an odd comfort in the constant dull heat of the metal. The more I felt it, the more positive I became that it was linked to the Angelcurse. I’d started researching relics, but I’d found no mention of spears linked to Damien yet. There had to be something I was missing, something?—
Rina gripped my arm, pulling me to an abrupt halt. I looked over at her and then followed her horrified gaze to the palace steps ahead. A trickle of something crimson was tracing a thin trail toward us, leaking from a polished wooden box set upon the bottom step.
Blood.
A dagger was poised in the lid, pinning a piece of parchment in place. The gentle breeze lifted the corner, and goosebumps rose along my arms.
“What in the realm of hell?” Rina breathed.
The clouds overhead shifted, sunlight catching the hilt of the dagger. My knees weakened as an ornateVwas illuminated on the handle.
Vincienzo.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ophelia
It had a fuckingribbon on top of it. Blood soaked into the tattered edges where they trailed to the ground.
A gift.
A cruel vow steeped in blood.
Whose blood was the question. Because that dagger piercing the note?—
