"You're not going back to that man." Each word is precise, controlled, but vibrating with barely leashed fury. "You're coming with me."
My heart does something complicated in my chest—a wild flutter that feels dangerously close to hope.
"I can't," I whisper, even though every part of me is screamingyes. "He'll come after me. He'll hurt you. Hurt Mira." Well, not her. She would slit his throat for trying. "Hurt anyone who tries to help me. And it'll only make things worse when he drags me back?—"
"I don't care if that piece of shit manages to pull the sun from the fucking sky." Lorenth's voice drops lower, rougher. "I'm not leaving you with him."
"You don't understand?—"
"Then make me understand." His thumbs brush over my cheeks again, infinitely careful despite the storm raging in his eyes. "Do you love him?"
"No." The word bursts out of me, vehement and immediate. "Gods, no. I wassoldto him. By my uncle, after my parents died. Sold like livestock to settle a debt."
Saying it out loud makes it real in a way it hasn't been before. Makes the humiliation and rage and helplessness crash over me fresh.
"Darian wanted a wife who wouldn't talk back. Who'd keep his house and warm his bed and never ask for anything in return. My uncle wanted his debts forgiven. So they made a deal and I—" My voice cracks. "I didn't get a choice.
"It's not real," I finish, barely a whisper. "None of it is real."
Something shifts in Lorenth's expression—fury giving way to something fiercer, more possessive. His hands slide from my face to my shoulders, then down to my waist as he scoops me back into his arms in one smooth motion.
"Then I'm not letting you go."
Before I can process what's happening, his wings flare wide—massive and gray-blue with that cobalt iridescence catching the light—and he launches us into the air.
I gasp, my arms flying around his neck as the ground drops away beneath us. Wind whips my hair back from my face, cold and sharp and exhilarating.
"Lorenth—"
"Hold on to me."
I don't have a choice. My fingers dig into his shoulders as he rises higher, trees becoming a blur of green and brown below. My stomach lurches, caught somewhere between terror and a wild, unexpected thrill.
I've never flown before. Never been more than a few feet off the ground. And now the whole world is spread out beneath me, vast and beautiful and terrifying.
"Where are you taking me?" I manage, my voice shaking.
"Home." He adjusts his grip, pulling me closer against his chest. "My home. You'll be safe there."
Safe. The word sounds foreign in his mouth, like a language I've forgotten how to speak.
"This is kidnapping," I point out, but it comes out weaker than I intend. Because the truth is, I'm not fighting him. Not really.
"If that's what it takes to keep you safe, then yes." His tone leaves no room for argument. "I'll do whatever I have to. Call it what you want."
I don't argue. Mostly because I don't want to. I want this. Want him.
So I cling to him as he flies fast and hard for hours, holding me close, his magic seeping into my skin and keeping me warm. My skin stops throbbing and I realize he's healing me, too.
The city appears on the horizon, gleaming spires rising against the pale sky. New Solas. I've seen it from a distance before, but never like this—from above, with the whole sprawling expanse of it visible at once.
It's beautiful. Intimidating. Nothing like the small village I've spent the last few years trapped in.
"He'll find me," I say quietly. "Darian will come looking."
"Let him."
The confidence in those two words should reassure me. Instead, it makes my pulse spike with anxiety.
