To answer, I hold out my hand and use Jarus’s power to take control of the dagger on the ground. It slices through the air, landing hilt first in my hand. I quietly slide it into my belt.
“Are you…” Victor begins, pulling his knee to his chest as if afraid to ask the question because of what the answer might be. “Are you the sorcerer who killed those men? Who tried to kill me?”
I give my head a sharp shake. “No,” I say quickly. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“But you are a sorcerer.” It’s a quiet phrase. Not quite an accusation, but he does sound disappointed.
“So are you,” I counter defensively.
He shrugs halfheartedly. “In a sense.”
“I’ve never seen sorcery manifest like that,” I say, gesturing to his now empty arm. “What was that?”
“I’m not just a sorcerer who worships Likho, I’m his vessel. I died a few months ago and made a bargain with Likho. I would be his tether to the physical living world, and he would keep me alive. It’s why I wasn’t killed by the shards of glass. Technically, I was already dead, and the same power of the demigod that had brought me back has been keeping me alive since.”
I can barely believe his words. It all rings of madness, but there is a sincerity in his confession that makes it impossible to doubt him. I find myself wanting to tell him a secret equally huge.
“I’m a thousand and sixty-year-old ex-vampire,” I admit. I reach out rubbing my finger against a stain on my tunic. I wonder if it is blood, although whose I have no idea. It’s been a long night. “You may have heard of me; I was the fabled Thief Queen.”
Victor’s eyes shoot up at that. It’s clear that he’s heard of me. I wonder what stories lasted all these years. I wonder how true they are.
“I dabble in thievery,” he says after a moment. “I was just coming back from robbing some manors off the capital when we met.”
I exhale slightly. It feels like a weight I didn’t even realize was there has lifted off my chest and now I can breathe fully. I hadn’t realized just how exhausting my ruse was, but now I find myself realizing that I don’t have to keep lying. At least not to Victor.
I don’t know why I was so worried about him being an ex-guardsman. He is like me. Perhaps we are more compatible than I’d first realized. He is someone who has lived passed what he should have, has been touched by sorcery, and now lives with thievery in his blood. I may have actually fallen in love with him before our vows instead of marrying him for the convenience of it all.
“Talyria?” he says softly after a long moment. It’s as if it’s painful to even say my name.
“Yes?”
“Were you really married before?”
I press my eyes shut, remembering Petrov’s face, the light in his eyes, the way his smile made me feel. “That was a long time ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks, softly.
“Probably for the same reason you lied to me. I was scared you couldn’t love who I truly was.”
“You were right,” he says quietly. He reaches up, I think to fiddle with his wedding ring like I’ve noticed him doing quite a bit before. But instead, he pulls it off. “Marriage is built on trust.”
I feel my mouth drop open, but I’m not sure what to say. I won’t beg him to have me. Suddenly the weight is back. I was completely right in all my fears after all.
Victor won’t meet my gaze as he drops the ring and pushes to his feet. “How could we have expected to start a new life together when we both had so many lies?”
I watch him, trying to find a reason for the cavernous pain I feel opening up inside of me.
I barely know Victor, he barely knows me. Clearly, we were wrong about who we thought the other was.
And yet… is he really going to walk away just like Petrov did?
I bite down on my lip hard, trying to keep from crying as I pull off my own ring. I fling it down onto the ground, it makes a slight ringing sound as it lands on top of Victor’s.
Another failed marriage and this one didn’t last nearly as long as the last one had.
I think it’s time to face it that people like me don’t get eternal love. That’s the price of power. Even the power that I no longer have creates a vacuum that sucks at everything in my life. Leaving no room for love.
Chapter Fourteen
