“And that means nothing to me.” She gritted her teeth and came for him again.
Cassiel faltered in his next move at her response, and her blade swept nearly caught his torso. “Am I the one who fuels your nightmares?” At the look on her face, his eyes widened. “Tell me what you see in your dreams.”
“No,” she hissed.
Catching her next swing, he brought their blades to cross between them again. “Was that the reason why you went after Tarn? For Witch’s Brew?”
Dyna glared at him for a long moment. “What Herb Master can’t brew a potion?” Her smirk was cold and cruel. It broke his heart, because he knew he did that to her.
“If so, why go to him?”
“For what other reason? I went there to kill that man, and I did!” Dyna spun away and slashed.
Cassiel deflected, retreating from out of range. She wanted him to see her bloodthirsty. But he saw past that to her pain and wrath. “No, you didn’t.”
She bared her teeth. “Yes, I did!”
Dyna pivoted around him and swung her sword. Cassiel parried the blow. With a twist of his wrist, he struck Dyna’s hilt and disarmed her.The enchanted weapon dissolved in the air. Her chest heaved with labored breaths, her flushed face turning redder. Growling, she snatched the sheathed sword at her waist.
Cassiel straightened out of his stance. “Sowmya was there, Dyna. Tarn was wounded, and you left him on that burning ship, but you didn’t kill him. In fact, I don’t believe you wanted him to die.”
She barked out a sardonic laugh. “You know nothing about what I want. Tarn asked for my help, and I turned my back on my morals as a healer when I turned my back on him. I left him to burn.”
“You left himalive. As much as you despise him for what he has done, you’re not a killer. A part of you wanted him to survive.”
Dyna shook her head, her eyes wide with outrage. “You’re wrong. He’s nothing to me.”
She once said those same words about him.
Cassiel didn’t mean to fall on this topic. Sowmya had told him about everything she had witnessed on that ship, but it hadn’t been a surprise.
He could only look at his mate and accept the past for what it was. Dyna stared back at him angrily at first, then her expression switched to realization, and the flash of guilt crossed her eyes. Cassiel wasn’t angry or resentful, though. He had no right to be.
That didn’t avert the pang that had nailed him in the chest when he felt his mate kiss another man. It was so sudden, so unexpected, Cassiel had nearly dropped out of the sky.
He looked at his Valkyrie, and they bowed their heads before retreating into the woods.
Cassiel straightened out of his stance. “You forget, Dynalya. We share one soul. You cannot lie to me.”
“I am not ashamed,” she snapped.
It was inevitable, he had told himself. When he left his mate, Cassiel had not planned to return. He knew Dyna would start her life over without him, and that meant she would eventually find another to share it with. The last thing he had expected was for her to pick Tarn.
But he had never questioned why.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. I am the one who drove you to it.” He met her eyes, burning so ferociously with anger and the emotion she denied. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want to hear again how sorry you are!” Dyna cried. She swung her sword, and their blades clashed. “That useless word will not heal all the pain you have put me through. I hate it, and I hate you!”
Cassiel parried her next blow and brought her close with the next. “Good,” he said. “Hate me.”
It was another echo of words he once said to her before. In another forest. In another time.
She growled and came at him again. The clash of their blades rang sharply as Cassiel met each attack she gave.
“Did it ever occur to you to discuss your worries with me?” Dyna shouted. “To try and face this hardship together? You didn’t give me the chance to fight beside you. Why was breaking our souls the best decision to make?” She swung again, but he captured her wrist, bringing them face to face. “I hate that you did this to us! Tome. Did you believe yourself something gallant by sacrificing yourself to spare me?”
Her scream ricocheted against the chasm, louder than the roar of the cascade. She was nearly sobbing. The agony rolling from her left Cassiel immobile. He let go, and she tackled him. Landing on top of him, she whipped out a knife, bringing it to his neck.
