I released a sigh. “Your fingerbone showed me when Iasar confronted you inside the cave where Kinart died.”
“Then you know that I’m the reason he and his mate were trapped in the doors for all those years.”
“You didn’t do that to them.”
His head crooked and a grimace crossed his face. “I gave the king the spell.”
That, I hadn’t seen. “Gave it or were you forced to reveal it? I know you, Vexxion. Nothing you say or have done is without purpose.”
He lowered his eyes as if he hoped never to reveal something that would push me away. “My uncle tortured it from me.”
I’d kill him with my bare hands if he was still alive.
I gripped Vexxion’s shoulders. “They forced you to do it.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“You’re not to blame!”
But I am,he barked.For everything.
You are not responsible for anyone else’s actions. The man I love would never do what his father has done. He did not mold you.
He tried. So hard and so often. I barely held on.His gaze finally met mine. “I could hold on because I knew that one day, I’d finally find you. Without you, there is no laughter or meaning—just a void that swallows everything good. When I realized you were at the fortress, my world shifted. I could barely think. I ached to find you, to hold you.” His low laugh soothed my aching heart. “And I can only imagine what you would’ve done if I’d tugged you into my arms right away.”
My lips quirked up. “I might’ve surprised you.”
My chest hurt. I wasn’t sure I could stand it, but I’d find a way, because I wanted to hear this. I needed to feel his words coast across my skin in gentle waves.
“You surprise me every single day of my life,” he said. “You’re my strength when I'm weak, my clarity in confusion. Every day spent with you shows me a depth of love I never knew existed. Imagining life without you feels like losing myself completely. You’re not only part of me, you’re every beat of my heart.”
Vexxion.
Just so you know.
Just soyouknow.I placed my hand over his heart before bringing it back to lay it against my chest. “The depth of what I feel for you leaves me breathless and exposed. I’m raw vulnerabilityunderscored by boundless love. In loving you, I discovered everything I am and all I can be. I find solace in your touch and embrace. You have become my very essence.”
He kissed me again, and I was to tempted to flit us to the bed, but Ihadto tell him. She’d asked me to do this for her.
Now I knew what that white space in his mind held and it was time to set it free.
I gave him a solemn smile. “I touched the last bone, and it gave me a memory.”
“Whose bone?”
“Your mother’s.” I glanced toward Drask’s perch, but he was gone, flown out the window when I wasn’t looking. I hoped he’d come back. Somewhere inside his little bird heart, he still loved me. He needed me as much as I did him. “I was with her after she gave birth.”
Frowning, his head tilted. “To me? Why that memory?”
“Notyou, Vexxion. Your sister. You have a little sister, and your mother showed her to you.”
The world seemed to swallow him and spit him back out on the other side.
“I remember.” I could see the memory wash through him in his gorgeous eyes, as if something locked up deep inside him had uncoiled from where it crouched and spread its wings and roared. “I. Have. A sister.” His frantic gaze met mine. “Where is she? I need to find her.”
“It’s Reyla. Your mother named her in the memory. My Reyla isourReyla.” She . . . My best friend was his sister, and I wanted to shout the good news to the world.
“Reyla.” The word seemed to settle in his soul. Soar through Lydel. No, it flew across the entire world.
