“Millie—”
“You want to end this.Us,” I said, locking eyes with him, and though it took everything in me, I held his gaze, even when it felt like daggers in my chest. “So end it. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. Don’t drag me along and give me hope for something that will never happen.End it.Right now. And leave!”
“All right,” he said. Sudden and sharp. He was a frozen statue in the front garden of the cottage, cool like marble and just as perfect. His head dropped to glare at the ground, but when he looked up, his expression was smooth. Softly, he said, “All right. I will. I’ll leave.”
I took a stumbled step away, closer to the front door of the cottage.
My safe haven.
My quiet place.
My back met the door, and Kythel’s eyes glowed in the darkness, watching me.
“Millie,” he said. His lips parted. Then closed. His brow furrowed, and I watched his wings lower behind him. Whatever he was going to say, it died in his throat. Our eyes held until every passing moment severed whatever calm and control I had left. “I’m sorry.”
My throat was beginning to burn. My hands beginning to tremble at my sides.
Saying goodbye felt too final.
Instead, I said, “Me too.”
Then I walked inside the cottage on numb legs. And shut the door behind me.
With bated breath, I waited until I heard him take to the sky. Only then did I allow myself to sink down to the floor of the cottage and cry.
I felt a warm touch on my shoulder, but I knew that nothing was there. Only Ruaala, perhaps, her soul rooted to this lonely, quiet place too.
CHAPTER36
KYTHEL
Even Vadyn was giving me a wide berth these last couple days, evidenced by the hesitation in his gaze when he entered my office that morning.
“What is it?” I growled, not bothering to look up. I kept the privacy screen down on the outside window. Though I could see out, none of the sunlight could stream in, and the only illumination were the Halo orbs floating above my desk silently. Over the course of the last two days, there had been times when I hadn’t known if it was day or night. My neck felt tight, my legs fatigued, though I’d been at my desk or staring unseeing out into Stellara.
I can’t keep doing this,I thought for the hundredth time.This will kill me.
And yet…I continued on, not stopping my work. There was always something that needed to be done. Always another problem that needed to be solved.
Vadyn started, “There’s a letter here—”
My head snapped up, heart speeding for the first time in two days. “From who?”
His expression was careful. “Marr from the coastal village of Savina.”
Disappointment made my hands shake, but I swiped at the nextlorecontract on my Halo screen to hide it. Marr?
Right.
The committee. Millie’s idea.
“Leave it there,” I said, gesturing to one of the empty places at the very edge of my desk. “What else?”
Now he wasreallyhesitating, shifting from foot to foot.
“Vadyn,” I growled, already impatient.
“Your father wishes to speak to you.”
