“Because I love you, Amaia.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, reeling back so I could look him in the eye. He said the words so casually, so matter-of-factly.
But I didn’t need to see his face to feel the truth of his words ringing through the bond. Molten and warm, they flowed through me like a river current, washing away my own doubts.
“You do,” I whispered. Not a question. An acknowledgment.
His smile was wry. “And I never thought I’d say those words.”
Except to his mother, who’d long passed, I knew. I could hear what went unspoken. And even then, she’d been a difficult female, one who’d rarely expressed her own emotions.
My lips parted, knowledge that I shouldn’t have had being recognized as truth.Thiswas the power of the bond.
“There was a Hartan witch that my mother consulted, shortly before we left my birthland,” Alaryk told me. “The witch said that I’d become a king in my own right…but that I would forever be torn between three worlds—Harta, Karak, but the third… I know what she meant now.”
My heart squeezed. I heard his answer reverberate between us.
“Us,” I whispered.
“Our bond,” he said. “A world of our own making. One that will anger many, but one that will make us all stronger.”
“I don’t want to be your burden,” I told him. “I know what I’ve done, Alaryk. One of the highest crimes someone can commit in Karak. I’m not hiding from that. I know what your people will demand.”
“And you think I have it in me to kill you?” he asked, a spark of his temper igniting the bond. “How could you ever think that?”
“I didn’t say you would do it,” I amended. “Iknowyou wouldn’t. But you are also a king to your people. You answer to them too. You would look weak if you let me stay. That’s why I have to go back. One reason ofmany.”
The refusal was in his mind.
“There’s no going back, Amaia,” he said. “For either of us.”
That was what I feared.
“My family?—”
“Don’t worry about them,” he told me. “I’ve handled it.”
My brow furrowed. I didn’t even realize I did it, but I dove into his mind, trying to find the answers I sought. And most surprising of all, he let me.
His mind was a beautiful tangle, one like the chaos of Samryn’s curse, but one that was inherentlyhim. Sharp but gentle, cutting enough that it bordered on ruthlessness, but driven to do right by his people. To make Grymiabetter, to keep the peace, even if it meant he had to be merciless.
He held himself to the highest standard. Unrelentingly. And I wanted to embrace him, because no one could sustain that for long. Though Alaryk had…for nearly all his life.
And in his thoughts, he projected what I wanted to know.That he’d sent Myzalla herself and proven, loyal riders of Grymia to fly to Dothik. To deliver Ryak’s body, a warning to theDothikkarhimself…but to also…
I gasped.
“You’re bringing them here?” I asked.
“And Brune’s family as well,” he said. “He told me everything. Their lives were at risk. YourDothikkarhas proven to be unpredictable. So until we can decide what needs to happen next, I thought it best that they come here. They’ll be safe here.”
I couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe that I might see my family soon.Herein Karak.
But what about our home? My mother’s friends? Theirlives?
And Kiron…what would he have to say about all of this?
And what if something went wrong trying to get all of them out of the city?
