“Have you been there?”he asked instead.
Lahn shook his head.
“You should go,” Loren stated shortly.“It’s mostilluminating.”
“Circe has told me much.It sounds hideous.”
Loren thought about the turn aroundSatrine’s…
No,Maxine’sworld that Valentine had treated himto the night before.
And Lahn was right, even if he’d never experienced it.
It was hideous.
“She was cursed if she told you,” Lahn reminded him.“Andyou saw today how that would have come about.”
“In all we’ve recently learned, that didn’t escape me,”Loren returned.
“It is a marvel she did so well in this world.”
“Maxine is cunning.”
“Clever,” Lahn corrected.
She was both, and he admired her for it.
“We’ll agree to disagree.”
Lahn shook his head and shared, “I will warn you, Valentineis not happy with you.And she is not a woman to cross, especially when she isone of the only beings on two worlds who can get the woman you love back.Ifyou let her go, she could be lost to you.Forever.”
It felt like his neck was gripped in a vise.
To alleviate the pain, Loren let out a breath.
And then he said, “I appreciate your counsel—”
“Circe was carrying our twins when she spirited herself fromme.While she was gone, every day waking was a new death that she was not at myside,” Lahn told him.And with impeccable timing, he changed course.“She isn’tgoing to die like them.”
Loren felt his innards twist.
“You don’t have to shield yourself from your father’s fate,”Lahn continued.“That fate has been played.Yours is your own.”
He held the king’s eyes.
And he told him the truth.
“I bring death.”
Lahn shook his head.“You have killed for your country.Theloss of your mother and sister were the whim of the gods.It is not the samething.”
Loren turned his gaze out the window.
Lahn started to the door, saying, “You can remain in thisshadowland for the whole of your life, it is your choice.”He stopped at thedoor.“But you know shadows are just a play of the light.No matter what youdo, you will have to live, experience loss, pain, disappointment.There is noway to protect yourself from it.”Lahn lifted a hand and stabbed a long fingerhis way.“But it is up toyouif you experience love and laughter.”Hedropped his hand and finished, “The man I saw sparring with her was alive.Alive in a life filled with fire and challenge and amusement and love.This manis a shell.Remain a shell or let her banish your shadows.It is your choice.And you make that choice now.She could not wait for you to come to her.She isdownstairs.”
And with that, he disappeared out the door.
Loren stared at the empty doorway, thinking of theheartrending despairSatrine…no Maxine had pouredinto his neck whilst they were in his window seat in the next room, undonebecause she could never tell him who she was and how she came to him.
