“I want you to be prepared for what we have to do to get the tome…if we make it that far,” Thane says. “We have to find the room where it resides. It will most likely be hidden, so I’ll need to figure out how to find it. Once I do, it will only take a drop or two of your blood and the tome is mine.”
I nod my head.
“Are you worried?” I finally ask. “About The Shallows?”
He tips his chin. “I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t.”
“Yeah.” My teeth sink into my bottom lip. “I’m scared for everyone, you know? I want us all to get what we need and survive that damn place.” I scrape a nail over the edge of the bench. “But that’s wishful thinking, right?”
“Highlywishful.” He smirks.
I bite back a smile. “I know I can be a little naive sometimes. Analla always says so.”
“I don’t know. After spending all this time with you, I’m starting not to see it as naivety,” he returns. “You’re just optimistic. That trait is hard to come by in Thelanor.” He tilts his head both ways to give his neck a crack. “Your home was attacked when you were younger. You lost your parents because of it. Grew up an orphan. Your sister is cursed…and yet you keep this massive amount of hope inside you.”
I lower my gaze to study my toes. Hearing him lay my life out like that does make it sound quite depressing.
“Without hope, life in Thelanor is pointless, Thane. I don’t like to let those tragic moments define me. I like that I get to control the narrative about who I am. I mean, if you think about it, my emotions are the only thing I truly have authority over. I refuse to waste it on being angry about my past.”
Our eyes connect, and his wrinkle around the edges in understanding.
Then he clasps my chin between his thumb and forefinger, keeping hold of my gaze. “It’s not just your hope that gets me, Zaira,” he murmurs. “It’s the goodness in you, too. How can you still have such a good heartandgood intentions after what you’ve been through? How can you be so willing to risk your life for something that may not even be there, all to save someone else?”
“I guess that’s a part of my optimism,” I reply. “I tell myself if I hope hard enough, or pray to Orvena, even, that what I need will come to fruition somehow.”
He raises an eyebrow. “But that must come with some form of disappointment.”
I shrug. “Sometimes.”
He takes the warmth of his fingers away. I instantly miss his touch.
“Anyway”—I throw up my hands to lighten the mood again—“if we don’t all make it out alive tomorrow, I want to thank you now.”
He looks down. “No need to thank me, Quinlocke.”
“No, seriously.” I collect his face in my hands. His stubble is coarse beneath my fingers, his scars enhanced by shadows and moonlight. I graze the pad of my thumb over his lips, and he releases a defeated sigh. “You didn’t have to come all this way with me. You didn’t have to protect me. But youdid, Thane. I’ll owe you for the rest of my life if I survive this.”
“What I asked for is enough.”
“Yes, but coins are material. They don’t represent my feelings. I’ll owe you much more than that, especially if we save Analla. You may not believe it, but I think you have a good heart beneath all those weapons, dark clothes, and moody expressions. A good person wouldn’t have risked so much just to help another person reach death island.” A smile spreads over my face just as it does his.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he responds. “There is no good left in me. There is no light. It was drowned in darkness years ago. But thanks for believing it’s possible for an assassin to have a good heart, I guess.”
“Iknowit’s possible.”
His mouth inches closer to mine. My breathing accelerates as he brings a hand up to cup the back of my head.
“Just promise me something,” he whispers on my lips.
“What?”
“Promise me that you won’t be too disappointed if none of the stones are there.”
“I’ll try not to be.”
That’s a lie. I’ll be devastated. But I’ll keep hoping.
I clutch a handful of his tunic in one hand as the tip of his nose runs over mine. Then, after removing my spectacles and tucking them into the pocket of my top, he guides my head forward so our lips can touch—gentle at first, then deep and all-consuming.
