“You traded it,” Gellesk repeats with a grunt, incredulous, throwing his hands in the air. “Lesara would be mortified.”
Elyssara’s mother.I want to ask him how he knew her. What she was like. But the urgent shuffle of boots beyond the curtain narrows my focus.
“I’ll get it back. You have my word,” I promise, and the words are an unbreakable vow the moment they leave my mouth.
“You’d better make it fast, Your Majesty, because we’ll need every last drop of her magic to take down The Decay, break the spell on the Marked, and reclaimbothkingdoms,” he spits.
Fuck, but he’s right.
He pulls me in tight, grip desperate and harsh. “Given in love, pure of heart, a sacrifice. Without that, it’s a scrap of tin.”
Elyssara’s hand shoots through the curtain, reaching for me. “Come on, they’re here,” she says, and the smile on her face both guts me and arrests me.
But it also reminds me of everything at stake.
Everything I’m fighting for.
“Find it,” Gellesk grunts with finality, and all I can do is nod.
“Find what?” Elyssara asks, and I stumble through the pleasure parlor with her tugging on my arm, and towards the side door where the others await me. The silhouette of Royal Guards is visible through the front doors, and I know we have heartbeats before they barge in.
Can I tell her of the cuff? Or does it risk turning the act into leverage or strategy, rather than love? The relic demands love freely given, unbound by duty or plan. If I name it now, I risk breaking the only truth that will ever set her free.
Is she even ready to love me again?
For me, I never fucking stopped.
“The spell to break the Marked curse,” I answer finally, but I fucking hate myself for lying—my mouth tastes like ash, even if I’m doing it for her.
Because I don’t know if she loves me, but I sure as Stars know that I’ll eliminate every man in Duskridge Hollow to get the cuff back for her.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
ELYSSARA
“How long dothese Shards shield our magic?” I murmur to Kael as the grit crunches under our boots in the narrow back street to Veil & Vine.
“Three days—you’re fine,” he reassures simply.
But I don’t feel reassured—I’m reminded of the fact that he doesn’t have to worry about it. Because he sacrificed his magic for me, and the thought of it makes my chest ache.
He notices.Of course he notices.
“I’d do it a million times over if it meant getting you back, El. I don’t regret it,” he says in answer to the question I didn’t ask but so clearly wore on my face.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur, “that I never said thank you for sacrificing so much. For getting me back, no matter the cost.” I tug on his arm, forcing him to stop in the long shadow of a rot-stained building. His ocean eyes meet mine, and I swear to the gods I could drown in them. “Thank you for staying when I was cruel and ungrateful. You had every reason to give up on me, and you didn’t. You stayed,” the last words break on my tongue, raw and unrestrained.
His gaze washes over me like a tide that will always return, no matter how many times I try to send it away. But behindit all, I can see the truth: there are tempests in them, rolling beneath the blue.
“You are forever for me, Elyssara—I will stay through it all. But you don’t owe me your fucking gratitude.Iam the reason you were taken. I deserved every last cruelty you gave me. My sacrifice was penance, not generosity. You owe me nothing,” he snaps gruffly, though I know it’s directed inward—at himself.
“Your choicessavedus all—I know that now. And I’d suffer it all again if it meant coming back to you,” I rasp, voice hoarse from emotion.
Kael closes his eyes, tilting his chin up to the dusk sky. “I cannot live in a world without you in it, Elyssara. Please,” he begs, “do not thank me for staying when it is the bare minimum you should expect. My love will outlast your hatred, your rage, your grief, your loss. I am yours,” he vows, voice broken.
His hands tremble under the force of his declaration. His eyes pin me in place—a storm and a safe harbor all at once. He closes the gap between us, pulling me into his chest and branding me with a kiss to my forehead.
“And I am yours,” I breathe into his chest, and the words feel like confession.
