Airess couldn’t describe it with words, but she felt something churning within her, aching to be unleashed, yearning for transformation.
“And did I…kill those people?” She finally had the courage to ask, but knew deep in her heart the answer he was to give.
Taryn’s intrigued expression fell. He sat up straight and looked her dead in the eyes, “Yes. All of them.”
All of them.
The weight of those words sank into her chest. Airess looked away. There had to have been at least a dozen guards total escorting them to the capitol. Her throat tightened and her stomach plummeted. Airess fought the tears beginning to well in her eyes.
She had never taken a life, and now she was being told she had multiple?
It simply didn’t feel real, as if all of this was some sick joke the Gods were playing on her. Perhaps she deserved whatever punishment Taryn’s Guild had in store for her. She no longer felt deserving of her freedom or her autonomy. She was a danger to herself and others. Shekilled.
Airess hadkilled.
It was too overwhelming to accept, too jarring to wrap her head around. Her vision blurred as tears threatened to spill, but she forced them back, fists clenched at her sides.
“And now you will finally take me to your Guildmaster?” she said, her voice cracking from emotion, expecting and welcoming her captivity. Confinement is all she’s ever known.
A beat of silence caused her to look at him. When he finally answered, his voice was low. “No.”
“What?”
Taryn shook his head in emphasis, “I can’t do it.”
“Why? I thought you were compelled to capture me.”
Taryn scoffed, beginning to fiddle with a leaf beneath his fingers, “I am compelled in another manner of speaking, yes. But I… I’m starting tochange.” Taryn sounded confused, his face grimacing, as if he were uncomfortable with himself. He said the words personally, as if they weren’t meant for her.
Airess sat up straight at his confession. When his eyes finally met hers again, his determination was fierce. “I’m letting you go. After everything that happened, everything I’ve seen in the last twenty-four hours...” He trailed off, his face now graced with a subtle smile. “Besides, I don’t stand a chance against your power. Your combat skills, however, are quite questionable.”
Gratitude welled within her, a warm feeling roaming over the surface of her heart and spreading out to her entire body. She didn’t need her Sight to know his sincerity, it was written all over his face.
“But… what will you tell your Guildmaster?”
Airess couldn’t voice what she really thought:Where will I go now?
Taryn looked at her quizzically, eyebrows arched, as if he wasn’t sure why he was sharing this with her. He took a deep breath in, gaze looking out to the rushing stream beside them.
“I’m not returning. I'm going home.”
“Home?”
“Yes. I’m going home to Rune.”
Airess’ breath hitched. She almost toppled over as she recalled what the dreamwalker said in the dreamworld.Stay with the male, no matter what, and travel to Rune. The Obadiah awaits the both of you.Airess didn’t believe in coincidences, and this synchronicity was far too uncanny to cast aside.
“We can sever the chain and part ways. You can go about your plans to escape the Luciens. We can both forget this ever happened.” Taryn stood up, offering a hand out to her. She took it, knees wobbling slightly as she stood, her mind numb from everything she had learned in the past five minutes.
“How long was I out?”
“A day.”
Three days since the engagement ball. If that explosion never happened, she would bemarriedright now.
Taryn lifted a hand, fluidly guiding a stream of water into the air from the river nearby. The water coiled around the chains. Airess watched, speechless, as he squeezed his hand into a fist, turning the water into ice.Wow. He really must be Waterborne.
He grabbed two rocks, breaking her entrancement. “The chains will break easier if frozen. Here.”
