“Okay.”
The word knocked the air from my lungs. I blinked at him, studying the hard set of his jaw, the way his ice-blue irises—mirror to my own—traced the shape of my face like it was the last time he’d ever glimpse me.
If Vaeron was sincere in his promise, that meant he was choosing me over the war. Over the potential extermination of our race.
He was…no longer my enemy. And that possibility terrified me.
“Really?” The question was tentative, like I stepped onto the surface of an icy lake, waiting to see if it would crack and drown me.
His fingers dug into the hard muscles of his thighs. “If your visions are as terrible as you say…then yes.”
Hope took flight in my chest, but the stilted pause in his tone pierced arrows through its wings.
“However…” He looked away for a moment, across the square to where his soldier had disappeared.
“What is it?” I questioned, wariness holding me on tiptoes.
“You have to pretend, at least sometimes, to have one. Iaoth will be suspicious otherwise,” he explained, his forearms tense and hands flexing.
“That I can do,” I promised.
He met my gaze again, lips rolling like he was considering his next words. I fiddled with the edge of my sleeve.
“When we reach Sivy…” He sighed, a heavy, laden sound that carried the weight of a burden I didn’t understand. “Everything will be very different. I need you to trust me, no matter what happens. Can you do that?”
“I–” I started, but cut myself off. Could I trust him? I’d shared a shard of my body, but did that translate into the rest of our lives?
If I wanted more virelthorn, did I have a choice?
“Okay,” I finally responded, word quaking in my throat. A body-wide tremble threatened to break free.
I had no idea what that promise would bring me. Pain? Pleasure? A battle between duty, defiance, and desire?
In my bones, my intuition sang a haunting melody. It only grew louder when Vaeron leaned in, kissing me slowly. The way his lips danced with mine—desperate, apologetic—blended with the melody of the song inside me.
The one spoke of cages and silver bars, of false freedom and clear eyes.
If my mate let me stay blind…
I couldn’t pretend to hate him anymore. I couldn’t pretend I was already losing myself.
And that truth—that quiet, suffocating truth—was the most dangerous thing of all.
33
Aheavy fog clung to the canopy, the air thick with heated moisture, as we sank deeper into the ancient Eso Forest. Between trunks wide enough to encompass an entire manor in the lake country, bridges hung, people crossing them without so much as a glance down at the travelers below.
In the midst of summer, color painted the area. Blooming flowers in every shade, vibrant birds perched on low-hanging branches, tapestries hung over doors in the huts both on the ground and built into the boughs of the ancient giants.
It was a paradise. But beauty like this always promised something rotten beneath.
The wrongness slammed into my bones, a cold pressure building from the inside out, with each turn of the wheel toward our destination.
Thalvireth Palace emerged from the mist, the white marble entrenching the largest tree I’d ever seen. Figures climbed itstrunk—Angels locked in holy battles, their mouths frozen in wood and tangled among carved beasts. A story of sanctity and sacrifice, of honor and glory and unnecessary violence. I craned my neck to sear the sight into my memory. To remind myself what awaited me here.
Only once the muscles protested did I lower my gaze toward my prison. Every inch of me screamed to run, that I shouldn’t be here. The silver gates watched like rows of fangs waiting to snap closed and seal my fate. The palace’s three stories were barely visible behind them for how tall they loomed.
To my left and right, a white wall stretched, and with the thick forest swallowing the stones, it was impossible to determine the exact size of the complex.
