I’d resolved myself to find a way toward a continent I wanted to live on, a continent where peace reigned.
But now that I was at the center of the Angel court, I had no idea how to make it happen.
“You know more than you think,” she stated, because my thoughts were no secret from our creator.
“I don’t!” I protested, finally lifting my gaze. “Please, Radiant Mother, guide my way.”
Her gown fluttered on an invisiblebreeze.
Breeze?
We were no longer trapped in an incandescent void, but rather on top of a mountain. A broad, endless blue sky haloed the Goddess. Her bare feet floated above a glacial rock.
I recognized the place from drawings made by a long-dead Elessarum member. One of the holiest places in Keleti, if not the holiest, at least to peace lovers. It was where our founder had had a vision of Ravasz’s future. No one had been around to record it, which meant he had to rely purely on memory. The fragments were enough to frighten him into founding our society.
So why had the Goddess brought me here?
She studied me as if she were weighing my worth. I itched to shift out from under her scrutinizing gaze. My skin crawled, air tightening in my lungs.
Silence stretched between us so long, I had to shatter it or lose my sanity. “Why did you make him my mate?”
“Change,” she stated simply, like that was any type of explanation.
“I don’t understand,” I cried. Vaeron and I were mirrors to one another, that much I knew. We danced a delicate balance between defiance and duty and desire.
“You do not need to. You merely need to trust.”
I gritted my teeth. “I refuse. You know. Tell me.”
“No.”
The word had me rising to my feet.
“You have rejected my gift for far too long for me to give you an explanation.”
I was no vessel, not a plaything to be broken open by prophecies, not a female traded like a trinket of luck in a holy war.
“Then why are you here?” I gestured around us. “Just to admonish me for refusing to contribute to the slaughter of my kith? All I want is peace. Do you not?”
“Peace comes with a price, child. Are you willing to shoulder the cost?”
“What price?” I whispered, fear wrapping thorny vines around my heart.
Her expression remained perfectly neutral. So perfect. Like it had been painstakingly carved into stone and not earned.
“What price?” I demanded, my voice rising this time.
“Sacrifice.”
Lightning arced under my skin—and then the world gave way beneath me.
I woke with a start, hand flying to my chest. Sun flitted through shades on the windows, and a warm body pressed against my back.
I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my heart to slow its erratic beat. Memories of the previous night surged in the spaces between. The ball, Vaeron Commanding everyone, thereby saving me from dancing with that vile noble. His admission to the entire court that I was his mate.
How he’d claimed me.
An ache sparked to life—a reminder of last night’s surrender. My entire body was sore, and my soul was weary. Heat radiated off Vaeron, the slow expansion of his chest at my back soothing away the lingering terror of falling.
