“The covenants demand it!” Her voice rose as the temperature dropped. We could see every exhale. Koryn dropped her legs, straightening them out, taking more space. “I killed McKean to save Kyrelle, and then I made a bargain with the Dark God to spirit her away before Maura could punish her for my actions.”
She stared directly at me, as if daring me to challenge her decisions, when all I could do was admire them.
“And in return, he demanded your afterlife,” I said in acknowledgement.
Koryn had given up everything for those she cared about. She’d given up eternity to save a mortal. The witches did not deserve her. I definitely didn’t.
“After the second death,” she said. “He can do nothing to hasten its coming. That was part of our bargain.”
But he’d shown that he was willing to interfere before then. A blast of heat spread down my back, despite the cold Koryn had created around us.
I’d meant what I said before. I would not try to separate Koryn from her bonded ones. There was a Lifebind on my own damn skin. I understood what it meant, the depth of it. I couldnot sooner ask her to banish the Dark God than demand she cut out a piece of her soul. He was a part of her, now. I wanted all the parts; whatever that looked like or meant.
The Dark God had given me his name.Syleris. Now I could not think of him as anyone else. He’d pulled me a little deeper into the tangled web, but my love for Koryn already had me ensnared.
If Koryn wanted to spend every night of her immortal life with Syleris on one side and me on the other, I would be more than satisfied. The image pulled the heat from my spine lower, into the parts of my body where need lived, unattended. My cock hardened. I shifted my legs. In this small space, hiding was difficult.
I could not hide from her, I decided. Not if I expected her to trust me.
I lowered my legs alongside hers. Koryn’s eyes flicked downward, instantly finding my arousal. Her pupils widened, her mouth softening a few degrees. She found Syleris and what he might mean to us as heady as I did.
“Thank you for telling me,” I said.
She nodded.
We stayed quiet for several minutes, the scrape of words over our vulnerabilities too tender to bear. The cold ebbed as Koryn’s emotions softened and her power retreated. I rolled my shoulders. The quiver of arrows strapped across my back created a strange angle as I leaned against the wall. I leaned forward enough to ease the strap over my head and settle the quiver in my lap. I left the bow in place, as always.
Koryn’s eyes tracked every movement. My cock was still at attention. Her mouth twitched as I covered it with the rounded quiver, thick with arrows.
I watched the debate in her dark eyes.
“Tell me about the bow,” she finally said.
Another piece of myself. I tried very, very hard not to think about Alair. His death was only one of a thousand reasons I had to hate my father. It was also the one easiest to tuck away. My mother’s plight was visceral and real, ongoing. Alair was already dead. Nothing I did would change that. I would have my vengeance. I’d promised myself that when I left Balar Shan. But letting myself feel the weight of the bow and arrows was as close as I ever came to allowing myself to remember or grieve.
But Koryn asked. I’d promised her honestly. If she wanted this part of me, I could give it to her. I’d promised to love all of her parts; she had not given me the same. But she needed something different from me. She’d loved me before, I felt certain. To love me again, she needed to see the pieces that I’d hidden away.
I sucked in a breath. I could do this, even if it hurt. For Koryn.
“It belonged to my lover.” I held her gaze as I spoke. “His name was Alair.”
It had been almost two decades since I said his name aloud.
Koryn’s brows lifted, her lips puckering together. She’d mentioned encounters with females in the past; I had not been so forthcoming with my own preferences. But as I spoke, her eyes softened. Her tongue caressed her lower lip. I could see her fitting this new piece of me around those she already knew. Her leg moved; just a tiny bit. We still were not touching. But just enough to let me know she was there with me. That she saw me.
“He was a human-fae bastard, like me, and the son of a minor lord. He was taken into service in Balar Shan when his mother died. I met him when I first came to Velora.”
I waited for the lightning bolt of pain to sear through me. I’d avoided thinking about him for so long. But Koryn had asked. And if we were showing one another our wounds, this one was mine.
Koryn moved carefully. Anything else in this close space and we would be crashing into one another. Each motion felt like it lasted a thousand years. A fae lifetime. She drew her knees back up. Braced her palm against the wall behind her. Levered herself forward on her knees and crawled across the floor of the small space until she rested on her knees beside me.
“Was,” she said softly.
She skated the back of her hand along the curve of my jaw, slow and gentle. Tender. The moment was so fucking tender my heart threatened to implode in my chest.
I did not deserve this, or her. But I’d take it and never let go. Never again.
Her hand reached my chin. She hesitated, as if unsure what to do with her hand next. I’d said I would let her set the pace, but I could not resist. I reached up and curled my fingers around hers.
