I glance back at him to find his silver-gold eyes fixed on mine. Still alive, somehow. Undoubtedly the sorcerer’s doing. His wings twitch helplessly, trying desperately to pull him to me. They can’t, however. As if to prove it—as if he’s been waiting for me to look at him—Arion’s lids flutter closed. They do not open again.
And it finally happens.
Mortem finally breaks me.
“I don’t believe you,” I whisper. The goddess would never have allowed this to happen. The goddess would know the wayout—would use her power to save the people she loves. I am not her. I am notstrong enoughto be her.
“Then ask your friend.” Mortem waves a hand, freeing Vesper from her cage. She falls forward and gasps for air before meeting my gaze, despondent. Hopeless.
“I couldn’t open it,” she admits in a small, flat voice. “I tried to take the heart… to stop this before he arrived…” Though her throat bobs, no tears fall. “I couldn’t open the chest, and I couldn’t reach the heart. It was locked, and I couldn’t pick it.”
I look at Mortem, and I want to lash out at him, to scream at him, to tell him how much I hate him.
“I love you, Zephyra, because your loathing does not and cannot exist without love. For you, they are intrinsically linked. So when you say, ‘I hate you,’ I know what you really mean is ‘I love you.’”
“And if I do this,” I say instead, “if I try to open it… will you leave us alone?Allof us?”
“Itwillwork.” He steps closer, too close, until our toes nearly touch, and he looms over me. His finger caresses my chin.
“Even Eos,” I say. “Bring her back now. Not as your servant, as the same exact young woman she’d been before she died.”
“Before you ensured her death, you mean,” Mortem says coolly.
“Yes,” I agree without flinching. “Before I was the reason she died, she was happy and full of life and she lived with her sister on the streets of Crestfall. I want her to return to that, and I want you to give them enough coin that they canleave. I want you to help them find a better place to live. I want you to help Amaya’s people. I want you to rescue Gavriall from his tower and sever his debt. I want you to save Arion’s life. I want his magic restored, and I want him—I want him back where he belongs withoutanyrepercussions.” I glare at the loathsome god, lifting my chin in palpable obstinacy.
“You ask for a lot, Vila.”
“So do you, Mortem.”
“Fine, wife. So be it.” With another wave, Eos’s soul manifests in a burst of sunlight on the temple steps. It solidifies into her true form. Long legs, lean arms, and sparkling eyes. I almost buckle again. The sight of her is sobeautiful. I could weep. Vesper does weep—silently this time. “Eos will live. Amaya’s people with thrive. Gavriall’s debt will be severed. And your darling warlock can return to his brutal tower.”
My heart races.
Eos is here. She is right here. Looking at me, her gaze widened insurprise and her hand flying to her lips. “Zephyra,” she whispers. I ache. I ache all over.
How can I say no to this deal?
How can I say no when, without this deal, there is nothing left for any of us?
“Don’t.”Arion’s voice, tendrils of his magic, permeate my mind with stunning clarity. My heart leaps at the sound—at how strong it is, howvital, just as he sounded when we first met. My heart shatters all over again.“Zephyra, don’t save us. Don’t unleash him on the world. Mortem will kill you. The balance will finally upend if you do this, and he will be limitless. You will die. Permanently. You have to let us go. You have to save yourself.”
I almost weep at the last. After everything Arion and I have been through, from strangers to enemies tothis, the last thoughts of his extraordinary life are of me. Of my happiness, over everything and everyone else. And it hurts.Goddess, it hurts to see him lying there, just out of reach.Foreverout of reach.
Arion is as good as dead now. We areallas good as dead.
I would have loved you.
You have to save yourself.
I’ve tried that though. I kept putting myself first. I damned every person who loved me because of it. Jacin. Eos. Arion. I think their names with that same stunning clarity as Arion’s voice. I carved out Jacin’s heart. I killed him. I abandoned Vesper, and Eos, and Stavros, and Eos and Stavros died because of it. And Arion—I entangled our lives. Without knowing better, I dragged him right into this fucking mess.
No.I’m done saving myself at the expense of everyone else. There is no point in living without friendship, without trust, withoutlove. I have been alone—deeply, trulyalone—for almost a decade. I won’t do it again.
Without another choice, without another hope, I approach the bronze chest on heavy feet. Numb feet. When I reach it, however, I cannot help hesitating, even with the eyes of the entire temple on my back. Watching. Waiting.
Fuck it.
I’ve never hesitated before. Why would I start now?
