Then one morning she woke up and Amron was sitting beside her, no trace of burns on his face, his hair reverted to its glossy splendor.
“You’re dead,” he told her.
“Excuse me?”
“Officially, I mean. Dozens of people saw your father stab you. I testified later that you tried to run away, collapsed in an alley, and died. The body was never found, but Abia was in so much turmoil no one paid it too much attention. My word was enough.”
“And my father?”
“Executed in the main square. The nine Elmarran guards who attacked the embassy were hanged, the rest of them banished. The Empire is appeased, the carevna happily reunited with my brother.”
She averted her eyes, focusing on a square of sunlight on the white wall. The news should’ve hurt, but somehow the words coming out of Amron’s mouth dissolved like smoke. All the death and fury and grief were the burdens some other Melia had carried. This Melia—the dead Melia—felt more alive than she had in years.
“What am I supposed to do now?”
He didn’t answer immediately. Silence filled the room, broken by a lonely bird keening in the garden.
“Pick a new name, go someplace wonderful.” He smiled, but his eyes remained serious.
It sounded deceptively, stupidly simple. But then, wasn’t that the exact thing she’d been dreaming of all these years?
“And you?”
“I’m going to Elmar, to snuff out the last flames of the rebellion.” The sunlight gilded his pale complexion, and she remembered their first night together, the gentle touch, the quick retreat. “You saved my life, I saved yours. There are no debts between us, you’re free to go.”
The truth was sharp-edged and cold, like an ice blade.
“I wish I could’ve loved you,” she said.
“I wish I’d been a better husband.” His kiss was long and sweet, the warmth lingering on her lips when he moved away.“Goodbye, Melia.”
Epilogue
Liana
The white stagstood in the middle the road. Plumes of milky vapor rose from its nostrils, while the dawn light wrapped the magnificent animal in a luminous cloud.
It was Liana’s turn to keep her side of the bargain, and join Lela.
“Snijeg.” Liana approached and stroked its silken coat. “Old friend. None of this is your fault.”
The beautiful animal nuzzled her cheek.
“Take me to my mother.”
She climbed on its broad back and Snijeg broke into a canter, Liana gripping its antlers. The air around her thickened like molasses, resisting her body, pushing back as they gained speed.
“Snijeg, what—”
The stag leaped. Liana crashed into something hard, the impact throwing her off Snijeg’s back.
She cried in pain and surprise as she hit the ground.
“Snijeg?” she called.
The stag had vanished. In vain, Liana tried to follow, to pull aside the curtain between the worlds. Her fingers found nothing but air.
“Pathetic.” Her mother stepped through a wisp of fog. “You’re not five anymore, you know how to cross.”
