Rion was on his knees, his body too thin, clothes covered in filth. Her hands were in his hair, and he looked up at her with such anguish in his eyes. His lips moved, voicing words she’d heard before. Words she remembered all too clearly now.
She was thrown to the side again, her head spinning before she appeared in a cabin with a fire roaring in the hearth. Rion’s torso was bare, displaying all the scars from his past. Scars she’d never asked him about.
It felt so surreal, clashing with her recent memory of them in a different room. He’d trusted her with his life both times. He was a male willing to set his fear aside if it meant being with the one he loved.
Moments tore through her, one after another. She drank each in turn like a creature starved for water.
Rion as her enemy, covered in blood, slamming her against a wall.
Rion as her lover, begging her to run and leave him behind.
Rion as her mate, telling her he would leave if she desired it.
Rion as her husband, vowing to remain at her side for the rest of eternity no matter what life threw at them.
The world slowly came back into focus. The Fairy Folk were still glowing. The pool still calm.
Her chest was full. Too full. Tears pricked her eyes for entirely different reasons. Arianna stumbled to her feet.
Rion was her mate. And he’d walked away thinking he’d never get to see love in her eyes again.
He’d walked away and accepted it.
The images kept trickling in, pulling her from the present to the past and back again. She stepped back. The Fairy Folk moved, creating a path for her, watching, their faces just a little lifted.
Rion.
Rion.
“Rion!”
She pivoted on her heel, climbed up the small hill, and broke through the trees. Arianna sprinted past her guards. They rushed to follow, their footsteps cracking against twigs and leaves littering the ground.
Eimear’s words crashed through her, and Arianna’s heart pounded harder, pushing her to fly across the distance. She left the trees behind, soaring across an open field. Her heart nearly stopped when she glimpsed smoke rising in the distance.
Sacrifice.
It was him. That’s why she was here. She had to be out of the way. The world wanted Rion. It had always wanted Rion.
Tears streamed down her face, but Arianna pushed herself faster, legs pounding against the hard terrain. It threatened to trip her, grabbing her at her boots and pants, ripping through the fabric like tiny blades.
Not him.
Anyone but him.
He’d sacrificed enough. He’d suffered enough.
No more. No more. No more.
But he was already out there, fighting. She could feel it.
Arianna burst through the door in her mind that had been cloaked in shadows. Light flooded the space, chasing away the darkness. It slithered back, sinking into the crevices, shriveling against the brightness that radiated from her mental body. Arianna looked over the room, and sadness flooded her mind.The crumbled white marble, the broken stairs, the fallen pillars. Her gaze lifted to the thick rope at the room’s center. Every strand had been severed, aside from one. She stepped closer, moving slowly.
The strand was so thin and frail, yet it held, bearing the weight of their connection from both ends. It shone with glittering gold, reflecting the light while the other strands hung dull and lifeless.
Outside her mind, Arianna kept running, pushing her body to its limits. Beyond. But in here, she was careful, cautious.
Arianna delicately stepped around the carnage, her footsteps soft and light. She walked straight up to that center area, the above and below covered in swirling light that reminded her of the sun’s rays peeking through the clouds.
