Symond rose, his chair creaking as he stepped away from the shelf. He didn’t look back. There was no point.
The man who’d made those vials—the one who trembled, screamed, remembered—he was gone.
Chapter 40
Elora
The morning air was cool, heavy with dew. Mist wove low between the trees, curling around boots and bedrolls. The Whispering Woods were still—for once, silent—but Elora felt anything but.
She stood near the dying fire, arms wrapped around herself, her gaze locked on nothing. Not the trail ahead. Not the packed bags. Just a patch of dirt where the embers flickered low.
Rell watched her for a moment before stepping closer. “You’ve been staring at the same spot for ten minutes,” he said gently. “We good to head out?”
Elora didn’t answer. Her fingers tightened around her arms.
Rell softened his voice. “We need to leave if were going to make it into Kilfaire with the morning rush.”
She didn’t move.
He shifted, standing in her line of sight, his hand finding the back of her neck, thumb caressing her cheek. “What’s wrong? You’re almost free, right? Meet up with Tehvan and sail to Al’tera, escape Thorn, escape the empire. Why are you stalling?”
“Am I… almost free? It doesn’t feel like it.”
That surprised him. His brow furrowed. “No?”
Her voice barely carried, a brittle thing in the morning light. “I… I love him. Tehvan. He raised me, protected me, taught me everything I know. But now that I’ve been away from him, I’m starting to see it all differently.” Her arms dropped to her sides. “The way he monitored my thoughts, my pulse. The way he decided what was right for me—what I should feel, how I should act. Controlled me and called it protection.”
Rell dropped his hand to rest on her shoulder, but said nothing.
“The more I think about it, the more I believe Thorn. Maybe, I was only ever supposed to be Flora’s replacement.” Her gaze fell on a distant point again. But she couldn’t see the woods around her. All she saw was Thorn’s study, the gurney, the memory potion. Heard his words.You look identical. Same eyes. Same freckles. Even the names. You think Tehvan raised you out of kindness? Out of love? He fostered you because you resembled her.
Rell tilted his head. “Who’s Flora?”
She hesitated. Then, slowly, the words began to spill.
“Tehvan’s real daughter. He never talked about her.” She looked down, voice tightening. “But Thorn did.”
Rell’s expression darkened, but he let her speak.
“He said Tehvan only saved me from the Snatchers because I looked like her. I was a replacement. That everything Tehvan did—raising me, protecting me—was to fill the hole Flora left behind.” Her voice cracked. “It’s why Thorn… why he did everything that he did to me. To punish Tehvan for trying to recreate her. I kept telling myself that Thorn’s wrong. That Tehvan didn’t save me because I looked like her. But I don’t know anymore.”
“Yet I still love him. He gave me everything. A home. Safety. He made me believe I mattered.” She looked up atRell then, eyes burning. “But you… you’ve been protecting me. And I don’t know if I’ve ever felt more free. Like it’s okay for me figure out who Iactuallyam. But I feel like I’m betraying him just bysayingthat. Isn’t that stupid?”
Rell shifted closer, his voice low, steady. “No, Elora. You’re loyal. That’s not a flaw.”
She looked away, but his hand came up, slow and gentle, just grazing the side of her face before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
“But loyalty isn’t the same as freedom,” he continued. “Tehvan might’ve saved your life once, but that doesn’t mean he’s owed the rest of it.”
She didn’t respond, not with words. Just the slight quiver of her chin.
“You’re not betraying him by becoming your own person.”
Her chest ached, the familiar pang of guilt curling inside her. Tehvan had given her so much. He saved her from the Snatchers. He taught her alchemy, protected her from Thorn for as long as he could. But that protection came at a price. A quiet, heavy price that she hadn’t known she’d been paying until Rell showed her what freedom tasted like.
Her arms found their way around his waist. There was a raw need in the way she clung to him, like she might just fall apart if she let go. She was tired of holding it all together, tired of the uncertainty, of the thoughts that clawed at her every step. Somehow, in that desperate embrace, the world stopped spinning so fast. She let herself collapse against him. Rell's arms wrapped around her, catching her, holding her there, as silent and steady as the earth beneath their feet.
Maybe she was still loyal to Tehvan. Maybe she would always love him in that complicated, tangled way.
