Eventually, once Sora’s body was cold and the blood was beginning to dry on the marble, Kronos kicked him and barked, “Burn her body.”
He looked up at the Kronos and snarled, “No.”
Kronos barked out a cold laugh. “I thought you might say that. Burn her body, or I will chain you up again and make you watch as my guards chop it into tiny pieces to feed to the dogs.”
He wanted to scream, to tear out his own heart and the king’s, but Kronos had always been true to his word. This was no mere taunt.
He was so weak after hours of torture, he couldn’t even stand, much less fight the king of the gods.
He finally released her, pressing trembling lips to her brow and whispering again and again, “I’m sorry, my love. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Any day now, demi-god.”
He crawled half a pace back and shut his eyes. He barely had the strength to access his magic, but when he felt it flare, when he felt the heat of the flames and smelled burning flesh, his body finally gave in.
He welcomed the darkness as it consumed him, praying he would never wake.
“How…long ago?” Her words were strangled, each an effort after what she had just seen. She had no idea how he had shown her the memory, but she had to know the answer first.
Vane’s hands were clenched at his sides. “One hundred and three years. In less than one moon cycle, it will be one hundred and four. I…” His voice shook slightly. “I didn’t mean for you to see that.”
“HowdidI see it?”
He cleared her throat. “Thessilnn connects us. She must have been tuned in and ferried the memory to your mind.”
You needed to see it. There is a price for everything.
Soren ignored Thessa’s faraway voice, her eyes still on Vane. “You said Anabeth had a warning for us.”
Vane shut his eyes. “Yes. Kronos knows. That was all she could gather, but?—”
“He knows what?” she cut in. “That I’m alive? I’m not. Sora is gone. She died that day in his palace, and I know you want me to be her, but I’mnot. Her memories don’t feel like mine, and I don’t think they ever will. You want me to be the wife you lost that day, but I don’t feel the same emotions Sora felt. I’m sorry.”
She almost expected Vane to get angry, but instead, he opened his eyes again and looked at her, his gaze searing. The faintest hue of silver swirled in his dark irises as he closed the distance, crawling towards her. He traced his hand up her leg, his touch featherlight as he paused at her knee. Her throat was dry, and the memory of what he and Sora had done in that creek bed flashed through her mind.
“You say you don’t remember how you felt,” he murmured, leaning in and replacing his fingers with his mouth. “But I’ve seen the way you look at me, Soren. You remember more than you say. Youfeelmore than you admit.”
Her lips parted, but she managed to say, “Even if that was true, didn’t you learn your lesson? Loving Sora, loving me… It’s a death sentence. Worse. How is that worth it?”
“You are worth everything,” he said, sucking on the soft skin of her thigh, his hands sliding up to the bottom of her oversized tunic. “Anything.”
Her legs widened on instinct before she could stop them, and triumph flashed in his eyes. She bit her cheek, fumbling as she asked, “Did we—I didn’t see if we had ever…” She trailed off. As Soren, she had never been with a man in that way, but had Sora?
Vane’s lips curved, and his pointer finger, the one he wore his marriage band on, slid down her leg, caressing sensitive skin just shy of her undergarments. She gasped softly, heat pooling low in her belly.
“We’re married, my love.”
“We’re not. Sora was your?—”
He nipped at her thigh, and she had to swallow the moan before it could surface as he scolded, “Your soul is the same. Fate even decided to mirror your faces. But do not think I am in love with some mere figment of a memory and placing it on you. I know you’ve lived a life and have had hardships of your own. It doesn’t change how I feel. You will always own my heart.”
Her chest rose and fell quickly. They were walking a dangerous line, and it had grown razor thin between them. One misstep, and she was terrified she would fall for him again.
Thessa was right. There was a price for everything. Love did not come free—not for them, not in this world where kings like Kronos and Johannas reigned.
But she was tired.
Tired of fighting herself, of fighting Vane and this feeling between them. She didn’t want to admit it, but she had lied. She had always felt the shimmer. Fate had brought them together for a reason. She wasn’t naive enough to believe fate would save them, but fighting against its current was more than she could handle right now.
