I grasped Solana’s covered elbow and forced her to face me. Silent tears fell down her cheeks.
“Do you love him?” I asked blankly.
Her bottom lip quivered at my question. She blinked rapidly, her chest heaving before she nodded once.
I peered at my familiar.‘Change of plans. We save the guy, then get Ariyon back.’
‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. That doesn’t sound smart. You could get killed. We barely beat the Grim last time.’
‘Emmeric said I die saving The Gilded City, not the queen’s lover,’I reminded him, walking over to the man’s thrashing body.
‘Oh, so now we can be reckless with anything that doesn’t line up with what the Ealdor Fae said?’
‘Pretty much.’I knelt and took a steadying breath.‘I can’t let the queen’s lover die, not if there is a chance I can save him,’I told Yanric, peering back at Solana to see her flattened against the wall and avoiding my gaze. She looked traumatized, like she wanted to mourn but also had to keep her composure and be a leader, and instead, she was just stuck.
“I’m going to save him too,” I told her, and her gaze whipped to mine as she peeled herself off the wall and walked toward me. Hope bloomed in her gaze as tears leaked out of the corners, and her hands came up to grasp her chest.
‘Oh great, promise her something you aren’t sure we can deliver,’Yanric announced.
Damn right. I wasn’t going to waste Ariyon’s powers. If he were here, he would do the same. I may only be a temporary Maven healer, but I was still a Maven.
‘Ready?’I asked my familiar.
‘Not really, no.’
With that, I sprung to action. Reaching out, I grasped the man’s bare arms, and for once in my life, I welcomed the pain that laced along my spine.
NINETEEN
ARIYON
Maze could come for us any minute, and I sat, bleary-eyed from a night without sleep, and peered through the window bars. Pax sat at the edge of his bed with his head down. He stared at his hands as if lost in thought.
“I’m going to forfeit,” I said, my voice raspy.
Pax’s head shot up. “No,” he growled.
I nodded. “I’ve decided. It’s done. I’m going to forfeit, and you can be reborn and live a nice, long magicless life traveling.” I gave him a small smile.
He shook his head. “You don’t understand, Ariyon. The final fight can’t be won by forfeit. One of us has to…”
A strangled sound ripped from my throat, and Pax turned his head away as if he could no longer look at me. It felt like I’d been gutted like a fish, my insides ripped out and thrown away. All night, I’d lay there and come to terms with my decision to forfeit, and now he was saying we would be forced to fight to the end—one of us forced to kill the other.
Footsteps sounded down the hall, and panic seized me.
No.
No way, I couldn’t.
Pax stood and walked over to the barred window as I stared up at him in panic and leaned forward. “It’s okay, Ariyon. I won’t fight you. Just make it quick, okay?”
I shook my head vigorously. “No. No, I won’t do that!”
The footsteps were closer.
Pax gave me a sad smile. “You have an entire kingdom waiting for you, bro. I don’t have anyone.”
Breathing became hard. It felt like I was sucking air through a straw, unable to get enough air. No. This wasn’t happening. I wouldn’t do it.
