I try to resist it. I tell myself to stay upright, to stay alert, to maintain the careful distance I have kept between us allmorning. But as exhaustion moves through me, I find myself leaning back, into a familiar solid wall of warmth.
Auren loops his arm around my waist, and for a moment, everything falls away. I forget the lie, the crown, and the moment my heart was shattered.
Closing my eyes, I allow myself to sink into the feel of him holding me.
Then memory crashes back into place, and I stiffen instantly. Something pulls tight in my chest as I recall how easily I once rested against him, how naturally my body trusted the shelter of his arms.
Gods, I used to fall asleep like this.Used to close my eyes and know without question that the man behind me would never let harm come near.
The thought slices through me, and I start to pull away, but Auren shifts behind me.“It’s alright, Vivienne,” he murmurs, his breath warm in my ear. “I won’t assume anything. I know you’re tired. If you need the warmth and comfort, you may borrow it.”
My vision blurs as I blink back tears.
“I won’t mistake it for forgiveness,” he murmurs. “For I know I must earn it.”
The words are spoken so gently that they seem to settle directly into the fragile place deep within where my heart is still struggling to mend itself.
For a moment I cannot speak. I had expected anger, or pride, or some attempt to convince me I was wrong. Instead, he offers me something far more dangerous.
Patience.
I let out a slow breath. Part of me wants to pull away anyway, to put distance between us simply because I do not yet know how to exist beside him without remembering the pain of the truth.
But another part of me—the foolish, stubborn part that fell in love with him somewhere along the road—recognizes thesincerity in his voice, and it softens something inside me that I had sworn would remain hard.
“Let me take care of you,” he adds quietly.
The words are simple. But the gentleness in them slips past my defenses before I can stop it. Unable to speak, I nod.
As I settle back against him, the warmth of his body seeps through my cloak, steady and reassuring in a way that makes my sadness both better and worse at the same time. I can feel the rise and fall of his breathing behind me, slow and controlled, as though he’s afraid even the smallest movement might break this fragile truce we have managed to build.
For a long time neither of us speaks as our group continues up the mountain path.
Despite everything that has happened… despite the lies and the hurt and the broken trust still hanging between, I cannot seem to stop loving him.
The realization settles inside me in a strange mixture of comfort and worry. Because loving him still feels as natural as breathing. And yet trusting him again feels like stepping onto a bridge I’m not certain will hold.
Sighing heavily, I push my thoughts aside. Wrapped in the warmth of the man who shattered my heart and somehow still holds it, I drift slowly into dreams before I can decide whether that truth is a blessing or a curse.
CHAPTER 42
VIVIENNE
“We’re here,” Auren whispers in my ear, pulling me back into awareness.
When I open my eyes, we’re on a narrow stone path carved into the mountain. It’s almost like a tunnel, but the top is open to the elements. I watch in shock as the riders up ahead seem to disappear into the rock face.
“This is one of seven hidden entrances. It’s concealed by an invisible ward,” Auren explains, gesturing ahead. “The main entrance is warded as well, but we rarely use it. It’s mainly for visitors.”
When we pass through the magic barrier, a subtle charge of energy passes over my skin. The passage opens, and something vast and impossible unfolds before my eyes.
At first, I think it’s simply light… a soft glow spilling through the darkness ahead, pale and luminous as dawn filtering through mist. But as Vaelen carries us forward and the mountain closes in around us, the light begins to take shape, resolving into color and movement and form until I realize with a quiet,breathless shock that what I’m seeing is not the outside world at all.
It’s the capital city of Elyrith, within the heart of the mountain.
The cavern opens slowly, revealing a space so enormous that for a moment, my mind struggles to comprehend its scale. Stone arches stretch high overhead like the vaulted ceiling of a cathedral carved by gods instead of men, their surfaces veined with glowing gemstones that shimmer faintly in shades of silver-white, casting a soft, otherworldly light across everything they touch.
And below, the ground is alive with color. Mushrooms rise from the cavern floor in impossible abundance, their caps glowing in hues of deep indigo, violet, and soft rose. Some are small, no larger than my hand, clustered together like lanterns scattered across the earth. Others tower above us, their stems thick as tree trunks, their wide caps spreading overhead like great luminous canopies that bathe the city in soft light.
