It was so unjust.
The flutter of butterfly wings caressed the back of my mind. Astrid’s door was open.
I had tried not to hurt her in the past…but she deserved the truth.
As gently as I could, I sent an image of the Ragnar I knew into Astrid’s mind. Astrid blinked only once.
Her face was still.
“I thought lionesses did not keep secrets?”
I looked over my shoulder. Annalisa leaned on the doorframe with her arms crossed.
Her deadly eyes flicked down to my cape. “After the hell you put us through, you are just leaving?”
I rose to my feet. “I told you I was going to bring Riyan back.”
“And what happens then?” Annalisa lifted off the doorframe and stalked forward. “Brietta has been talking with the soldiers all night about the defenses for when Derrick comes. Do we revolutionize the Dukedom while you come back to your happily ever after?”
“I might not come back at all.” My throat tightened, but my Nordingaard crystal kept me calm.
Her brow hardened. “Why?”
Damn it, a direct question. I could not bite it down, so I let it out. “I am taking Riyan’s place, giving the Queen of the Giants my eternal servitude.”
Annalisa’s chest deflated, but I had to take care of my obligations before she could try to talk me out of my plan.
“No matter what happens after midnight,” I said, “someonehasto look after Astrid.”
Her eyes softened as they moved from Astrid to her paintings on the wall. Her face tensed as soon as she recognized her uncle. “I could never do much to right my family’s wrongs…but I can start here.”
I let out a relieved breath. “Thank you, Anna.”
She pursed her lips and kept her arms folded. She was too angry with me to beg me to stay, or to even tell me goodbye, but it was better for the both of us that she stayed silent.
She could hate me all she wanted as long as she was safe.
Annalisa stared at the portrait a moment longer before turning back to me, keeping her eyes down. “My cycle came. I was never with child, I was just…I think I was just distressed…”
Before I could stop myself, I wrapped my arms around her. Her scent of rose petals and paint filled my nose. She circled her arms around me and rested her cheek on top of my head.
Even though I listened closely, no rain fell in Annalisa’s mind.
I held my breath and forced myself to pull out of her embrace. I looked from Annalisa to Astrid as the three of us stood in the dying sunlight from the window.
I had no idea what Ganora would do with me at midnight, or the next day, or until I met the edge of oblivion, but I held one certainty in my heart.
The ones I loved were still unbroken.
The sky had darkened into a rich blue as Daigen and I stepped outside the stone walls of Bloodstone Fortress.
I held out my hand. “Shall we finish this the way we started it?”
Daigen raised an eyebrow but took my hand. “What are we finishing? If anything, we’re starting something new.”
I supposed his beloved’s impending freedom made him optimistic, a feeling I shared.
A rustle of feathers disrupted the air before Daigen could pull me through it with his magic.
