“This is for the best,” Ignatius said, voice guarded, measured.
Keira felt the tips of her fingers curling into claws as the anger mounted in her. “Where?”
“Caspian is on his way to the war offices in Erith.”
“What did you do?” Green veins spread beneath her skin as furious tears trailed her cheeks.
“He’s been enlisted. When his service is complete, he may return if he wishes.”
Keira stared down the old man bristling for several moments before she snapped towards the door. The moment before she reached it, fire engulfed the wood in a sudden burst of heat.
“Let me pass,” Keira growled, turning on Ignatius, who still hadn’t so much as stood from his chair.
“A clean break would be best. He is likely nearly there by now—“
“I don’t care what you think is best!” Keira snarled. “You’re a monster! You took me from my parents, but not him. I won’t let you take him from me.”
Keira pushed through the flames, shielded by her own magic, and emerged from the other side with only minor burns. She did not feel them at all.
Ignatius did not rise to stop her. In fact, he did not move so much as an inch as Keira took her horse from the stables and galloped down the path to the road. Perhaps he was a monster, he considered. At least in this case, he was a well intentioned one.
Somehow, Caspian knew from the moment he heard the thundering hoofbeats it was Keira coming after him. He had already stopped in his tracks and turned to meet her as she emerged from the crest of a steep hill. She dismounted in a simple and fluid movement and came bounding down toward him. Her dark hair was shining with notes of chestnut brown in the summer sun. The beauty of her, the knowledge that soon it would be gone from his life, struck him like a knife. As she collided into his arms, the dagger twisted within him, yet he held her closer still.
“Come on,” she said at last, drying her eyes. “We’re going to find a ship and put this all behind us.”
“Keira,” he said slowly. “If I run now- You know the penalties for deserting. I don’t want to be a fugitive for the rest of my life.”
“We’ll cross the channel, make a life there,” Keira said stubbornly.
“I can’t,” Caspian said, holding her tighter. “I can’t desert. I want to have a life with you, but an honest one, one with honor and freedom and everything you deserve. And we can have it. We just have to wait a little longer.”
“Caspian, this is insane.” She pulled back to look at him. “You didn’t enlist. It was him! It was a trick! You shouldn’t have to-”
“But I do,” Caspian said shortly. “It’s done, Keira.”
She gazed up at him with wide, broken eyes. “What if you don’t come back?”
“I will,” Caspian promised with a kiss to her brow. “I will. My service is only a few years, and when it’s done, I’ll be a soldier- respectable. I’ll have money and-”
“I’ve never cared about that,” Keira argued. “I just want to be with you.”
Caspian sighed. “You know that’s all I want too.” He put his hand on her cheek, guiding her to meet his eye. “You know that this isn’t the way that I wanted our story to go, but we can still make something out of it, something good.”
Keira shook her head, but said nothing.
“When I’m gone,” he began, “I want you to promise me that you’ll still take your exams, that you’ll go to the Arcanum.”
Keira’s eyes grew wide in a flare of anger. “I will not! Don’t you see all this- it’s him controlling me! If I go, then- Then he gets exactly what he wants!”
“Part of you wants this too. I know it,” Caspian said pointedly. Then he softened. “I want you to go. I don’t want you to stop living waiting for me. I want you to go to Silverfell and show them all who you are.”
Keira’s teeth clenched. Caspian was right. She didn’t want all the work, the endless hours of study and spellcraft to mean nothing. She’d always been driven through her studies to discover the limits of her power and over the years it had only grown. Who knew what untapped wells of magic lingered within her that the Arcanum might help her uncover? Not to mention that, for all intents and purposes, she was as much an orphan as Caspian was and with as little means. If she didn’t go to Silverfell, what else would that leave her but staying in the tower? An utterly untenable idea. Naturally, she could go across the channel as they’d planned, but their dream held little luster to her if he was not there. What was the point of having them both scattered to the winds?
“I promise I will return,” Caspian vowed again. “And when I do, we’ll go wherever you want. We’ll build whatever life you want. Just promise that you’ll be there.”
Keira raised herself up and pulled him into a deep embrace, fueled by the spirit of the loneliness to come. “Of course, I promise. Of course.”
Keira
