It’s strange when a person loses everything in a single day. Everything I worked toward was a lie. Everything Ibelievedwas a lie. A sense of numbness envelops me, a slow expanding hollow inside my chest. In the span of hours, I went from princess of my people to murderer of my people.
When I glance at Zev, he’s already watching me, brows drawn together. When our eyes meet, he schools his expression into impassivity, turning his face away.
“If you keep blaming yourself, you’ll never move forward,” he says without looking at me. His jaw clenches tight. “You helped me kill them. To save yourself. Make your peace with it.”
I blink away the tears burning my eyes.
“Where do we go from here?” I whisper, tracing idle patterns in the grass.
Zev doesn’t respond immediately.
“I’m not going back to Arbinj,” he says at last. His back is ramrod straight. “My father will assume either Tormik or the rebels killed me.”
“Where will you go?”
He shrugs. “Volca, maybe. Or beyond.”
What about me?I don’t say the words, but he hears them anyway.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” he admits, his fingers tapping a pattern on his knee. “But I’ll figure it out.”
“So I’m your prisoner again?” I scoff. “What about whatIwant?”
He doesn’t answer, so I barrel on. “Why did you knock me out? We worked together. We—” I cut off. I can’t bring myself to voice what we did aloud.
“I didn’t trust you not to attack me when I was weakened.” He gestures to my iron cuffs. “I still don’t.”
“I healed you every night,” I protest.
“I still don’t know why.” His voice grows hard. His eyes become stone. “And I don’t care.”
I grit my teeth. Hedoescare. I know he does.
“It’s stupid to leave me cuffed. What if rebels attack us?”
He eyes me closely, likely remembering the last time I tricked him into uncuffing me.
Mouth twisted into a grimace, Zev scoots closer. His scent hits me like a warm, welcoming wave.Safe, safe, safe, some idiot voice in my mind croons. I am anything but safe with my husband whose eyes glitter with hatred.
He proves it to me when his hand fists in my hair, wrenching my head back, forcing a small gasp from my lips.
“If you attack me,” he murmurs, his voice a silky threat, “I will kill you. If you betray me, I will kill you. And if you try to run…” His gaze drops to my lips before he drags it back up. He reaches for my cheek—then grabs my jaw instead.
“I’ll let you go.”
Chapter Sixty-Seven
“I’llletyougo.”
He says it like a promise. Or a punishment. I can’t decide which.
He uncuffs the iron shackles all the same, his fingers brushing over my wrists. Lightning skates across my skin wherever he touches me.
The cuffs were loose—my skin isn’t rubbed raw. There’s only a slight indentation where the iron sat, and still, Zev’s eyes are glued to the faint lines on my skin.
My power floods through me in a surging tide. I close my eyes as its familiar thrum grounds me. So much has changed—my world has shifted on its axis—but my power remains.
I am a healer and a waterwielder
