I can be free of Zev.
Except I’m not sure that’s what I truly want. Even after last night.
My eyes seek out his—anguish mars every line of his tanned face. I’ve never seen such fear, not even when he was strung up in the Tundrayni camp. Like he’s afraid I’m about to tear his heart from his chest. Again.
I bite my lip, turning to face his mother.
“How can I trust you?”
“Trust is built over time. I don’t expect to earn it immediately. But I swear by the Flames, Mayah, I mean you no harm.” Her eyes cut to Zev, almost in challenge. She waits a moment, then adds, “And your husband is welcome to join us, if he chooses.” She pointedly eyes his iron grip on my arm, where I’m certain his fingerprints are seared into my skin.
I don’t have an answer.
“I—”
A muffled shout filters into the clearing. Then again, closer this time. It almost sounds like my name.
A frantic thudding of boots, then a slender figure rushes in through the trees, twin braids swaying.
“Mayah!”
My heart stops.
Clear, blue eyes set in a heart-shaped face.
Her lips curve into a bright, lopsided smile.
For a moment, I don’t believe it. I’m seeing ghosts. My vision slants, like the ground beneath me has gone askew. But then she says my name again in that sing-song lilt I know like my own breath, and the world shifts back into place.
“Mayah-bear!”
I blink once. Twice.
“Sura?”
She grins, and I wrench away from Zev andrun—because that’s what you do when someone you love comes back from the dead. Sura staggers backward as I barrel into her, tears flowing down my cheeks, mingling with the drizzling rain.
“You’re alive,” I gasp, clutching her face between trembling hands. “How?How?”
Sura’s gaze turns sharp as it knifes through Zev. “It was chaos the night he incinerated our camp. But Tumaas and I escaped under the cover of dark. A few others, too. Then Tairna found us.” She nods toward Zev’s mother.
“Tumaas?” My heart might burst. “He’s alive, too?”
She nods. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
I draw back and drink her in, hands still cradling her face. Her features have sharpened over the years. But Tides, it’s mySura.
“Why didn’t you come home?”
Her face falls. “Your father … he’d have just sent us back to the front lines eventually. I’m sorry, Mayah.” She laces her fingers through mine, where my hands still cradle her face. “Come with us.”
I glance back at Zev.
He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t move. But his storm dies down, unraveling like thread from the sky.
He knows I’ve chosen.
Chapter Seventy-One
