“A new Delphine will riseto…” Tristan insisted, knowing she’d left out a word. “No one knows the other half of the prophecy. Except maybe my brother, considering the Compendium’s been kept within the palace for centuries.”
“I don’t need to know the other half,” Ione said, wrapping her fingers around his. It took all his willpower not to recoil from her touch. “I know you think you love her, but she cannot be who the Goddess has intended for you. She ishuman. What’s the point of promising yourself to her when you know you’ll lose her?”
Tristan scoffed. “Would you have said the same about yourself two hundred years ago?” Had Ione washed her humanity away that easily?
“You may have already lost her.”
Anger throbbed through his veins. He broke her gaze, gulping his wine and staring out the window.
“Tristan,” she said, voice gentle, “you have a soft heart. It’s what drew me to you in the first place. But sometimes, even a soft heart needs to make a hard decision. Would you truly choose a single mortal woman over the lives of everyone in Ethyrios? Because that is what will happen if you deny the Goddess’s will. It may be painful for you, but imagine everything this world could gain.” She dipped her head, stroking her fingers over his knuckles. “And would it really be so terrible? To learn to love me again?”
She knew exactly where to hit him—right in his guilt—to silence his protests. The corner of her lip curled, as if she knew the blow she’d landed.
“There’s no need to make any decisions right now,” she said, as if she hadn’t just asked him to rip his fucking heart out and offer it to her on a platter. She sat back and closed her eyes, folding her palms across her chest. “We ask the Creator for guidance and safety, and that she may bestow her wisdom upon us.”
His mind was swirling with everything Ione had said. Everything she’d claimed. When he’d decided to join the Teles Chrysos, to fight for his birthright, he never imagined it would come at such a cost.
Ione rose and began clearing plates. He grabbed her wrist to halt her.
“Let me,” he said, rising from his chair. “You cooked, I’ll clean. It’s only fair.”
Ione nodded. “I’ll only say one more thing tonight. You need to consider her feelings as well. How fair would it be for you to keep her, for you to stay young and healthy while she grows old and frail? For her to know you will live lifetimes after her? Do you really want to subject her to that heartache?”
He knew it was cruel, but he couldn’t help asking the question. “And what if I Turned her?”
Ione, Goddess bless her, didn’t even flinch. “That’s not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Adelphinae would not allow it. She would have to bless your union. And she has already blessed ours. I wouldn’t be in this body if she hadn’t. I would not be the Delphine.”
Tristan turned to his task as Ione slipped away from the table. He needed to pull himself together, needed to get some rest. Which, at the moment, felt like an impossibility.
And he certainly didn’t feel like arguing with Ione anymore this evening. So he’d play along.
For now.
But he wanted that Compendium. Needed to hear the other half of that prophecy.
Needed to learn what consequences the ancient book might reveal for his anxious heart.
CHAPTER TEN
The black mists were so thick Cassandra could barely see a foot in front of her face. She’d lost all trace of the other prisoners besides Reena and Ronin.
She didn’t know how long they’d been walking.
She didn’t even know if they were walking in the right direction, though the ground beneath their feet sloped gently downward. As if it were funneling them somewhere.
Reena’s muffled voice cut through the darkness, mirroring Cassandra’s thoughts. “Where, exactly, are we going?”
Ronin grunted, rubbing at the brand beneath his prison shirt. “Don’t know, but my…” He twisted his head to the side, cracking his neck and clenching his teeth. “But my wolf keeps harassing me to gothisway. I think he senses something.”
“Something?” Reena asked. “Or someone?”
From the tension in Ronin’s shoulders, Cassandra guessed it was his former lover and not his sister.
“Stay close,” was all he grumbled.
