“If you continue like that, I may change my mind.”
“I would hate for that to happen.” His lips found mine.
I sank into his arms and into his kiss until I slowly pulled back from him.
“What did they do to you? How did you get away?” I didn’t know if Edward had made it.
“Edward crossed well before I did. The rest is a story for another time.” He stared at my eyes. “Ashlyn...”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Your eyes.” He sounded too serious. “They’re glittering again.”
I stared back at him. “Now you must be hallucinating.”
“I think I like them this way.” His voice slowed as his eyelids slipped shut.
There was a mirror on the slender table, but I wouldn’t reach for it.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
FYN
There was a peace she kept as she slept.
The key still hung around her neck.
I liked the way it looked on her.
Lioran’s letter poked out of my tunic jacket across the room. My duty had led me down nearly every path, but this one.
Soon, I’d have to wake her. My arm throbbed as I stretched in the bed.
“Fyn.” Ashlyn yawned loudly as she reached for me. “What do we do now? Soren?—”
“There will be fallout. Trade may be impacted temporarily...” We had made a mess of everything, but I didn’t need Ashlyn to worry about it.
She needed a moment without anything weighing on her.
I would face whatever consequence Lioran handed me.
“I don’t think it will be temporary,” she said. “Soren threatened me with it. I picked you. I wanted to go with you. And then he told me going with you would stop the ore. I didn’t want to do that to Nythrel—to Aelira and Lioran,especially after they had done so much for me, but he said if I didn’t...”
“Breathe.” I combed the hair back from her eyes. “What did he threaten you with?”
“You, Fyn.” She swallowed hard. “I could have survived however they chose to punish me, but I couldn’t let him harm you.”
“I could kill him.” It was getting harder to keep my fury at bay.
He orchestrated all of it so that Ashlyn would take the brunt of the blame—and he would just escape it all. No one in Estlen would know his part in any of it.
The door jolted when someone banged on it.
“Fyn, whatever you’re doing in there, make yourself decent and open the door,” Jayln cried. “Now. There is no time to waste.”
“Give me a moment.” I looked at her.
“Open it,” she said.
