How the Heart had helped me light up the entrance and tried to protect me against danger, only for me to not avenge the crater against the ones draining it.
“You didn’t let me leave,” I said, outrage burning away the hesitation.
For your protection, the hum hissed.
And now invaders were crawling all over the crater, defiling the land.
“You let them in,” Ryker said.
Revenge, for not protecting the crater.
Power always had a price.
I stared at the pulsing rock in astonishment, as it kept admonishing us for slights, like a disgruntled grandfather with a neverending list of grievances, some painful and true, most imagined.
Shame and guilt tugged at me. They almost suffocated Ryker, who’d been pulled between duty to his people and duty to the crater all this time.
We were both caught, but in different ways.
And I’d had enough of being trapped.
First by my family’s expectations.
Then in the maze on Sanctua Sirena, only to find myself confined in a coffin.
The crater hadn’t wanted to let me go, now I was stuck in its crypt, attackers clawing at it to get to us.
The crater was enormous and ancient. I was a mere mortal, a flicker of life.
But it was my life.
A life marred with so many sacrifices.
Some I regretted.
Most I didn’t.
I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, despite this crater’s otherworldly reproach, that I would keep on sacrificing to keep the world from delving into the chaos I’d witnessed tonight.
Mortals, the hum spit.Selfish mortals.
This time, it sounded strange in a different way. It reminded me of Nadya’s hisses.
“Enough,” Ryker commanded. He slid his palm further up the rock, with a gentleness at odds with his maelstrom of emotions.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeper.
The connection between us suddenly stilled as the purple light engulfed him. My chest constricted as the hum buzzed louder than Ryker’s thoughts, enveloping his mind and shutting me out.
In return, Ryker held on tighter to my hand.
My unease grew the longer our connection was fragmented, barely a whisper.
Shoulders bunched, spine contorted, his entire face seared with agony.
“Don’t hurt him,” I pleaded with the star.
“It’s not hurting me,” Ryker muttered, so low I barely heard him. “It’s the Heart’s pain I feel.”
