I slump into him. Giving my body just a moment to relax.
After my third deep breath, I nod to them, then turn my back to Meridamus. My feet fall still in two steps.
My throat tightens in a way I can’t explain as I stare at Jeremiah’s corpse and the way Gladian, Mara, and Chasin are standing around him. My heart constricts in a way I simply don’t understand.
The first step I take in his direction is wobbly, and Kyzen grips my bicep. My bottom lip trembles involuntarily when I meet his gaze.
“It’s okay, gorgeous. I got you.”
My head bobs up and down, but I don’t know what I’m agreeing to. Regardless, I allow him to hold more of my weight than I’m proud to admit as he escorts me to Jeremiah’s body.
I sink to my knees and just…stare.
His eyes are still open, staring up at the darkening sky.
My fingers tremble as I run them down his eyelids, then wrap them around the hilt of my dagger.
A true ring of finality echoes around the otherwise silent space as I snatch it out of his heart, and a cold numbness settles into my blood.
“Let’s go,” I whisper. Kyzen again helps me stand and I meet Gladian’s conflicted features. “His mother’s name is Yasmin Etain. If…if she survived the attack, her house is the second to last on the left of that path we ran down.”
He nods and I breathe through the adrenaline attempting to crash down inside of me.
Not yet.
The hardest part hasn’t even started.
“Thayla, I need to ta—”
I whirl around faster than he can finish his sentence.
“No.”
“Please. Let me—”
“I said no. I don’t want your explanation or excuses, Meridamus. You are the very least of my concerns right now. I have to go break my best friend’s and his little sister’s hearts. So if you would kindly, fuck back off.”
His eyes plead with me, but I don’t want to hear it.
At least not right now.
A wave of power washes through the arena before I can take a step in the direction of the door, and Derivius charges two frantic strides toward us, then slams to a stop.
“I’m too late,” he says as his gaze bounces across each of us. None of us get a chance to respond before he snatches us into a group hug. “I’m so sorry. I got here as soon as Ellian’s calls to me came through.”
“What was stopping them from coming through?” Riven asks.
“I was at…” he trails off as his eyes cast down at my scoff. “Little troublling, let me—”
“No. I don’t want to hear it from you either. Go join your little friend back there.” I jerk my thumb over my shoulder. “I’m sure you two have some catching up to do.”
His eye cast behind me, then he does a double take.
“S-shit. Meridamus.”
“Derivius,” he replies. I assume he bows or dips his damn head with his pause. “Long time.”
“Yeah, I’d say so.”
