“For what?” she breathed.
He lifted her higher, pulled aside the edge of her collar and shifted it down her shoulder, baring the swell of her breast.
“Kail?”
His hot breath ghosted over her chest as he pressed his lips against her skin, right over her heart.
“Forgive me.”
She tried to shift, tried to move his face so she could see his eyes, but he held firm—his arms around her so tight it bordered on the edge of pain.
“Kail, please…you can’t just say something like that and—”
“Fifty three years, little one…for fifty three years I left you alone. I brought you here, and then I left you. I took the Rite of Scars. I thought I was protecting you. I thought I was keeping you away from what the Resh’Agar must be. A weapon. A tool. A Void that swallows all light.”
Auryn’s hands tightened in his hair.
He means it. But do good intentions justify how he forgot you?
She shoved Vargrún’s voice away. Slammed down walls she hadn’t been willing to put in place before. She shut off the Bond. Just for now. Just long enough to hear Kailorien’s truth. Not her Silari. Not her Bonded. Justhim.
“He’s speaking again,” Kailorien said.
“Your voice is louder,” she insisted. “And the only one that matters. Please. Don’t stop, my love. Tell me all of it.”
His big body shuddered, and he exhaled, his breath moist and hot and wonderful against her shoulder. Auryn stroked his hair. Let him gather the courage he so needed. Her fearless Resh’Agar—commander of legions, shaper of the world, master of Rune and mana and war—only hesitant when it came toher.
His voice faltered, fracturing with a guilt he’d never shown her before. “This…all of this…is my doing. This city is a poison. Mine to carry. Mine to rot beneath. But I couldn’t bear to let you go where I could not follow. So I dragged you into my curse. Because I am a coward.”
A breath against her skin.
“I could have arranged a life for you. Should have tried harder. But when I saw the way the world would covet you, would see only the silver in your veins and notyou…I couldn’t leave you. Icouldn’t. I thought this would be better. This cage. This prison. At least here you would be safe beneath my gaze…I hurt you…I turned away…but now look at you…shining so bright even the blind cannot help but see your truth.”
Another breath.
“So, please…my love…forgive me. I should never have left you. I should never have let you wonder if I held you in my heart.”
He stopped. Went quiet. But the tension in him didn’t ease. Auryn’s throat ached. She caressed his face, sliding her hands to his jaw, coaxing him to meet her eyes.
“Icamewith you, Kailorien. I knew the cost, even if not every piece of it. Ichoseyou.” She kissed him on his brow, her lips lingering on Kenaz. “You do not need my forgiveness.”
“I would beg for it regardless.”
“I gave it,” she smiled. “Long, long ago.”
His eyes flickered with doubt, with disbelief. “And if fate could be rewritten—would you choose this again?”
This time, her answer flew like an arrow loosed. True. Unwavering.
“Unequivocally.”
His breath caught.
“I would choose you again. And again.”
They stood suspended, eyes locked, the silence ringing louder than any horn. In that gaze, they saw each other’s ruin and their salvation.
“I love you,” he vowed, voice breaking on the words. He lifted her hand and pressed it to his chest, over the furious beat of his heart. “Feel me through the Bond. Any time you doubt. Always.”
