Then at least I won’t be forgotten.
She forced brightness into her tone. “Then it works.”
He laughed—unsteady, ragged.“Works? Auryn, it binds me to you. You’ve given me more than I deserve. This will be my treasure.”
She smiled for him though he could not see. Outwardly, radiant. Inwardly, breaking.
Take this piece of me with you. Since I wasn’t strong enough to make you stay.
He returned through a new portal, but Auryn didn’t look at him when he arrived. She sat curled up in the crook of the balcony window, knees pulled to her chest, cheek pressed to the glass as if it might hold her together. The red glow of the bracelet pulsed at her wrist. Her breath shook as tears slid down her face—silent and unguarded.
He stopped, the Bond sending wave after wave of emotion through his chest.
Kailorien had seen her weep before. In pain. In fury. In fear.
But this…this wasgriefunraveling her. A pall of mourning.
He crossed the chamber and dropped to his knees before her, wordless. His hands reached for hers. When she didn’t pull away, he lifted them to his lips and kissed her palms—one after the other—like she’d just given him the world.
She blinked at him through tears. “It worked,” she whispered, her voice cracking on the second word. “I heard you.”
“I know,” he murmured, his voice a rough edge. “Little one, I heardyou, too.”
He kissed her wrist where the bracelet glowed.
Then her knee.
Then the curve of her calf.
“You’ve made a miracle,” he said, voice low, awed, almost a prayer. “No one else in Krystopolis could have done this. Nor the world. I am certain of it.”
She started to cry again—quiet, hiccupping sobs this time—and he reached up, tugging her into his arms. She slid from the window and melted into his chest.
“I was so afraid,” she admitted, curling her fingers around the fabric at his shoulder. “Afraid I’d built hope into something that would fall apart. That I’d be left here...waiting alone again in the dark.”
His lips brushed her hair. “With this gift, you will hear my voice across the stars.”
Neither of them could be certain of it, but they allowed no doubt near their hearts. Not when both of them were already brittle with the coming departure. Her arms tightened around him, their bracelets warm between them.
"Auryn, I have no intention of leaving you here like I have on past Campaigns."
She blinked at him, confused. "But…Shu'Khan…"
"I bargained for a temporary reprieve. I must leave to subdue Vargrún, but I do not intend to be gone more than a year. Two at most."
Her back straightened, a light blooming in her eyes that wasn't there before. "You cannot return so soon. The Resh'Agar must—"
"Trust me."
That was all he said. All he could reveal in this moment. The last thing he wanted was to make promises he could not keep.
"Auryn, I breathe for you as your Silari. Neither of us knows the cost of using this magic, but we know the price of its absence. I will not leave you without my breath, without my warmth." He hugged her close, kissing her cheek then her shoulder. "I will find what I need to appeaseShu'Khan's greed. He seeks an artifact in the Ebon Sanctuary, and I have sworn to burn across the continent and claim it so that I might return to you." His lips moved down to her chest. Right over her heart. "A few Cycles," he swore. "If you can wait for me…"
She held his face between her hands and tugged his gaze to hers. "Through Ice, through Fire, through all the Darkness this world can throw at my feet—I will wait."
He paused. Pulled back just enough to touch one of the emerald earrings that had accompanied him for centuries. Auryn's eyes widened as he tugged the loop free.
"Kail, what are you—"
