Page 186
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually agree with the monkey,” Willa squeaked, and Don deposited her into my palms until I was holding them both. “Next time you get dragged to prison, put me in your pocket and I’ll go with you.”
“Let’s hope there’s not a next time,” I laughed despite the guilt nipping at my insides for what I’d done to them—commanding them both to stay put, locking them in my room until Coen had freed them for me. I swiped away a welling of tears as Fabian and Don both knelt beside me. “You found each other again.”
“We all found each other again.” Fabian gestured at the three of us, and then their arms were bundling around me, squeezing both monkey and mouse between us. “Thanks to your… what do you call him?” Fabian whispered.
“Vigate,” I said.
“Vi-what now?” Don grunted.
By the lockpick and the lyre, were we really having this conversation right now? “Vigate,” I said, trying not to flush. Coen’s gaze had been searing into me this whole time, the bond thrumming between us. “Like my soul mate. Bonded one. Stitched together by Fate.”
Don looked alarmed. “I think you might be moving a little fast, Rayna.”
I opened my mouth to tell him this was actually three years in the making, paused, then closed it again. It would take hours to tell him our entire story, and at that moment, Don peeped over his shoulder to meet Coen’s glower.
He shook his head. “But I guess he did bring you back in one piece. And he brought Fabian to me.”
Right. My mind fluttered with all the things Coen had done to care for everyone I loved and get them to the Uninhabitable Zone for me. “How did you escape those chains, though?” I asked.
“They fell right off me at around midnight.” Fabian straightened with a gentle smile, and my chest squeezed at the hand he’d been dealt. “I’m guessing whichever elites had magically enhanced them are… no longer with us.”
I dared to meet Coen’s careful watch from the other end of the room.
Anguish still brewed on his face. We’d only just formed our bond, yet the shadow of my affliction loomed over us. I could feel the surplus of magic clashing together within me. Could feel them eating away at my bones from the inside-out and knew Nara and Barberro were right.
I had to mature as a faerie. Had to find out what my innate power was and gain the strength and lifespan of my species. The danger of this world was far from over with my eldest aunt still ruling over Sorronia.
Coen would come around. No matter how much he tried to argue—and he would—he’d eventually realize that I was right. That I needed to go.
You drive me insane, you know. His thoughts nipped at my ear.
Good, I thought back. Somebody needs to keep you on your toes now that all of Sorronia will be talking about you and what you achieved for Mydusia. Wouldn’t want all that fame to get to your head now, would we?
Shadows rippled over Coen’s eyes at the mention of Mydusia, and I knew he wasn’t proud of his so-called achievement. He’d successfully gotten Jagaros his throne back, but all the deaths would haunt him for centuries to come.
Still, that wasn’t what his attention homed in on.
You think there’s any room in my head for fame? You are the axis of my world, Rayna—and if I am to command the world, then you will be the axis of everyone else’s, too. There’s no room for anything in my head but you.
A flurry of wings exploded in my stomach, but I gave a too-casual shrug. Hope you remember that when you’re overseeing the original Esholian Institute and I’m just a new recruit disguised as a random faerie.
It was meant to be a jab to get him to crack a smile, but Coen’s expression went even more deathly serious. His darkness licked around the edges of his form as if prepared to scoop us both up and away, where nobody could ever find us. At the same moment, our bond pulsed with every one of his feelings about me.
Does it feel like I could forget you for even a second, little hurricane?
No. No, it didn’t. His desire for me tangled with mine, so powerful and potent that the room began to spin. We hadn’t explored our fated bond yet, hadn’t given in to all the impulses that usually consumed vigates.
At least we’d be going to the faerie realm together, no longer separated by oaths or seas. And at least he’d finally get to step into the role he’d been destined for.
After spending the last two years as a fugitive here on this island, hiding his face and sticking to the shadows, Coen Steeler would finally be able to walk the halls of the original Esholian Institute as the Fated General of Sorronia.
He’d finally be able to remove his mask.
And I would put mine on.
EPILOGUE
JAGAROS
