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Setting her feet shoulder-width apart, Areanel slowly followed his movements as they circled each other; she had to keep Silas in sight.

‘Why?’ She didn’t even know what she was asking.

Why had he betrayed them? Why had he taken Rymedur? Why pretend to help them in Cal Cathlar? Why remain Ryyen’s spy all these years? Why claim her as his? Why did he look at her with such contempt? Why? Why? Why?

Her voice, fracturing like broken glass, split through the silence. ‘How could you? After everything!’

A screeching shing echoed around the chamber, followed by Silas’s wheezing laughter and Rymedur’s audible struggle against whatever power was imbued into the collar around his neck. Caius swung his short sword at her again, only for her to block and parry the sudden attack.

‘You are nothing but a monster. Look at what you’ve done.’ The point of his sword sliced through the air, trailing her body as he gestured to the blood covering every inch of her. ‘You should have let me die.’

A memory lashed through her mind—one she had kept locked behind her walls—until it drowned out all the sound in the chamber, all she could see.

The command in her father’s voice as he’d ordered her to kill.

She had done it.

She could still feel the way her arm vibrated with the force of the stab as she stole her lover’s life.

But she had also brought him back from the permanent sleep of death. Her fingers trembling, coated in blood, as she’d clutched the shirt like she could keep his soul from being wrenched away from her. The suffocating feel of her skin being pressed, that she could feel even now, from when she had dived to the very bottom of herself, reaching for power so far down that she had been afraid she would never resurface.

She could still see how life had leached from the world around her, draining from everything as she’d forcibly shoved a piece of her own soul into his lifeless corpse.

No, that wasn’t right. Areanel had brought him back.

Something gripped its talons into her chest, spearing grief into her heart.

She had released him from the clutches of death. She had proven her love, even after he had betrayed her to her father.

That thing in her chest yanked hard like it was trying to tear out her heart, and she stumbled back. Even after all the loss and anguish, she had not let go. Not turned away from him. She had been loyal.

Andas herself could not keep him from her.

How could he not see that?

‘I saved you.’ Her voice was a whispered breath, ringing out like the final chime of a bell.

Caius stalked towards her. She could hear the drag, thunk, step of her brother somewhere to her right, but did not look.

His tone was definite. ‘You did this to me.’

He moved to swipe at her again, and a sharp sting drew a hiss from her clenched teeth. Caius had sliced a clean, horizontal line, tearing through her leathers, and her left arm bled.

‘I shouldn’t be here, Nelly. This isn’t natural.’

Areanel clutched her wound, moving away from him. She found herself staring at the way his chest rose and fell in succession. She had done that. She had saved him.

She had given him his life back. How could he still betray her?

Grief again twisted its hand, squeezing her heart. After all she had done for him. Areanel had proven her love… and he called her a monster for it.

Swiping the scythe in a wide arc, Areanel managed to return a cut of her own. Caius’s hand flew to his chest, where a thin line cut diagonally along his chest, blooming with blood so dark it almost looked black.

‘I did not ask for this, Nelly.’ Caius’s voice was honeyed and gentle as he spoke, brimming with condescension and ignoring the pain she had inflicted. He spoke to her like she was a child.

But she wasn’t wrong! What she had done was out of loyalty—out of love.

‘You should have let your father kill me.’ His tone was resolute, and he spoke to her as though they were still lovers. ‘What you made me… it isn’t right! I can feel this never-ending numbness. There is no joy, no love, no pain. There’s nothing. It’s like a void inside of me. This is no way to live, and yet, every time I try, I can’t do it. It’s like you cursed me. I place the blade, ready to drive it into my heart and… I can’t.