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Yes. Feel what being torn apart is like.
Aneirin hunched over, his long, silver blond hair falling in his face while he clutched his stomach. “Niawen… I’m sorry.”
Oh, Deian, what have I done?
He couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t breathe. Hurting him wounded me, and tears brimmed in the corners of my eyes. I restrained myself from going to him and supporting him—from falling into his arms and crying.
We had cried together. We had laughed together. We enjoyed the fullness life offered… as friends.
The best of friends. Aneirin and Niawen, along with his sister Catrin.
That could be no more.
I spoiled our friendship with romantic emotions.
“I can’t… love you… the same way,” he groaned. “Please… tell me you understand.”
The pleading in his voice raked my spine.
“Just”—I shook my head—“don’t.” I dismissed him with a hand wave as I turned away from him, as I turned my back on the false hope I’d kept in my heart for many years.
He would not be my soul mate.
My heart shrank away with the truth.
I reached through the mental bond I shared with my dragon and called out. Seren, I want to leave. I can’t be here with him. I can’t look at him ever again.
Niawen, I’m coming.
My beloved dragon couldn’t fly to me fast enough. Only she knew the intimacy of my feelings. She felt them as her own, and our heartache echoed across the bridge of our bond.
This should have been the most joyous moment of my life, but I had searched for love’s treasure too soon.
TWO
The wind waited as if holding its breath. I waited on the cliff’s ledge, knee-deep in the snowdrift, wondering why the wind did not rage with my feelings.
The chasm below seemed bottomless. If I fell, my life would be over. Even as an immortal, I could die if my body was compromised beyond my light’s ability to recover me quickly enough.
Seren protectively stretched her pearlescent wings beside me, spanning the width of the ledge. I’ll fly you away from here if you wish it.
I ached to leave.
Standing outside the immortal realm Gorlassar, I faced a choice—turn around and walk between the two boulders marking the portal to my home or fly from this ledge, farther into the mortal world, never to return.
My heart had already left. My heart longed to fly away. I knew if I didn’t, I might throw myself from the cliff. My feet shuffled in the snow. I needed only a leg up into Seren’s saddle, and she’d take me wherever I desired.
I cannot ask you to leave Cephias, I said. I cannot ask you to fly from your mate and your home.
I’d do it for you, Niawen. I love you.
I pinched my expression, knowing the sacrifice Seren was willing to make. Our dragon bond wouldn’t allow her to ignore my feelings. She was hard-pressed for relief from my turmoil—from our turmoil.
It’s your sacrifice. Not mine, Seren said. I have the power to return. You do not.
My chin dropped to my chest. What was I willing to give up to flee from my shame?
The treacherous mountain I stood on provided an impassable barrier between the immortal and mortal worlds. No human could climb this high and gain access to my realm, and no immortal dared leave this ledge to descend into the mortal world. The ledge was as far as any emrys was permitted to go. Humans could corrupt immortal souls, so if I left Gorlassar even for a short adventure, I’d be exiled.
