“What is it?”
“While I was away, I overheard a Draemornian soldier say something about the same fable. He mentioned the statues. I don't remember every detail of what he said though. Everything becomes a little fuzzy during battle as the days mesh together.”
The statues?
The statues.
Blythe’s skin looked almost stone-like in my vision.
A crazy thought struck me and I shot out of the bed, wrapping a sheet around myself—not that I needed to. He had just explored every part of my naked body.
I made for my desk, rummaging through it until I found the page from Stoll’s book. I reread it to ensure the information was matching up as it had in my brain, then I lunged back onto the bed, waving the parchment in Sebastian's face.
“Read this,” I demanded. “It says how the other gods and goddesses took action to stop her. Is it possible they banished her soul within the constellastone statue?”
Sebastian read and looked up at me when he was done, shaking his head. “Those statues have been in our kingdom for centuries. I suppose theoretically it's possible, but it's a stretch. I don't even know how they would perform such an act.”
He handed me back the page. “Regardless, if her soulisin there, there's nothing we can do to change that.” He looked into my eyes sadly. “And it won't change the prophecy.”
I closed my mouth. “You're right. I’m screwed.”
Sebastian pulled me back onto him. I leaned forwards, letting him wrap his arms around me in an embrace.
“It's just a story, Maeve. There's no proof of it,” he said softly.
I sighed into his neck. “I know. I was just hoping that if it were true, maybe I could stop the rest of the prophecy from being fulfilled.”
Sebastian put his lips to my forehead. “Well, to answer your question from before, no, I'm not worried about the sacrifice.”
My hair tumbled over my face as I looked up at him. “Why not?”
He brushed the strands away. “No veil between life or death could ever keep me from you.”
I smiled faintly, my heart swelling. He said he couldn't giveme what I wanted or deserved, but he was doing that very thing without even realizing it.
I should have told him right then and there that I loved him, but I worried it would be too much for him. Could he really handle that added emotion after what he'd been through the past few months? And who's to say he even loved me back? He only admitted his feelings for me right before he left, and even then he wasn't sure if he could give me all of him. Although, when he got home,Iwas the first person he came to see.Iwas the person he’d let his guard down for.I'mthe one he said not even death would keep him from.
Maybe he was wrong about himself. Maybe he was capable of giving me all of him, even if he thought that he couldn't.
My lips parted to tell him my deepest feelings, but we were rudely interrupted by an obnoxious banging on my door.
“Hey, asshole, open up!” Kohen's voice cascaded through the walls.
“You get back and the first thing you do is fuck Willawood, instead of coming to see us?” Sawyer yelled after him.
“Oh my gods.” My cheeks burned red and I buried my face in Sebastian’s chest.
“I told you they’d hear us,” he said cockily.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Sebastian and I got dressed and made our way to our group's usual hangout spot—Kohen's room.
“Aren't you tired?” I asked him as we sauntered through the hall, my legs still weak from pleasure. I quite honestly didn't know how he was still standing. We slept for an hour or so, but his ride home from Craterra took a few days, and after what we just did, he must be exhausted.
He shrugged, suddenly solemn. “I probably won’t be able to sleep much, anyway.”
