“I didn’t just agree to it—I made a bargain.” The tears caught in my eyes, pooling there until they fell on their own accord.
Her eyebrows lifted as she slowly turned her head toward me. “Why would you do that?” We rounded the last corner, and a familiar painting of a flower field caught my eye. A display of color splotched throughout a grassy field.
“So no one could take my future from me.” Irony laced each word. The tree would take my magic and hopefully nothing more.
Cora pried the door open to our now busy chambers.
“The princess requires a moment of solitude. Please leave us.” Cora’s voice was bold. The lady’s maids left the room.
Color drained from her face. Then I knew it.
I hadn’t just determined my fate—I had sealed it.
Lioran darted toward me as soon as he opened the door.
“I’ll be back to check on you later.” Cora’s voice cracked as her hand lingered on the door before she finally slipped through it.
He wrapped his hands around me, pulling me closer. For the first time since I stepped into the throne room, I could fully breathe. I laid my head on his chest. Tears pooled deeply in my eyes until I couldn’t hold them back any longer.
“I could have found another way.” His voice cracked as he slid his hand over his mouth. The other arm held me tightly, like he may never let me go.
“Would you have rather me married Thalen or Calyth?” I don’t know why I asked it, because I already knew.
He slammed his fist into the wall behind us. My tears fell faster.
“Yes, I wish you’d marry either of them.” His breath fell heavily on me. “It would have killed me inside to think of you with someone else, but I would deliver you to Thalen myself if it would save you from that fate.” Pain leached into every word.
“You wouldn’t,” I protested.
“Your magic will be gone…” The rest he left unsaid.
“I can live on without it.”
The weight of the corset dress pushed on me as I fumbled with the ribbons, pulling it free, gasping for air. Lioran loosened them for me. His hand brushed mine.
“You didn’t just make a bargain with my father—you made one with Lythira, too. Both will take from you slowly until you travel to the Grove. There is no way for me to undo it.”
“The cost will be worth it. I will restore it so everyone I love can thrive—including you.”
I kissed his lips, gently, softly savoring their sweetness for what may be the last time.
“You were the only future I ever wanted,” he said.
“I always thought you wanted this life—to be king.” The weight of my body collapsed into his. He wrapped his arms around me tighter. Waves of nausea ran through me.
“All I ever wanted was our life in Lythira.” His hands cupped my face. “I want to hold you every night and every morning, to grow old with you, to have a family with you.”
Everything we couldn’t have seemed heavier than before. I closed my eyes, trying to imagine it in my mind. The way our mornings in Lythira would look—the way our babies would look, whether they’d have his dark curls or my golden eyes. I blinked it all away. Too afraid to hold on to moments I couldn’t keep.
“I was just picturing them.”
“Picturing who, my love?”
“Our children… what they would look like.” The words caught in my throat and hung there for longer than I’d liked.
“Aelira…” He gripped me tighter.
Silence fell in the dimly lit room. He held me as if he’d never let me go. I needed more time with him, away from here. Time to love him, to be with him freely before it was too late.
