Page 226 of The Sun He Buried

That stops me.

Solveih presses both hands against my chest. The contact drives her straight through the open noise of the Hall.

I take her wrists. “You’re frightened. You’re angry. You love my brother.”

A breath. “I don’t love him.”

My hands go still on her wrists. I spent years sure she did.

“He loves you.”

“I know.”

My grip on her wrists tightens. “This will break him.”

She shuts her eyes and pulls in a slow breath. “He’s already breaking.”

“Because of us.”

“Because all three of us kept pretending.”

She’s counting me in that. She’s right to.

Her fingers curl into my shirt. “I know what you did at the dinner,” she says. “I know you killed her.”

“You know the end.”

“Then tell me the beginning.”

My jaw locks. “You will hear it later.”

Her eyes harden. “Fine. I know you let me stand there and watch that first night. I know you made me cry. I know you hurt Baldr today, and I know I hurt him too. I’m still angry with you.”

“Good.”

“I don’t forgive any of it because I want you.”

“Better.”

“Stop helping.”

Solveih pulls her wrists from my hands. Then she puts one palm over the place beneath my ribs that hasn’t been quiet since I first saw her.

“The wanting is mine,” she says.

“Yes.”

“The choice is mine.”

“Yes.”

“I choose you.”

Words I stopped believing I’d hear. Every wall in me braces for the catch…

“Sól—”

“I choose the bond. I choose to feel you.” Her hand tightens in my shirt. “Stop hiding.”