Page 249 of The Dark Lord’s Guide to Honeymooning (and Other Acts of Tyranny)

I met her gaze steadily. “Not for a second.”

I braced for anger. For recriminations about the choice I’d made, the evil I’d unleashed to save her. Instead, she met my eyes with perfect understanding.

“I would have done the same thing,” she said quietly.

A pleasant ache began in my chest, and I sank to my knees on the stone floor. “Arabella—”

“No, listen.” She moved closer, leaving Sebastian propped against the wall. Morning glories were still blooming around him, which probably meant he was fine. “I know what you did. I know what it cost. If our positions were reversed, I’d have torn the world apart to free you. I’d have made any bargain, freed any evil, burned any bridge. So I can’t—I won’t blame you for doing the same.”

My throat tightened. We were terrible people, selfish and shortsighted and willing to damn everyone else for each other. I guess that’s what made us villains.

“There’s more.” I ran a hand through my sweaty hair. “Something I should have told you weeks ago.”

She waited.

“The Shadow King—he’s not just some external threat. He’s been inside me all along. A piece of him, anyway. I’m his vessel, his reincarnation. Whatever you want to call it, I’ve been carrying his consciousness since birth.”

The Shadow King had already told me Arabella knew, but it was my responsibility to tell her myself. I still half expected anger at another secret kept.

Instead, she smiled. It was tired and sad and knowing all at once. “I know.”

I blinked, certain I hadn’t heard correctly. “And you weren’t terrified? Angry that I didn’t tell you?”

“No.” She took my hands. “The Shadow King wasn’t lying. I did see the vision, Kaz. All of it. Your connection to him, the way he’s been trying to claw his way into your thoughts.

I couldn’t do anything but stare in shock as she touched my beard.

“All these weeks, I’ve watched you choose to be better than him. Choose to be you, not the monster he wanted you to become.” She shook her head. “Even at the Gilded Gallows, when his influence was strongest, you fought against it.”

The Gilded Gallows. That disaster felt like a lifetime ago. “I tried to compel you. Take away your choice.”

She shifted closer, and I could feel our bond humming between us, stronger than ever. “I knew the way your control slipped that the rage wasn’t quite yours. And I knew you’d hate yourself for it later, so I let you believe I was just angry about the compulsion itself. I mean, I was, but…”

“This whole time, you knew what I was, and you stayed.”

“Of course I stayed.” She smiled. “You’re not him, Kaz. You’re not some ancient evil wearing human skin. You’re the man who kidnapped me and then let me negotiate terms. The man who gave me a shadow dragon and taught me to embrace my power. The man who just unleashed hell itself to save me.”

“So why didn’t you—”

“Because you weren’t ready to hear it. You were barely holding yourself together, fighting a battle I couldn’t help you win. If I’d confronted you about it, you’d have pulled away. Hidden it deeper.”

I looked down at our linked hands. “I didn’t know until we redirected the ley lines at the God Spire, but I think I was fighting him before that. I should have told you.” I looked up at her, the words spilling out in a rush. “If I’d just talked to you about it, maybe you would have been better equipped to fight him yourself.”

Her thumb traced my cheekbone. “You couldn’t have known what would happen.”

“I’m sorry.” The words felt inadequate, but they were all I had. “For the compulsion at the Gallows. For putting you in stasis without your permission.”

“The stasis was the right choice.” She leaned into me, exhausted. I pulled her closer, burying my face in her hair as she continued. “I could feel myself losing control. The Shadow King was getting stronger, and I was—” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I was terrified that I’d hurt you. Or Griffin. Or Vex. When you put me under, it was a relief.” Another deep breath. “Anyway, you hated taking my choice away—I could feel it when you did it.”

Sebastian stirred again, mumbling something about proper yeast ratios before his breathing evened out as he drifted off into slumber.

And then, because I was done with missed opportunities, the words I’d been choking on for weeks finally broke free. “I love you.”

Arabella pulled back enough to look at me, eyes widened slightly. Not in surprise—more like she’d been waiting to hear it while conscious.

“I’ve been trying to find the right moment to tell you,” I hurried to say, “but I’m a coward when it comes to feelings… and then the world kept ending.”

“Technically, it’s still ending.”