Page 203 of Revels on an Angel’s Grave

The thread in her chest that beat for him thundered at the vow, glowing with the silvers of the stars. The silvers of his eyes when he looked at her, how dark they’d been when he’d shown up here⁠—

“Wait,” Emmeline gasped, that thought of his pain sobering her.

“What?” Roremar breathed against her chest, teeth tracing the low neckline of her dress, hands gripping her and pulling her down against him.

Emmeline took a deep breath, trying to clear the lust from her mind as she remembered Roremar’s anger when he’d opened the door. Something wasn’t right.

“Roremar,” she panted, cupping his cheek and turning his gaze to hers. The seeing chamber still swirled, her magic vibrating, begging to combust. The entire room was feeding it. Giving into them, like they controlled it as much as they did all twelve Fates.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyes racing with so many emotions, she couldn’t catch them all. Even though she was pressed between him and the pillar, legs around his waist, his hands explored every inch of her body, like he’d been unleashed and needed to feel.

“You tell me, Reckless,” she said, thumb brushing his cheek. All the gentle touches she’d been so unfamiliar with before she met him felt so good, so right. “What happened before you came here?”

Roremar swallowed. “I spoke to my uncle.”

The words shocked her, but Roremar didn’t set her down.

“About?”

“About everything he knew. About my Fate tie and the ring my father gave me.” His gaze dropped to her chest, where the band rested between her breasts, her dress shifted enough to reveal the dark chain. Roremar dragged one finger over it, and she shivered. “About how I didn’t kill my father, but Falliare did.”

Silence ricocheted through Emmeline’s ears.

Falliare did.

Falliare killed Deacon Silventa, and he allowed Roremar to think himself guilty all these years. No, not allowed. Framed him. Put that guilt on him and isolated him through the secret, then used it to control him. His own Fatesdamned nephew.

Emmeline knew there was no true love between them, but this? This was worse than she could have ever imagined.

Her limbs went slack as the words reverberated through her, but Roremar held her tighter.

“He. Did. What?” Her words were clipped and harsh, the stars above flaring with each.

Roremar shook his head, dark waves flopping in his eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about it now. I can’t.” The dark fire he’d entered this room with swirled in his silver eyes again, a power that could incinerate the realm, the hues darkening as he tipped his head back to look at her. “I’m so tired of all this star-fucked madness we’ve been tricked into and forced to obey. Why should they get to control us like this?”

“They shouldn’t,” she agreed.

Roremar swallowed. “That’s why I’m done with it. I’m tired of you pulling away to save me from some untimely fate that could have been avoided if things had happened differently ten years ago. I’m tired of there being a realm between us because of the games power-hungry men like Falliare and Rocarri want to play.” He placed one hand at the base of her throat, thumb stroking her pulse point. Her heart fluttered, her hips squirming as she felt it all the way to her core. Roremar leaned closer. “And I am so fucking tired of acting like this tournament dictates a Fatesdamned thing about your future when you and I both know the Fates decided long ago that you’re mine.”

The tether in her chest hummed feverishly.

Roremar said, “It’s not a matter of the Chancellor or his threats. You know it. You. Are. Mine.”

He couldn’t mean—no. She’d been so sure his disdain for the Fates would stop him from putting together the pieces she had long ago.

Back when he showed up for her as she cowered on the floor of her dormitory.

Back in an apartment above a tattoo parlor.

Back during that first kiss atop a ruined seeing chamber.

But it had only been denial. Roremar wasn’t just observant, he was made to collect her pieces. They fit into the ruined cavern of his heart the same way they did hers.

And there wasn’t a realm in which he hadn’t figured out what she had.

“That’s why I came here to find you.” He kissed her jaw softly. Her neck. The remnants of the seeing chamber spun faster with each. “I needed to be where I belong.”