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It was her.
Suddenly I was running, dropping the ash from my hand as I raced through the castle towards Arlo.
My shadows gathered behind me until I felt every part of the castle they graced.
Then I found them, slithers of glowing life among the dark.
Two figures. One burning far brighter than the other.
The other dwindling in life.
Arlo.
23
Neveserin passed in a blur of ivory-domed buildings and white pillars. Faenir sat beside me in the carriage, facing his window, not once uttering a word.Silence hummed between us so taut that no knife would have been able to cut it.
Even as wheels clambered over the cobbled streets and the hooves of the steeds clattered evenly, I still could hear Faenir’s thunderous fury as he had entered the healer’s chamber. I winced at the memory, trying to focus on the details in the world outside this moving box, anything to clear what he had said to Myrinn. He had burst through the door in a storm of shadow; never had I seen someone so far gone to rage as I had Faenir. His anger did not calm when he found me bleeding on the bed with the fresh wound I had given myself.
In a gaggle of fear, the healers had raced in behind Faenir for aid. Strapped beneath their hands as they held me to the bed, I could do nothing but watch as Faenir unleashed himself upon Myrinn.
The pain in my chest had choked me, even if I’d longed to scream and tell him to leave her alone, I couldn’t. The scene haunted me as we rode out of the elven city. Guilt was my fresh wound, and it pained me more than the healed slash across my chest had.
It was you.
Myrinn had not denied him.
The invite, you sent it. Not Frila.
I did.Two words, that was all she’d spoken. As fingers had pinched at my skin and white clothes soaked up blood, I found it hard to truly understand those two words.
He could have died because of you. Or is that what you want? It would seem all this time you wished to protect him, yet it was you who has put Arlo’s life at risk time and time again.
The mask of steel Myrinn erected had come crumbling down. I’d seen her longing to grab Faenir and shake sense into him; it’d burned in her eyes as they filled with tears.
Myrinn had persisted in her case, but Faenir had kept the blame heavy upon her. Heated words were shared, some I did not think I would ever forget, and at the end of it, there was no solution.
Regardless of what happened with Faenir before he found us, and what came after… I never would have believed Myrinn was to blame. In time, he would see sense. Faenir had to.
I had not seen Myrinn since she stormed from the healer’s chamber room. She left, carrying my most precious secret in her hands as though it were a butterfly waiting to be released. Or crushed.
My mind was filled with the promise of death. No matter where I looked, what I thought, it all came back to it. I had grown used to the glass vial’s presence. Even now, as we flew over bumps in the road, I reached up for the breast pocket to find it flat. Empty.
It was a painful reminder. All of it.
“You were too hard on her.” I severed the silence before the dark thoughts devoured me completely. “If you truly believe that Myrinn is behind the attacks, then I have mistaken you for something other than a fool.”
Faenir turned from his window and focused on me. I hated the way he looked at me, eyes searching for pain. His eyes had dulled to tones of honey, as though a light had perished within, yet the worst part was the heavy fear that clung to them. Faenir looked at me as I imagined a poor man looked at coin, with honest, sickening desperation. Part of me wished to snap at him, demand that he look away. If he saw me in such a way now, what would happen if he knew the truth?
He can’t find out.
I dropped my eyes to my hands, which fidgeted in my lap. Faenir sighed knowingly.
“Even if Myrinn did not force the hands of the human that hurt you, by her forging that invitation she signed the warrant of your life. I cannot forgive her for tricking us into coming.”
“Stop convincing yourself of her intentions when you know little as to what they are.”
Faenir recoiled as I threw my attention back to him. Such hot and sudden anger filled my body. I wished to lash out like a child gripped in a tantrum.The new, puckered scar across my chest pulled awkwardly, sending a sharp spread of discomfort across my torso, restricting my breathing for a moment.
