AllFreeNovel
Share Us
So they had to make the king think that he was safe. They had to let him open up his kingdom to them.
But maybe they had waited too long. Maybe they should have tried sooner.
Graeson had wanted to. He had begged to break through Ardentol's borders for the past six years. But his trainers had told him he was not ready. He was too eager, too high-tempered. Too uncontrolled.
And they were right. He knew that.
Graeson had been ready this time though.
Yet he still had failed. He had made the same mistake he did that night: he had let her go. Let her slide through his grip.
However, this time it wasn't because he was a mere child going up against a grown man. No, this time Graeson had let his emotions, his anger, and his feelings for her get the better of him.
And he wasstillangry.
Because when he had looked into her eyes, there was something there that felt off,that felt wrong.Guilt and remorse clouded those deep ocean-blue eyes. Still, there was something else that had floated in them, swirling around her irises. Both he and Fynn had seen it when they had first seen Kallie. But neither of them could figure out what it meant. Fynn had been trying to read her, but something blocked him. He had spent countless hours trying to break through her walls, but the walls in her mind were strong. She shouldn’t have been able to shield her mind so well, especially without knowing he could read minds.
And now they knew why, but it was too late.
Her mind was gone.
Ironic, really. She had thought she was the manipulator. The one who could control the minds of others. Yet Domitius had found a way to wrap his fingers around her mind, to manipulate her. And his hold was firm, unbreakable.
Fynn had told Graeson one night that he had seen the fractures in her mind starting to form, but they weren't deep enough. He still couldn't break through. He needed time. Time to figure outhowDomitius had managed to do it.Whohe had in his arsenal who could shift the loyalties of a person, who could put up impenetrable walls in a person's mind. Who could change its chemistry.
For someone had manipulated her. Influenced her mind. Used her ability against her. It was the only explanation.
And they were making progress. At least Graeson and Fynn thought they were making progress. Kalisandre was warming up to them. They were breaking through the barriers of her mind. When her mind was focused on her training, Fynn had tried to infiltrate her thoughts. And brick-by-brick, Fynn was breaking down that wall.
Graesonsawit. The way she leaned into the pull between the two of them, instead of fighting against it.
Then the fire started.
And he had walked away from her. He had left her with Terin, someone he knew would protect her. But he should have remembered that Terin couldn't protect himself fromher.
From across the water, Kallie's eyes met his, and Graeson's heart burned. The woman before him, the woman whom he had grown to care for and love over the past few weeks no longer stood in front of him. He didn't recognize this woman.
A stranger with death written in her eyes stood staring back at him as if everything they had been through together never happened. As ifhemeant nothing to her.
As if hehadnevermeant anything to her.
Dani tugged at his arm. "Gray, help me carry him," she said through tears as she struggled beneath Fynn's weight.
However, Graeson couldn't take his eyes away from Kalisandre despite all of it.
Because when he looked at her and saw those deep blue eyes that pulled at his soul, he knew that this person wasn't who she truly was. This was the Princess of Ardentol, not his childhood friend, not Kalisandre Helene Nadarean.
The true Kalisandre was there though, buried deep inside. He had seen the real Kalisandre when her stubbornness shone through. When she fought with a loyalty made of steel, when she was quiet as she fidgeted with her jewelry.
"I can't leave her. Not again,” Graeson said. He had promised he would protect her, fight for her. And he needed to fulfill that promise.
"Graeson!Look around you! Because of her, our homes have been destroyed. Because of her, I have lost my soulmate, our future king."
Graeson knew Dani was right and he hated himself for hesitating, but his heart was being ripped apart from within. Pieces crashed against the floor of his stomach and turned into dust. "She. . .she doesn't know."
“I don't fucking care! Fynn’s gone,” Dani spoke between sobs as she began to drag Fynn's body through the water. "He's gone."
And it was the way Dani's voice broke that made him finally turn away, forcing him to regain his senses. Graeson squeezed Dani's shoulder, and her head fell forward onto Fynn's chest as she released the anger, the pain. Her tears fell into the sea, indistinguishable in the water.
