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Share my crown. My parents had continually called the ring my crown. A fleeting image flashed through my thoughts. Moments when I’d walked with Kase after we’d taken him from the Black Palace. We’d walked hand in hand through his mind, in the darkness, and I’d stolen the warped memories.
Doubtless, stealing Valen’s memories would be different than hiding the false memories of theförvirringin Kase, but it would be the same in many ways by bringing out the truth of his heart amongst the pain.
“Where is Elise?” I asked. “We need to set to work before the sunrise.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT
THE MEMORY THIEF
“You remember what Calista told you?”I asked.
Elise nodded. “Hold tightly to the hand I took. Until the light breaks.”
I wiped the sweat off my palms onto my tunic. Valen Ferus was still unmoving and covered in blood. The sun would change his appearance, but for now he still appeared much like a collision between a man and rabid wolf.
Elise rested beside her husband. She clasped his hand and pressed her cheek over his heart.
With a deep breath, I removed the ring from my finger and deftly slid it onto Valen’s smallest finger. The whispers were subtle, and they required me to puzzle through much of the words, but once I made the decision, once I truly believed this was exactly what Calista’s short directive meant, my heart burned with the rightness of it all.
I took the opposite side of Valen. With a final glance at his siblings, at Hagen and Bard, at Kase, I closed my eyes and pressed my palm to his damp forehead.
Smoke didn’t rise to my mind. No, the shadows devoured me.
* * *
Cold.The first sensation I noted when the swirl of shadows faded, and my vision grew clearer was the frigid air. The pain of it dug into my skin. No mistake, it took all my strength to keep focused.
When I’d stepped into Kase’s memories to walk with him, he’d been there at my side immediately. Here, I saw nothing but emptiness. The sound of water dripping in the stillness lifted the hairs on my head.
What had I done? Where was Valen?
Then, as if the thought of his name parted the shadows, twenty paces away the king groaned, hissed, and thrashed on the damp nothingness at our feet. My heart squeezed in my chest. On his knees, Valen curled over himself, clutching his middle.
His true likeness had returned, but he was tormented. He twitched and jerked as if his body were devouring itself from the inside out. The creature within would fight to the bloody end to stay in control of his mind and heart.
My fingers trembled as I reached out to touch his shoulder. “Valen.”
He whipped his gaze to mine. I was ashamed of the shriek that peeled out of my throat, but his eyes burned, like blood had seeped into the smooth black of his true color. His lips pulled up into a snarl. Gods, the curse clung to him like a living thing desperate to pull him back into the brutality he’d once lived.
I thought he might lash at me as he raised his fists. Could he harm me in here? I wasn’t certain what would happen if he could.
I took a deep breath and fought to steady my voice. “Valen. I’m going to take the pain from you.”
For a moment, the red died in his eyes. Then, he doubled over his knees, moaning. I would not fail Elise. I would not fail an entire bleeding kingdom because this past life, this horrid entity, still lived within him.
He’d risked it all to save Laila, Ash, and Hanna. He put his life on the line to secure not only our kingdom, but his as well.
This is not where he would lose himself.
“Valen,” I said again, sternly.
He looked at me, confused, then slowly, the rage and murderous gleam in his eyes faded. “Malin?”
“Yes. I’m here to take this pain away.”
Valen drew in harsh breaths a few times through his nose. He shook his head. “I can’t . . . I can’t let it go.”
The light of his heart will brighten the night.
