AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Maybe he’d saved us both.
They carefully lowered him onto the pyre, Malyr arranging his limbs while Asker inspected the straw and dry moss between the wood. Here and there, smoke already billowed into a morning sky streaked with pinks and purples. Beautiful.
Marla walked up beside me—her eyes puffy, thin red veins webbing across the white of her eyes—and took my hand into hers. “Only the deepest love is capable of bringing about the deepest pain.”
“You just had to be the heroic one, did you not? Damn you, Sebian.” Malyr took the torch Asker handed him, bringing the fire to the corners before he shoved it into the center of the pyre. “Fly, brother. We’ll meet again among the stars.”
Flames roared up with a whoosh, making Asker and Malyr step back as they devoured the pyre. And with it, one of the two men I loved.
As the flames leapt higher, something inside me crystallized—a chilling, absolute stillness. Reality buckled and distorted, like one’s reflection when standing too close to a mirror. And I was left on the threshold between what had been and what could never be again, suspended in a moment that was too brutal to absorb fully.
My emotions felt dulled, as if they’d been sanded down to almost nothing; the jagged edges of grief and disbelief smoothed into a kind of emotional numbness. There was nothing more to say, nothing more to feel—just the echoing emptiness where Sebian had made himself a home in my chest. Where hehad beenmy home.
How long Malyr had stood behind me, hugging me while he nuzzled my temple, I couldn’t say. Each time a hiccuped gulp shook my body, he hushed me, telling me that everything would be alright. That he would take care of me. That I could cry some more if I needed to.
At Marla’s nudge, Asker walked up in front of us, pulled a letter from the satchel on his belt, and held it up before us. “He… asked me to give this to you after he… after he—” He took a deep breath, and pushed the letter into my hand. “Sebian wanted you to have this, both of you.”
I took the letter, watching how Asker and Marla turned back to their tent before I glanced up at Malyr, strange tingles flickering inside my chest. What did he mean, Sebian had wanted us to have this?
Why? How?
Fingers shaky, I broke the black seal of House Khysal. I unfolded the black scribbles, holding it against the light of dawn as I started to read out loud:
Sweetheart,
If you read this, then I am dead.
If you read this, then I succeeded.
I am writing these words to you both, sitting at Malyr’s desk in the middle of the night, with a candle for company. Every now and then, I gaze over at our nest where the two of you are currently sleeping in a deep embrace. Not much longer, and I will join you, relishing every second I get to spend between now and whenever Asker stands by his word and hands you this letter.
How I died, I can’t say. If it was fast or slow, numb or painful, bloody or boring. Did I spit blood and cry, or did I have the chance to tell you how much I love you, Galantia? Was my head clouded by the fear of death, or did I manage to tell you that, right here, right now, with my thoughts clear, that I died gladly?
No doubt you’re confused as hell. I hope you already burned me because there isn’t much I wouldn’t give to smirk down at the two of you just one last time. See, I’ve chosen to die a long time ago, back when I shared supper with Asker and Marla. That night, I wandered along the Tarred Road…
ChapterForty-Nine
Sebian
Past, Valtaris
Iwandered along the Tarred Road, with its obsidian stone polished by centuries of marching feet, imposing buildings to each side too opulent for a farmer’s son like me, and shops selling trinkets too rich for my blood.
My friendship to Malyr aside, I felt strangely out of place.
So much so, my eyes kept jumping to those dark alleys, their air filled with cheap wine, cheaper sex, and all sorts of trouble. But alas, I kept heading straight until I reached Asker and Marla’s home—a two-story building close to the Winged Keep.
Once at the door, I lifted my fist, hesitated for a second, then knocked. Sure, Asker had called me irresponsible, a fool, a good-for-nothing drunk for years, but I was none of those things. I understood that now. And if he could bring himself to invite me, then I sure as fuck could sit through a shared supper with him.
The door swung open almost immediately, as if Asker had been waiting just behind it. His black-and-silver-streaked hair was pulled back from a face lined by age and grimness. He looked at me for a second, two, three—Goddess be damned, had I gotten the day wrong? The time? Did he suddenly remember that I hadn’t protected his daughter and actually didn’t want me in his home after all?
“Sebian,” he finally broke the silence, his voice reluctant, “glad you could make it. Come in, come in.”
My joints locked up.
Ignoring it, I stepped inside and straight into a swath of warmth, scented with fried onions and… possibly rosemary, creating a familiar taste that had my tongue curl against my gums. Nobody cooked better than Marla, not even Mother had—not that I’d ever dared to say that out loud or she would’ve smacked me until daybreak, as if I were eight again.
My gaze trailed over the rich tapestries hanging from the walls, the wooden table at the center of the main room already set with wooden bowls and spoons. “Is the chimney still giving you troubles?”
