AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, that damn bird of his, and its obsession with ribbons,” Marla said as she tugged a blanket over our bodies. “The tree outside his rooms at Deepmarsh hangs full of it, hundreds of colored ribbons dangling from the branches. Blue is his favorite.”
All warmth sucked from my cheeks.
Blue ribbons were his favorite.
Not buttons.
Blue ribbons.
There had been a raven at Deepmarsh one night, who’d brought me a blue ribbon. Had it been Malyr’s? Had he courted me all along? Or had hisanoa, sensing more than its master had comprehended? Why had this one been in Malyr’s tunic?
“How are you feeling?” Marla asked.
“Fine.” Much better than Malyr to be certain, so I wouldn’t complain about silly things like headaches or sore muscles. “My skin is burning. Probably because of those hot shadows that attacked me.”
Marla stilled, staring at the fire for a moment before she turned and offered a smile. “We will return to Tidestone as soon as Malyr is fit to travel.”
I turned my head where it rested on Malyr’s chest, watching how the black tendrils sitting between scars from the flogging whip slowly grayed. “My gift isn’t powerful enough to save Vhaerya, is it?”
Even with two of the strongest deathweavers by my side, all it had taken me to fail were snide remarks and gruesome sights that would only get worse the closer we came to Valtaris. And we’d been very, very far.
Marla’s features softened. “Not without the bond to amplify your void.”
The bond. Everything always came back to it, seemingly threading its way through my life.
“I always thought of it as this… ethereal thing of death-defying love,” I said. “Something that comes easily.”
“All the goddess does is show you the person who matches you perfectly. The one who teaches you, makes you grow, and makes you find your place in this life. It is up to both to nurture love.”
I thought back on the day Malyr had sent me to canter across the meadow, making me feel more alive than ever before. How he’d broken my heart, making me regain my tears. How he’d shoved me off that cliff, knowing full well I would find my tears. In a way, Malyr had taught me more than anyone else—for questionable reasons, yes, but the result had always been the same.
Learning.
Growing.
Finding my place.
“I’m starting to feel I understand nothing of love,” I said. “What it is. What it feels like. What it is not.”
“Love is a mother giving up her daughter so she may live. Love is a father dying to protect her gift. Love is a nursemaid keeping a girl’s secret.” She stepped closer, squatted beside us, and placed her hand on top of mine where it rested on Malyr’s chest. “Love is another mother giving up her life so the girl may escape death.”
My throat tightened, tears prickling behind my eyes. Her words rang through me like a bell, echoing in the hollow spaces of my heart. She was right; love had been there all along, secretly woven into the tapestry of my fate with threads of sacrifices that had ensured my life. Just like Malyr had been willing to sacrifice himself today, and what did that say about his feelings?
Though, the more important question was, what was I supposed to do to ensure no death would have been in vain?
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Sebian
Present day, Tidestone
Even back home on Lanai, where the climate was milder, there hadn’t been a single winter where I hadn’t cursed being born with ravens. Why not sparrows? At least they headed south, away from this fucking cold.
I wrapped my brown cloak tighter around me as I strode along Tidestone’s balcony. Below me, the inner bailey looked like a kicked anthill. Some of the older children scampered around, stringing up garlands made of twigs, moss, shaved bark, and other nesting material, getting the stronghold ready for thedrif. For years, I’d asked Malyr to announce the courting festival. And now that he finally had, he might be too bloody injured to participate.
I stepped into the chancery, the musty scent of old books hitting me full force, along with a swath of heat from the glowing hearth. Malyr had refused to take up Lord Brisden’s old chambers; instead, he’d made himself a nest on the floor here, wedged between towering shelves and framed maps.
He stood by one of the three windows—fully dressed for the first time since we’d returned to Tidestone—with one white-knuckled hand clasping the stone frame. The other, he pressed tightly to his chest, where shadows still infested his lungs. Or perhaps his bond hurt? Maybe both.
