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“Come back to me.”
His hands slid down her back, dragging sand across her skin. “I’m here.”
She buried her face into his neck. Tears wouldn’t come. Not any longer. She’d used them up. She was tired from her three fights. Still recovering from the last one with Morpheos. She knew what came next.
“We should leave,” she whispered traitorously into his chest.
He tugged at the crux bond that tied him to Iris. “And this?”
“We’ll break it.”
Though she had no idea how to do it. It was why his shadows hadn’t already enveloped them and taken them away. Jumped them out of the city and away from this madness.
No, they had to see this through. She’d known that from day one. But the fantasy of leaving was still ecstasy.
“You know what you’re going to have to do.” His voice was almost gentle as his grip tightened.
“Don’t say it.”
“You’re going to have to be the one, Kerrigan.”
“No.” She wrenched back to look at him. “We’re going to figure out a way.”
“We can’t both walk through that door.”
“And you think I could do it?”
“To get back home? To save the entire world?” His storm-cloud eyes were almost steady. “Yes, you could do it.”
“I won’t give you up.” She thundered away from him. “I won’t kill you.”
Fordham came to her side. He found her hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing each of her scarred fingers and then her callous palm. “My love, my mate, my everything, I would go to the ends of the world for you. I’ll even die for you.”
“Stop,” she pleaded.
“At the end of the day, you will do the right thing.”
“I won’t.”
He smirked then, and she was lost to him all over again. “You will.”
He kissed her lips one last pleading time and then left just as Constantine barreled down the steps to find her. Iris hot on his heels. She could look at neither of them as Fordham went easily like a biddable dog.
After he’d just told her … to kill him.
32
The Warning
“You’re going to win.”
Kerrigan ignored Danae’s kindness. She’d dressed the part of a servant and agreed to come watch the final match. The weeks had not exactly been kind to her, but the distance helped her begin to move forward.
“Kerrigan?” Danae asked. “Are you going to be okay?”
She didn’t have words for what was about to happen. She hadn’t seen Fordham. She’d refused to train. What could anyone teach her that would give her the advantage she needed against the man she loved?
Constantine had been surprisingly mild about it all. As mild as the giant of a man had been about anything. She’d gone every day to the baths with Danae, ignoring the gossip about her. Her face had healed after a second broken nose. Constantine had even forked over the money for a magic healer to make sure it was done correctly. She had scoffed at the expense, but was also vain enough to know it had been worth it.
“Kerrigan?” she repeated.
“Leave it, Day,” Constantine told his daughter. “She needs to concentrate.”
Sure, concentrate.
On killing her mate? On finding a way not to kill him?
Constantine put a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go.”
She fell into step at his side. He’d bought her a new outfit for the spectacle of the event. For the walk to the coliseum, she wore a dark blue cloak with black embroidery, matching Constantine’s house colors. It had a hood, but she refused to pull it up. Her hair and Fae-touched ears were her signature look. She couldn’t hide them from the crowd like she could what she had on underneath.
The walk took twice as long as normal. Spectators lined the streets, throwing flowers in their path and screaming her name. Soldiers stood at attention the entire way. They made her uncomfortable. She’d had too many bad experiences with armed guards to not be wary. Were they here for her protection or to protect others from her?
The crowd at the coliseum was burgeoning into chaos at their approach. People were screaming her name, trying to touch her, and closing in on their cadre. Even a dozen gladiators wasn’t enough to hold back an entire stadium of people.
“Constantine,” she whispered, keeping a tremor from her voice.
“We’ve got this.” He nodded at his men. “Form up.”
Their loose unit turned into a tight circle, blocking her from view. Danae at her back was also under close supervision from the men.
Theo tucked in close to her side. “We’ll get you there, love.”
“I trust you.”
He beamed at that, lifting his chin as he elbowed aside the crowd trying to get to her.
“Make way! Make way!” the gladiators shouted. Their voices ringing clear over the noise of the madness beyond. Their hands rested on their undrawn swords—a clear indication of where things would go if it went south.
