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Again, we made a great distance when a deep voice rushed through me.
You were never worthy of me. I told you I was in love with you many times, and you could never return it. So now you are destined to be alone, to die alone. You are not worthy of love.
A tear crept down my cheek as Gregoire’s voice uttered cruel things to me.
I needed to find someone built like a proper woman. Your appearance is unlike what is popular amongst the royals. You won’t find a man that wants what you have to offer. Too much muscle, too much untamed—
“No,” I said aloud. “I ambeautiful. I amstrong. My body is an instrument for the things I put it through. It doesn’t need to be soft, feminine curves. Itneedsto be powerful. As do I.”
I glanced back at Sahlyn, caught in his own despair, his face twisted in mental anguish.
Sahlyn halted with his hands going to his head; palms pressed over his ears. I rushed to his side and put my hands over his.
“Sahlyn.Sahlyn. Hey.” I tried to be gentle, but I yanked his head up when that got me nowhere. “Sahlyn Asher, you look at me this moment!”
Finally, his eyes lifted to mine and held, but the cloudiness remained. I did the only thing I could think of at the moment to draw his attention from whatever was going in his head, whatever despair was rushing through him. I pressed my lips to his. It wasn’t romantic or filled with passion; it was for the shock factor. Butfuckif his lips weren’t as soft as I had imagined them to be. I tucked that tidbit of knowledge away for a more appropriate time.
It took a moment for the ambiguity to recede from his eyes, for whatever the wood was doing to him to flutter back wherever it came. His eyes filled with torment, but they widened with surprise when what I was doing seeped into him.
I drew back. “Sahlyn, whatever it said is not true, okay? The forest is just messing with us.”
“Right.” He swallowed, gave one tight nod, and glanced away. “Right.”
I shook my head. We didn’t have the time to coddle or assess. We needed to move. But when I looked back, the pathway had gotten covered. We’d lost the trail.
“Sahlyn…”
He stepped beside me, finally pushing everything he had heard fully from his mind. He swung his eyes in every direction, then gestured to a tree. “Moss like that only grows on the southern side, and we need to head north. So, we go that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction.
We pushed through the tight brambles, and there ahead was the path again. I let out a whooshing breath, and Sahlyn gripped my hand tighter. We ran as fast as we could until we broke through a patch of trees and came upon a stack of cairns. Signifying we were going the right way.
We made only a few more steps when darkness slithered, like a living entity, against the path. I squeaked as the shadowy darkness took on the shape of a person, a tall, voluptuously built female person.
“What the fuck?” Sahlyn cried, and his fingers gripped mine so tightly I feared they might snap.
“Is that—”
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
But the apparition slithered into our path, blocking it. Dread rushed against my bones as the shade spread. The feeling was like a wet blanket of sorrow, doubt, and fear brushing against my soul in a terrifying blast.
Sahlyn fell to his knees with the weight of it. I tried to yank him back up, even as my fear wanted to push me down beside him.
I panted with the trepidation that wrenched through me, my heart thudding uncontrollably. “Sahlyn—”
Jay. Jay.
My heart stopped, and I wildly looked around at that familiar sound. Just then, a blue-winged creature flew straight at the black mist with a jeering call. The mist seemed to fight back for a moment before dissipating, and the blue jay made screeching alarm noises until he banked toward us.
Happiness burst from my chest, and a wide grin spread across my face despite everything else.
Iro. My Iro had returned to me at last. Tears ran unbidden down my face. I had not realized how much I had deeply missed him until that familiar sound washed across the murmuring forest's misty darkness.
“Iro!”
He fluttered beside me.“I am happy to see you too, but we must get moving.”
“Yes, of course.” Breathlessly, I gripped Sahlyn’s arm tightly and yanked him to his feet. He swayed, but I pulled him against me and dragged him along.
