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I couldn’t fathom what had become of the world outside this door, but just for now, I wanted to forget it. To push to the back of my mind the knowledge of what I still had to do.

“Would you lie down with me,” I said, pleading edging my tone. Not that I needed to, because the moment the request left my lips, Erix and Duncan obeyed.

“Of course, we have some time to spare,” Duncan said, sharing a look with Erix that suggested a silent conversation between them both.

It took little effort for them to get me back under the sheets. Erix to my right, Duncan to my left. It was a miracle I was alive – and a miracle the bed did not crack beneath our conjoined weight.

I didn’t speak until we were nestled against one another, sharing heat. I began to shiver, not from the cold, but from the reality that of what would happen when I finally was brave enough to get out of bed.

“How long do we have?” I asked.

There was something great and unspoken between us, and yet I knew we all could not ignore it for much longer. It was a gaping yawn of truth and burden that was keeping us away from truly celebrating the tomorrow we’d wanted.

Peace wasn’t here yet, and we knew it.

“Forever, gods willing,” Duncan replied, laying his arm over my stomach, anchoring himself to me. And still I sensed something in his voice, a truth that he was holding back, the same that I refused to voice aloud. Or was that seed of doubt Duwar, poisoning me from the inside, making me distrust the world around me?

“Wewillhave our tomorrow, Robin. And every tomorrow that follows after the next. You… have given the realms the final chance it needs, and there will come a time to enjoy the bounty of your actions. But for now, you should rest.”

I didn’t argue with that. I couldn’t, because if I opened my mouth to speak, I feared I’d only ruin the moment for them both. For now, I would be selfish and enjoy the peace of their lack of knowledge.

I would afford them some time to revel in their relief before destroying it.

But first, I had to ensure their tomorrowwassecure, before leaving them all to enjoy it. Seraphine may have tricked me into thinking I would destroy Duwar. What she didn’t account for, was that I was a man of my word.

Neither Duncan nor Erix had told me of the danger lurking outside this room, but the shard within me shared whispers about it.

Taking what I thought was poison had simply postponed my ultimate task.

The outcome, no matter how my mind screamed for me to pretend otherwise, was inevitable.

A part of Duwar still lingered within me, and from the faint tugging in my gut, drawing my attention to the window ahead of us, I knew that the other half was out there somewhere, waiting for me. Needing me.

Calling forme.

CHAPTER 37

Erix and Duncan took turns soaking my body, but not even their hands could distract me from the oddity surrounding us. Something was wrong, I could read it in the tension-heavy air and the silence of the world beyond my childhood home. There were moments of unspoken words shared between Erix and Duncan – stiffening postures and weighing heavy on their shoulders.

Most of all, the strangest detail was that I was home. Not in Imeria, but back in Grove, where my story began.

I’d recognised that was where we were – back in the rickety house which was now a burial site for lives lost. Perhaps that was the cause of the sombre mood, and yet I knew it was not.

As Duncan ran careful hands down the curve of my back, not speaking a word, I gazed out the narrow window. Even the sky was heavy with darkness. Whispers of strange-coloured clouds swallowed any daylight. Neither Erix nor Duncan paid much mind. Or, perhaps, they simply wished to ignore it.

Whereas I found it impossible.

“Your bruising is fading quicker than I thought it would,” Duncan said as he drew the soft sponge down my spine. I shivered against the warmed water. It hadn’t long been filled by Erix, and yet it was already losing its heat, tainted by the unusual air infiltrating the room from the open window. “I imagine, in a matter of days, the mark on your chest will heal too.”

I curled my legs up to my chin, sparing a quick glance to Erix who sat on the lip of the tub. He barely took his eyes off me. That was the thing about Erix, he had an inability to lie, but when he held something back, he just kept quiet.

And his silence was loud.

“Are we going to talk about it, or carry on pretending like everything is normal?” I asked, bringing the conversation back to the passing comment Erix had said when we woke earlier.

In the reflection of murky water, I caught Erix shooting a glare at Duncan. His circular motions stilled on my back, Duncan’s hesitation screaming in the pause.

Still neither of them replied. Instead, Duncan offered a hand to Erix, who quickly placed a stiff towel into it. “Let’s get you changed and then we can talk.”