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When she didn’t, a gentle hand nudged her chin, forcing her eyes to his. “I want you to listen to what I’m about to say very,verycarefully. You’re right. My mother could’ve cleaned it all up. Paid the right people, fixed the headlines, and erased the part where her son almost ran off with a time mage. I could’ve gone back and spent my life attending parties and hopping from bed to bed—marrying when she tells me to, fucking who she tells me to, and drinking myself into a stupor every morning and night trying to pretend I’m happy.”

He leaned closer, his eyes steady on hers. “You’re right. I could’ve done that. But I didn’t. And I won’t. And the sooner you get that through yourthick skull, the happier we both will be.”

He was too close. Taly couldn’t breathe. Not with the way he was looking at her. Like she was worth it—worth the anguish and the pain and the too-high cost of loving her.

“Get off,” she said hoarsely. “Please, just… get off.”

Skye’s lips thinned, but he moved away, reaching down to help her up. When he saw her hands, how mangled they’d become, he cursed. She shook him off, ignoring the flash of hurt in his eyes as she quickly put as much distance as she could between them.

“What do you want, Taly?” Still standing in the sparring pit, he gazed after her. “In all this, I still don’t think I’ve heard you say just what it is thatyouwant. You’re always going on about me, the things you think I should and shouldn’t want. And you have similarly strong opinions about everyone else. But what about you?”

Taly stayed silent, wincing as she tried to make a fist. She’d broken four fingers on her right hand, three on her left, both wrists, and something was grinding in her shoulder. It was bad, but it could’ve been worse, considering she’d punched a shadow mage—multiple times.

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” she finally said. A nudge at her aether quickly reversed the damage to her hands, realigning bones and mending skin.

Skye watched through narrowed eyes as she winced and shook out her hands. “That’s not an answer.”

“Yes, it is,” she countered and poured herself a glass of water from a pitcher on a table by the wall. “Do you think I wanted any of this? Do you think Iwantedto wake up one day and find out everything I ever knew about myself was a fucking lie? Do you think I wanted to be a time mage? Because that’severy little human girl’s dream, right? Magic, power, and no say in what it takes from you.”

Taly knocked back the water, gripping the glass tight so her fingers wouldn’t shake. “I didn’twantto spend a year being held hostage by a crazy woman. I didn’t ask to be part of her insane plan to save the world. I never wanted to be hunted by monsters or to end up the center point on Bill’s radar. Believe it or not, I liked my life!”

She slammed the glass down. “Maybe it was ordinary. Maybe it was doomed to end. But I’d made my peace with beingShardless!”

Behind her, Skye stepped out of the sparring pit. She didn’t turn around. “I never asked to be a High Lord’s daughter, and I sure as hell never wanted to be Corinna. If anyone had ever bothered to ask, I would’ve told them that Ihatethat name. I hate every time it’s spoken out loud, and I hate that when I hear it, I can’t help but remember that there’s an entire section of my life that’s justgone. I hate that I’m the reason Aiden and Aimee don’t have a father, and I hate that they have all these memories of me that I don’t.”

Taly blinked back the tears clouding her vision as the words kept tumbling out. “If you want the truth—the real, honest to gods fucking truth—the only thing I have ever asked for out of thisnightmarewas to have the courage to do what needed to be done. The thing I should’ve done the moment I figured out what it… what it was. What was happening. I should’ve just…” she whispered, closing her eyes against the truth she’d nestled close to her heart so that it could rot and fester. “I should’ve just flung myself off the roof and saved everyone the Shards-damn trouble.”

Shame burned her face, and she brought her hands up to cover it. There it was. The truth she hadn’t wanted to face. She was a curse on this family. And when the moment came to dowhat was necessary… she’d been too afraid. Tooweak. And no amount of pushing herself or driving forward relentlessly would ever be enough to make up for it.

A sob burst out of her, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. She was shaking, trying to hold it all in, as a familiar set of arms enveloped her.

“It’s okay,” Skye whispered into her hair.

Except that it wasn’t. It wasn’t okay. It was never going to be okay because she could never go back to being what she was.

But he just said it again, “It’s okay, Tink.”And held her tighter as the dam finally broke, and the pain, the rage, the overwhelming guilt came flooding out.

It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. None of it was what she’d wanted. She never wanted to be a burden on her family. She never meant to be their end.

She sobbed harder at that. So hard that she thought her body might break from the force of it—that Skye might be the only thing still holding the pieces together.

“It’s okay.”

She almost believed him that time.

His hands tightened on her, carefully turning her around as her arms curled around him and she buried her face in his chest. “It’s okay,” he said again and again. Not angry. Not even frustrated. Just… relieved. Like he was just glad to have her in his arms again.

Gradually, her sobs turned into hiccups, and she remembered what it was to breathe. She rested against him, unmoving, listening to the low, rhythmic beat of his heart.

Then his voice came low and steady against her ear, “So, first of all, I don’t care what your name is. As far as I’m concerned, you’re always going to be ‘pain in my ass.’ Affectionately.”

Taly gave a teary snort. “Love you too.”

A huff of laughter ruffled her hair. “And as for the rest…” He sighed and held her tighter. “I don’t have all the answers, Tink. I wish I did, but I’m not a time mage. I can’t travel through the Weave. I can’t see my past or any of the infinite possibilities of my present.”

He hooked a finger beneath her chin, pulling her eyes back up when she tried to look away. Her face was a mess. “What I can tell you with complete certainty is thatyouare my future.”

Her magic pricked at those words. The Weave rippled like something had just shifted and settled into place.