Page 63 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)
“And I’ll bring him back?” Although I wasn’t cold, I wrapped my arms around my chest. “Do you promise? ”
He drew down his sword. “I cannot make that kind of promise.”
“Yet you spew out how he’s destined to save my realm and how I’m to save him,” I countered.
“That is one way the fates may turn. He could also fight and die, all of your kind dying with him.”
At least I wouldn’t have to suffer a life without him.
“Is that what you want?” He drew one brow up. “To die with him? Or do you want to live?”
Live. I wanted a full life with him.
“Then tell him the truth and give him a chance to win. Trust that the fate that brought you together wants you to remain together. As I said, Theodora, you and Elias were written long ago. You in the human realm so that Elias would cross through the veil and set everything in motion.” He paused and swung his sword around before making it vanish.
“This is how his history will be righted. How Leanora’s ancestors will have the vengeance that has been due to them for far too many years. ”
He made it sound so simple, but nothing about this was simple. It wasn’t just the fate of my world that hung on the line, but Elias’s life. Our life together could melt away before it ever took place.
“You called Leanora my ancestor,” I said. “How am I related to her?”
Apparently finished with our training, he sat on the ground with his legs crossed. I joined him. While his features were relaxed, he held himself upright and rigid.
“The mages knew of the upcoming massacre years before it took place,” he said, his voice sure and unhurried.
“They knew even if they tried to outrun it and hide, they’d be found.
Their deaths were inevitable. But they decided they wouldn’t go willingly.
You know of Leanora and her brothers. Before they were born, when fae and mages were allowed to cross through the veil, their mother left a newborn babe in your realm.
That baby grew and had children. Those children grew and had children of their own.
On and on it went until you were born. Despite thousands of years that separate your births, she is your family.
And despite the many humans your mage ancestors bred with, magic lives within you. You are a mage, Theodora.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I took in what he said. At the impossibility of it all. At the horridness of it. The idea of being related to such a vile, horrid woman, or mage, made my insides tighten painfully.
If he knew, would Elias see me differently? Could he look past that ugly stain in my family line and still see me?
“The remaining brother she uses and drains magic from is also your family.” He rested his laced hands on a bent knee. “I wonder, Theodora, if when the time comes, will you have mercy on Alastor?”
“Is that your way of saying I should?” I asked. He remained contemplative and quiet. “If Elias is to beat her, how do the mages get their revenge?”
Again, silence.
“Eiran,” I tried again.
“There is one other thing you must know before I send you back to your realm.” His brows drew together, marring his otherwise smooth forehead with lines.
“You meant to give Brenton your blood to save him, but because mage blood runs inside you, you created a connection to his soul. He won’t understand that connection, but unlike sharing blood with your mate, what he feels is not romantic or sexual.
It is a familial bond, like . . . that of siblings.
” He paused, angling his head to the side as he took me in.
My heart punched in my chest, and I bit down on my hesitant smile. Everything about magic was strange yet wonderful. Just as strange and wonderful as the bonds and connections fae formed with others.
“Brenton is like my brother now?”
“Yes, but it’s not that simple.” With his hands still laced at his bent knee, he leaned forward and rested his chin on his knee.
“You unwittingly opened this connection with him, but since it is a one-sided bond, he has nowhere to channel it. This bond will spill out of him, seeking a way to connect with you, bit by bit, driving him mad until nothing is left. Leaving him untethered will ultimately kill him.”
“Is there anything I can do so that this bond connects with me?”
He pursed his lips together as the lines on his forehead deepened.
“To complete the ritual so that you are both tied to each other, you must drink of Brenton’s blood.
In doing so, you will not only be sharing your soul with Elias but with Brenton too.
Do you understand what that would do to Elias?
Fae are territorial creatures, especially when it comes to their soul-bound mate. ”
“He’d be jealous,” I said. But he wouldn’t kill him. Would he?
“He very well could kill Brenton,” Eiran answered.
“You sent him back from death just for him to die an even worse death?” I asked. “What am I supposed to do?”
Not completing the ritual would slowly kill Brenton, but completing it meant hurting Elias and Elias potentially killing Brenton. He’d never forgive himself. I wasn’t sure any of his friends or I could move past such a thing.
“Eiran.” I heard the desperation in my voice.
“Some answers you must learn on your own.”