Page 87 of Acolyte (Tempris #2)

“ Really ? You wouldn’t go that far?” He pinned her with a disbelieving stare. “Vaughn and his master didn’t know about you before you basically walked right into their base and said, ‘Hey, here I am! A time mage. You needed one of those, right?’ ”

She took another sip of wine. “You don’t know that.”

“I do know that,” he said as he pushed himself to stand. “I know because how else would Vaughn have known about you? How would he have known about your magic? Ivain and I lived with you for 15 years, and we never sensed a damn thing.”

“Kato knew.”

“Kato didn’t know. He thought you were a traitor, not a time mage. He discovered a glamour and a little bit of magic underneath. Just enough to make him suspicious.”

She didn’t reply. Just pursed her lips in that way she always did when she’d been proven wrong but didn’t want to admit it.

Skye began to pace. His body protested every step, but he was too restless to stay in one place. “You gave yourself up,” he said. “You ran away. You hid one of the most important parts of yourself from the people you pretended to call family, and you gave yourself up.”

Tipping her head back, Taly finished off her wine, setting the glass to the side. When she looked up, it wasn’t shame or remorse simmering behind those bright Highborn eyes.

It was anger.

He’d hit a nerve.

“I was protecting you,” she said through her teeth. “I protected my family.”

“You’re a fool if you believe that.”

“And you’re a fool if you believe anything different.”

The words were said with such conviction—Skye hesitated.

Long enough for her to say, “Leaving Ebondrift was the right decision.” She rose from her place at the table, and even the way she moved was different now.

More fluid. More sure. She stepped in front of him, halting his pacing.

“You said it yourself. You would’ve died at the canyon if Ivain didn’t know to come. I made that happen.”

“That was a decision we should’ve made together.”

“I gave you a chance. I told you exactly what I planned to do, and you said no. Telling you the real reason why I wanted to leave wouldn’t have made any difference.”

Skye snarled at that, but she answered with a growl of her own. It was a purely fey sound, one that caught him off guard.

But only for a moment. “I would’ve helped you,” he seethed.

Her eyes widened slightly. “I would’ve tried to talk you out of it, but if you were truly intent on going, I would’ve helped you.

The same way I have always helped you with every terrible idea I’ve never been able to dissuade you from.

We could’ve planned together , worked together .

But instead, you decided for the both of us, and then you left me behind with nothing but questions and lies and a giant Taly-sized mess to clean up. ”

Taly flinched.

And he knew in that moment that she had never considered the aftermath. What her leaving would look like. If his loyalties might be called into question.

“It hurt when you left,” he said, not to be cruel, but because he needed her to know.

“It hurt, Taly, and I’m not talking about just Ebondrift.

I’m talking about last year when you left home.

Climbed out your fucking window in the middle of the night and then just disappeared.

Do you know how many nights I heard Sarina crying after she’d thought everyone had gone to bed?

Do you know what a gut-punch it was every time Ivain would pull two cigars after dinner, only to realize that you weren’t there?

You left a giant, gaping hole in our lives, and if you want to know why I’m so pissed right now, it’s because I’m half-expecting you to do it again.

The next time you decide you’re right and I’m wrong, how can I trust that you’re not just going to leave me behind?

That you’re not going to lie to me, tell me how much you hate me, all for my own good ? ”

“Skye, I...” But she didn’t finish. Couldn’t.

Taking a shaky step back, Skye resumed his pacing. His skin felt too tight; his aether flared, reacting to his anger. There was still one thing that didn’t make sense. “You let Sarina and Ivain back in.”

“What?”

“You let them back in.” Skye’s voice was raw.

He hadn’t realized how much this particular betrayal still hurt.

“You keep saying that you left home, pushed us all away to keep us safe, but you let them help you. You talked to them in the street rather than walking the other way. You let them back into your life but not me.”

His eyes met hers, angry. Demanding. “Why?”

Some other emotion flickered in her own eyes—guilt. “I never asked for Sarina or Ivain’s help. I told them to get lost, and they didn’t listen.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not,” she insisted weakly. “You try telling Sarina no . See where that gets you.”

Still lying. She was still lying to him.

As if he didn’t know that she had tried to push him farther away than anybody else.

“Maybe you should’ve told her that you were ‘tired of being treated like a possession, so go find some other Shardless pet. You are not my friend, Skylen. You were never my friend, so get the hell out and forget you ever knew my name’. ”

Taly winced, but he didn’t care. Those were her words, the ones that had kept him away for almost a year the first time she had run away.

They hurt just as much now as when she had first hurled them at him in that bunkhouse in Ebondrift.

After she’d collapsed in the training yard, screaming and clutching her arm, he’d spent three weeks chasing her across the island.

Three anxious, sleepless weeks where all he could do was hope she wasn’t dead or dying because of something he’d done.

“Did you try that?” His voice cracked. He didn’t bother to wipe away the tears stinging his eyes. “Because it certainly worked on me.”

“I…” She took a breath, blinking back her own tears. “I just wanted to protect you.”

“Stop saying that,” he hissed.

“ No,” she barked back at him. “I will not stop saying that. I made mistakes, and knowing what I know now, I may have done some things differently. But I’m not sorry for wanting to protect your stupid ass.”

“Then give me a reason, Taly. Give me a better reason. Tell me that you didn’t trust me enough or that I did something to make you question my loyalty because I don’t understand why you keep leaving me behind—why you would shut me out when all I have ever wanted is to stand with you.

Why did you take away that choice? Why did you try to break us? ”

“ Because! ” she spat.

“ Because why?! ” And Shards, it felt good to finally scream out his frustration. “ Why Taly ?! Stop fucking around and tell - me - why! ”

He could almost hear her own temper snapping from across the room as she screamed back at him, “Because I’m in love with you, you stupid idiot!”

Skye went still. Even his heart forgot to beat .

“It’s because I’m in love with you,” she said again, panting, sobbing, he wasn’t quite sure.

One hand pounded against her chest, fingers digging into the fabric of her dress.

“But I am a death sentence, not just for the people I care about, but anyone unlucky enough to be within spitting distance. Why do you think the Sanctorum came to Vale when I was only six years old? Why do you think they concentrated on that village over any of the others?”

A pause.

She gave a wet, miserable little laugh. “It’s because I was there, and yes, it took me all of five fucking minutes to figure that out once I started seeing ghosts .

People have already died because of me, so if you want to know why I let Ivain and Sarina back in—that’s it.

It’s because you mattered more. It’s because you weren’t letting go even after I said those awful things, and I knew if you kept at it, I’d cave and tell you everything.

So, I singled you out. I sent back your letters, made sure you saw me turn around in the street.

I accepted Sarina and Ivain’s offers of help even though I knew it put more risk onto them.

I wanted you to be angry, because I knew if you were angry, you would stay away.

And if you stayed away, you would be safe.

“If I managed to keep just one person alive, I wanted it to be you. Just you, Em. Because if you died, there wouldn’t be anything of me left.”

The windows rattled as a particularly violent explosion split open the sky, and it continued to growl for several long moments after.

Taly was panting, that hand still pressed to her chest. The tears were streaming freely down her cheeks as she stared at him from across the room.

He could once again see every one of those long months apart filling up the space between them, each one spent dwelling on her own mistakes.

Trying to piece together an impossible situation.

She was waiting for him to respond, he realized. And though he tried, he couldn’t.

She loved him.

And just like that, his anger slipped away, leaving him dangling, hanging over the edge of a cliff.

She loved him. And how many crazy things had he done for that same reason? How many times had he endangered his own life for a chance at saving hers?

Not just a friend or a lover. Not just a partner or even a wife.

A bondmate. The person on the other end of that thread. Always with him. Always tugging him forward.

Taly was still waiting, shifting awkwardly as her eyes dropped to the floor. And since he still couldn’t find the words to say what he so desperately needed to say, he did the only thing he could think to do.

Crossing the room in a few, quick strides, he took her face in his hands—

And he kissed her.

She stiffened, and for one terrifying moment, he thought she might pull away—that he had overstepped or misunderstood.

But then she was kissing him back.

She was kissing him back with the same fierceness and longing that had been building inside him every day since Ebondrift. When he’d kissed her for the first and final time. When she’d told him goodbye.

He could hear the frantic beat of her heart, sense the shift in her scent. That thread—the bond—thrummed between them. Her mouth opened so easily to him, and at the first brush of her tongue—

Snarling softly, Taly pulled back and slammed a fist into his shoulder.

Skye immediately crumpled, not sure if it was pain or shock that had him staggering back a step. Maybe both. She hit way harder than she used to.

“What the hell was that for?” he sputtered.

“I’m still angry at you.” She sniffed back a fresh flood of tears, and her aether pulsed like fireflies in the space around her. “You’re an empty-headed jerk with absolutely no sense of self-preservation, and see if I ever do anything ever again to try to protect you.”

Skye began to laugh, ignoring her protests as he pulled her back into his arms. Her aether gave a violent flare, but he drank it in, letting his own magic spark against that bright veil of gold that rippled between them.

“I love you,” he whispered onto her lips. She immediately softened against him. “I am in love with you, even though you are a stubborn” —a kiss, quick and brutal— “pig-headed” —then a harsh nip to her bottom lip— “ brat .”

That earned him a slap on the chest.

Then another when he just laughed and kissed her. Again and again, until his lips were wet with her tears and he felt drunk off the taste of her. It had been a long, hard road, but she was finally back in his arms, finally back where she belonged .

Though there was still one final thing.

“Don’t do this again.” He had to force himself away. “Don’t run, don’t lie, don’t leave me behind. You don’t get to decide that my life is more valuable than yours. Even if you were human, that handful of decades would be worth everything to me. You are worth everything to me. Understand?”

Taly nodded, closing her eyes as he kissed her brow. “I understand,” she said. “And I won’t. I’m done wasting my time trying to save someone who doesn’t have enough sense to save himself. You’re stuck with me now.”

Skye’s lips twitched. “Good.”

“For a lot longer than a few decades.”

“I already did the math,” he said, smiling softly into her hair. They would have forever now. The entirety of their immortal lives.

The world outside continued to rumble and growl. Ash pelted the glass.

From somewhere inside the apartment, a clock began to chime the hour.

“Are we done fighting now?” Taly asked. Her voice was small and tentative, and she pulled back, craning her head to look up at him.

Skye huffed. “About this? Yes.” He nudged her nose with his. “But don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll do something to piss you off here soon, and then you can be the one to yell at me.”

Her answering smile made him feel giddy. He couldn’t have stopped himself from kissing her if he tried.

He wasn’t sure when they moved to the couch, only that she was still in his arms. And if asked, he wouldn’t be able to say whose idea it was to move their dinner to the bed. Everything was cold, but it all tasted fantastic spread over thick slices of crusty bread.

There was more wine, and the decanter never seemed to empty—some time magic enchantment that he didn’t care to question.

And at some point, after they’d exchanged more words and more kisses—after she’d curled into his side and her limbs had become tangled with his as she drifted off to sleep, he finally allowed himself to close his eyes, safe in the knowledge that this wasn’t a dream.

That the nightmare had finally come to an end.