Page 61 of Antiletum

Stalking towards Delaney, she retreats until her back is flush with a wall. My arms cage her in, our stares locked together. “My father was a great man who I loved very much. I would be nothing without all he did for me. And Irefuseto hear anyone speak ill of him.” Delaney doesn’t flinch at my anger. “Not even you.”

Both our breaths heave, mingling in the infinite, too close space between us. An insurmountable chasm that I’ve cleaved, and I’m starting to fear I may not be able to mend it. Claws of desperation rip at me, wanting to drop this fight. To hug my wife tight to my body. Tell her I’m sorry. Beg her to forgive me. Remind her that I can fix this.

Delaney composes herself first, tone quiet and voice shaky. “Don’t worry, Val. I’ll help you honor his memory in a way that would make him proud.”

Ice slithers down my spine. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You want to raise the other Heartstones, right?”

“That’s not what this is about.”

Make her understand. I scream at myself to do so, but I can’t force my tongue to form the words.

Delaney laughs, tired and sad, eyes shining. “Isn’t it? It’s okay, Val. All your hard work isn’t for nothing. I’ll help you bring them back. I’ll help you fulfill the purpose ofSuredeis. I want to.”

Worry clogs my throat, making it difficult to speak. “And why would you do that? After everything? Why would you willingly help?”

Dread weighs me, hoping she doesn’t answer.

The tree in my chest is defeated at this point. Mangled and tangled in wire. Hanging on by splinters from all the ways my wife keeps chopping it with her cruel hatchet. Maybe she will douse it in accelerant, strike a match, and laugh as I free fall into misery while she burns the fucker down.

One can hope.

“Because maybe then I’ll be able to find a way to free myself from you.” Delaney glances over at the silver ring on my left hand. Her meaning washes over me, the prickly sensation of panic fizzling to life fully behind my lungs.

I pop away from the wall.

“No.”

I shake my head, backing away more. Breathing hard. Too hard. About to be sick. The silence that meets me is too loud and overwhelming. I notice now that our audience left somewhere along the way.

“No. That’s not going to happen. You’re my wife. And I’m your husband. And we belong to each other. It won’t happen.”

Delaney takes a determined step towards me. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to try.”

My eyes widen, her actions of the day making a heartbreaking amount of sense. My wife wants to play her part until we achieve the overall goal ofSuredeis. What I have dedicated my life to in order to serve my own means. Only to cancel them out in the end.

Delaney wants to resurrect Heartstones. Raisedeos. And plead for the severing of ourvinculumbond. Beyond our magic.

“Then I won’t fucking do it,” I hiss.

This takes her off guard. Silence bloats between us.

“What?” she whispers. Utterly shocked by my changed stance.

“I won’t go through with it. I’ll never use necromancy again, with you or otherwise, until the day I die if you think it’ll force me to let you go.”

Indignation, disbelief, maybe a little bit of humor comes to life in Delaney’s expression. “You would give up everything you’ve worked for, the whole point of murdering my family to have me here with you, just to keep me as your wife?”

“If you truly think Heartstones is all this has been about for me, thenyou’re not paying attention,” I practically snarl. Mindless. “But I suppose I already knew that.”

16

The owl equivalent of a kiss

Delaney

“Have you spoken to him yet?” Selise asks me several days after mine and Val’s fight, taking my arm as we exit a lavish dining room. Away from both the Lord’s andAlter’s apartments. Just the two of us.