Page 154 of Evermore

“But we still met,” I said, the pieces falling into place. “Aeris. She made sure of it.”

“Yes. And you did, in fact, fall in love.” His face was carefully neutral, but I could see the pain beneath. “I believe Aeris had been trying to warn him about our bargain. But because he couldn’t remember, she failed. So she went to Death and asked him to interfere. He gave his Maiden Ezra’s name. When Death collected Ezra from Requiem, he took him to his realm. Aeris likely thought leaving this realm would free him. But it didn’t. My power was absolute. Desperate even.”

He turned to me finally, taking my free hand in his. “I knew several things. Your soul couldn’t stay in Death’s Court when I found you. It was dying through that realm, which meant it would have been the end of you. But I thought you loved him. And I was willing to give you that peace. But then I saw him grab your arm. He put his hands on you and that was the end of my resolve. From one second to the next, I wasn’t strong enough to sit by. And when you stepped through to Wisteria, he chasedyou. But when he came into contact with the Arulean Gate, his memories came back and here we are.”

The silence that followed was heavy. I moved away from the display, needing distance from the physical reminders of all these lives I couldn’t remember. My hands shook as I tried to process the enormity of what he’d told me.

“You bargained with my final life,” I repeated, the words falling between us like stones.

“I was trying to save you,” he said quietly. “I couldn’t bear to lose you again. Not forever.”

I shook my head, stepping farther away from him. “Do you have any idea what it feels like to accept that your entire existence, your choices, your loves, even your deaths, have been orchestrated by others? That gods have been playing with your soul like it’s a toy they can’t share?” I shook my head, dragging in a burning breath. “I’m not even mad at you. I hear the words you’re saying and I know you thought you were doing the right thing. But gods, Thorne. When do you learn to let go? I’m the one paying the price for your decisions, can’t you see that? Over and over again.”

He reached for me and I let him, though I couldn’t feel his hands on my cheeks. Only the numbness. Always that. “I’ve learned more in the last six months than I have in all my time. You lead and I follow. Please see that.” He pulled me closer. “See me, too. I never manipulated your feelings for me. I orchestrated certain circumstances, but what grew between us, what’s growing still, that was real. It’s always been real.”

I wanted to believe him. Gods help me, I wanted to trust that this one thing in my life wasn’t built on lies. But how could I know for sure? How could I separate what was genuine from what was part of this game?

“I need space,” I said finally, stepping away. “I need time to process all of this. To figure out what it means for me—for us.”

He nodded, that careful neutrality back in place, though I could see it cost him. “Of course.”

“I’m not saying never,” I clarified, because despite everything, I couldn’t bear to leave him with no hope at all. “I’m saying not right now. Not until I’ve had time to think.”

“I understand.” He made no move to approach me, respecting the distance I’d put between us. “Take all the time you need. I’ve waited lifetimes for you, Paesha. I can wait a little longer.”

The simplicity of the statement, the raw honesty in it, made my chest ache. I turned away, not wanting him to see the tears threatening to spill. The Remnants formed a path for me, guiding me back through the theater toward the exit.

As I reached the door, I paused, looking back at him. He stood motionless on the stage, surrounded by the fragments of our shared past, the moonlight casting him in silver and shadow. He looked both powerful and vulnerable, a god brought to his knees by love.

“Thank you,” I said softly. “For telling me the truth.”

“Always,” he promised. “From now on, always.”

48

Paesha

Iwalked out of the theater with my heart in tatters, pieces of it scattered among the relics of lives I couldn’t remember. The night air hit my face like a slap, a welcome jolt of reality after drowning in the truth. The streets of Silbath were empty, as they had been since I’d come back to this city.

I made it halfway down the street when I felt it, the shift in the air, the subtle weight of being watched. Remnants stirred across my arms, their warnings a chorus of hisses at the edges of my consciousness.

Danger.

Death.

Run.

I froze, hand drifting to where Harlow’s blade now rested at my hip. I should have brought Levanya’s sword. Dammit. The shadows around me deepened, pooling like ink at my feet as I scanned the darkness.

He stepped out of the gloom like he’d been carved from it, familiar and foreign all at once. Ezra. Thorne’s twin, with the same face that had haunted my dreams, but his eyes were colder, harder than I’d ever remembered them being. I’d loved himonce. Or so I thought. Until I loved Thorne. Until my soul had been connected to its Ever, apparently.

“Hello, Huntress,” he said, his voice a perfect echo of his brother’s, yet devoid of the warmth that made Thorne’s cadence so beautifully, distinctly his. “It’s been too long.”

My fingers closed around the hilt of my dagger. “Not long enough.”

He smiled a predator’s grin. “I suppose that depends on your perspective. Time has a funny way of bending around us, doesn’t it? So many lives lived, so many deaths endured, and here we are again. The final act. Though I must say, the opening was my favorite part.”

“You fell in love with me,” I said, hardly believing the words that fell out of my mouth.