Page 73 of Evermore

Paesha.

Ever the beauty, ever the storm. The most ferocious of every version of her. The most beautiful. The strongest and also, perhaps, the weakest. She paced like a wounded animal, each movement fracturing my reality. Her movements were full of shadows that weren’t shadows at all. They were Remnants. From what Tuck and I had gathered, broken pieces of her past lives trying to claw their way out through her mind.

My knees nearly gave out. Alastor’s bargain mark blazed as I fought every instinct to go to her, to gather her against my chest and burn away whatever was tearing her apart. Blood welled beneath my fingernails as my fists clenched and something primal stirred within me. A god was never meant to see his soulmate, his Ever, suffer. And I’d seen it so many times, my half of our soul was broken. She was the reason.

“The snow never melts.” She reached for phantoms none of us could see. “His promises taste like copper when they break.”

Metal glinted in Alastor’s fingers as he bent to retrieve something from the floor. His eyes fixed on Thea with predatory amusement. “Now, what’s this? Surely you weren’t planning an escape attempt?”

The color drained from Thea’s face.

But Paesha’s descent consumed me wholly.

“Dancing in gardens that died in winter. Stars falling through forever. Nothing but a game. Always a game.”

My chest felt hollow. Carved out. The binding marks might stop me from interfering, but they couldn’t stop my soul from reaching for hers, trying desperately to anchor her to reality. To this moment. To me.

But there was nothing to grab onto. She was fragments and whispers and ancient deaths playing out behind eyes that saw everything and nothing at all.

“He held me while the snow turned red. While the lies bled out.”

“Paesha?” I spoke so quietly, I wasn’t sure a single person in the room heard the word fall from my lips. But she did. She paused. Whipping around to face me, nothing but absolute hatred on her beautiful face.

My heart splintered.

I knew those words. Knew that death. That betrayal. That moment when Ezra’s blade had pushed home in a winter garden eight hundred years ago. Just one of the countless times he’d killed her, countless lives he’d stolen because I could never save her.

“Fingers?” Archer stepped forward, reaching for her.

My heart beat wildly.

Paesha’s head snapped toward Archer, her unfocused eyes sharpening for a moment. “Toes,” she said, her voice carrying an eerie singsong quality. “I can dance on toes, but the dragon huffed and puffed and blew the house down. Down, down, down.”

Archer stepped closer, his hand outstretched. “Paesha, it’s me. It’s Archer. I’m here.”

A flicker of recognition passed over her face, like a cloud parting to reveal a sliver of sunlight. Her lips curved into a small, fragile smile. “Archer.” His name was a sigh on her lips. “You came. You always will, won’t you? Until I’m free?”

Jealousy, hot and bitter, surged through me as I watched their exchange. The way she looked at him, the familiarity and trust in her gaze, it cut me to the bone. In all her lifetimes, all our stolen moments, had she ever looked at me like that? With such pure, uncomplicated affection? I couldn’t remember. I could never remember anything but the bliss, followed by the heartache. I deserved this. I needed to see how much easier things could be for her without me.

I would love her in madness. I would stand beside her, still. But maybe she needed him. Not me. Life, not death. Light, not dark. Still, I wanted to rip Archer away from her, to snarl that she was mine, that he had no right to the tenderness she showed him so freely. But I held myself back, muscles coiled tight as a spring. This wasn’t about me. It was about her. About bringing her back from the brink of madness.

And then maybe it was about letting go.

Alastor’s hand fell on my shoulder like a brand. “Come. Let’s step outside and discuss… productive solutions.”

I followed him into the hall because I had no choice. Because watching her shatter was worse than any torture he could devise. Because the bargain mark burned with the truth of my helplessness.

His facade dropped the moment the door closed. “She’s too far gone. The voices are consuming her. Soon there will be nothing left but shadows and broken memories.”

“If you think threatening her life will?—”

“This isn’t a threat, Keeper. This is a fact.” He stepped closer, voice dropping. “Look at her. Really look. The power she stole was never meant for mortal minds. It’s eating her alive. She’s not meant to be caged. Or controlled for that matter. Though many will try.”

“Many who sit at your fucking table.”

He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “Some, perhaps. But if they sit at my table, it’s my choice to feed them or not.” He smiled. A brutish, cocky smile that made me want to punch his fucking teeth into his godsdamn throat. “I can free her. I can and will withdraw the marks that make her mine, Keeper, though I’ve certainly been advised not to. Your brother can be quite persuasive. But I’m a man of my word and all it will cost you is one small favor.”

I already knew. Already felt the weight of his words settling around my throat like a noose.