Page 28

MINE

GAVREL

B ewildered, we abandoned Hallowed End as the last of Phantasos’ twinkling embers faded. We were apparitions in the night, depleted of words and lost to one another in revelations.

We exchanged somber goodbyes and plans to meet the next day before everyone went their separate ways. With dazed eyes and rigid shoulders, Seryn shuffled over the planks, and I shadowed her, ready to catch her if she fell.

But she didn’t.

She never crumbled.

Just kept taking each step until we arrived at our lodging.

After we entered, she moved without thinking, undressing completely and plaiting her hair as she stared into the darkness outside our window. I slipped one of my tunics over her naked body.

As I pushed the beds together, the scrape of wood on wood permeated the air. Wordlessly, she took my hand as she sank onto the mattress, and I settled behind her, wrapping her in my embrace .

“I’m here, Little Star,” I whispered into her hair, nuzzling into it. She nestled into me.

“She’s … she’s the bloody raven. Always a raven following …”

“Close your eyes. I’ll be here when you wake,” I murmured, hugging her closer.

After a while, the faint trembling of her body subsided. A relieved exhale left me, and with my next breath, her sweet, air-soaked scent filled my lungs.

“What if I’m a Scion?” The words were so faint, I questioned whether I’d heard them. Heart thumping, my jaw stiffened. If she were a Scion, then she’d be in more danger than I initially thought.

“Then so be it. I’ll be beside you on whatever journey you decide to take.” My arm tightened around her.

“But the Fates?—”

“Damn the bloody Fates. You are who you choose to be.”

Her back shook against me with a sardonic chuckle. “What if I ran away and pretended this was all a nightmare? Would you follow me then?”

I kissed the top of her head. “You know I would. But you won’t. You’ve never run from anything in your life. Even when I asked.” A stupid grin spread across my face before drifting away in our silence.

The sound of water lapping at the base of the tree wafted through the window.

Her fingers brushed against my forearm, and then stilled. “Would you hunt me if I ran? Like the others?”

My pulse lurched, and I propped myself on my elbow, my upper body slanting a bit over her. She tucked her lips into a tight line, giving me only her profile.

“Asteria,” I growled. Still, she refused to look at me.

Gently, I cupped her chin and turned her face until her gaze met mine.

“Need I remind you? I’d go to the depths of the Nether Void to find you.

” Her chin wobbled under my touch. “But I’d sooner face the Ancient of Nightmares than hunt you for any other purpose than your rescue. ”

A whimper fell from her lips, and her eyelids fluttered close. I leaned into her and slanted my mouth against hers, my fingers resting against her jaw. She breathed deeply and pressed her warm lips into mine.

Her pulse scampered under my fingertips. Our tongues danced and caressed each other’s for a few moments as I poured all my unspoken vows into our kiss.

A reluctant moan vibrated in my chest as I pulled away and rubbed my thumb along the underside of her jawline. I gazed into the glacial blue of her eyes, hoping everything I felt was sinking into their depths.

Into her .

Softly, I placed one more kiss on her lips before sinking down to the bed, my back melting into the mattress.

Within a few moments, she rotated in my arms and placed one hand on my chest. Her thumb stroked over the fabric of my tunic—over the thick scar above my heart.

“I know you’d never hurt me. I … I just want to understand what you went through. Why you had to do her bidding. And I’m … I’m scared.” She swallowed as if the word was repugnant and stuck on her tongue. “So damned scared .”

A tiny fissure splintered within me. Warily, Seryn looked up, and a stray tendril drifted over her cheek. I tucked it behind her ear and then covered her hand with mine as she snuggled her face into the crook of my shoulder.

My heartbeat thundered so violently that it pulsed through both our palms. I wanted her to know. Needed her to understand. Even if it meant exposing all the revolting, weak parts of me.

Even if it unveiled my failures.

My thumb brushed over her hand, back and forth like the pendulum of a ticking clock. My nostrils flared as I dug into the darkest recesses of my mind. Unearthing the buried nightmares I kept so tightly packed down.

Briefly, my lips rubbed together before my story tumbled from me.

“When I joined the Order, I was looking for something I could never have. Something I was …” I glanced at the top of Seryn’s head, and th en back to the splintered ceiling panels.

“… I was missing. But then my mother was culled, and Pa died. Honestly, the first couple of turns are a blur. Early on, Melina took an interest in me. She claims we were lovers during the Dormancies, before my rune, and I … I can’t say that we weren’t … ”

Seryn’s fingers flinched against my chest. Crushing my eyes together, I gulped. “The thought of it repulses me even now. To think I was that weak.” My molars ground together as a memory from five turns ago played across the backs of my eyelids.

“Aren’t you appealing?” Melina purred, running her pointed nails over my new rune tattoo.

“It’ll be much more enjoyable now that you remember our time together, Commander.

Don’t I deserve a thank you for such a priceless gift?

You used to thank me all the time, in any way I saw fit.

” She cupped my jaw, her nails like lancets when I tried to jerk from her hold.

“You were always my favorite playmate. Don’t you realize?

You’re the only one—alive—I can’t get inside.

I need to pick you apart, bit by bit, until I break into that thick, beautiful skull of yours. ”

I gulped, willing the recollection away.

“You were grieving. Seeking comfort isn’t a failure.”

I humphed, disgust simmering in my gut. “Once I had my rune and senses back, her gifts didn’t work on me anymore.

Who knows how often she tried to use her ember on me before then, but it never worked because”—a searing pain sliced through my chest, and I winced—“Well, I wasn’t interested in bedding her, and she couldn’t break into my mind.

So, she devised ways to control me. Unfortunately, my weakness was my brother. And you .”

Seryn shifted against me, but her hand didn’t leave the spot over my heart. A soothing warmth spread from the places our bodies met.

“Every turn, she threatened to harm you and Kaden. To erase your minds. To torture and break you if I didn’t hunt down potential Scions.

I did my best to delay or feign a failed mission, but that only infuriated her more.

” My pulse ticked in my clenched teeth. I stretched my jaw in a circle to loosen its hinges.

“She had Balor tie me down with his aura and demanded I watch as she fucked random citizens, or tortured them in unspeakable ways, or both . If I struggled or refused …” My memories dribbled over my words like sticky blood.

I went inside myself, not sure if I continued to speak the words aloud to Seryn …

I sat on her silken settee, Balor’s greasy ember strapping me to my seat, his pungent, hot breath heaving against my ear. He enjoyed watching. Excited and straining his soft body at the back of the divan.

Melina wrapped her naked body in a black satin robe, her latest victim wrapped in a sheet at the foot of the bed.

I slammed my eyelids closed, trying to erase the scene I’d just witnessed.

“Now, Commander. You know how I loathe it when you don’t pay attention.

Eyes on me, so you remember that it could be your attractive brother in my bed.

Or that sweet, doe-eyed girl you’re so fond of. ”

My teeth were going to crush within my mouth. I snapped my eyes open, boiling revulsion flashing over them as I glared at her.

She laughed, tapping her fingers along her chin and spinning to the dazed male. She’d stolen his memories as she came.

“Now, now. Balor, what shall we do with this one?”

I heard the wet lick of his tongue against his lips. “Mistress, why not the skin peeler?”

She clapped her hands in delight, trotting over to her vanity and plucking out a long, thin blade. “Balor, always such a good pet.” She winked at me before strutting toward the man. “Eyes on me, Gavie. Although it was fun to fuck you. It’s more fun to make you watch.”

The echoes of her victim’s screams bounced through my skull as I came back to the present.

“Then she’d wipe her abuses clean from their minds afterward. Send them to her healer Akridais. I …”

Shallow breaths spilled from me, and I clamped my eyes shut and squeezed Seryn closer.

“I couldn’t stop her. Couldn’t break free.

After a while, it was easier to go into this …

into this hidden space within my mind until it was over.

It was better to do as she wished and hunt for whoever she demanded.

As long as it wasn’t my brother. As long as it wasn’t you. ”

Seryn’s sob rent the air, and her arm coiled around me tightly. “I’m so sorry. I … She’s going to pay. I swear it.” She breathed my name, he r hand moved to my chest once more as if checking my heart still beat under the weight of my admissions.

“She tortured them. The hunted. The potential Scions. I don’t know what she did with them after, but I … I can only hope they were offered the solace of death.” My words sank into my gut, disgust carving deeply. And I deserved it.

I brought her hand to my face, brushing my mouth over her fingertips and closing my eyes, urging the resurfaced nightmares back into the darkness.

Seryn’s touch slid over my cheek, my grip slipping down her wrist. Gently, she pressed her palm into my skin until I looked at her. Her thumb swept across the hollow above my jawline, and a tingling followed its path.