Page 50 of The Arrow and the Alder

A lder was losing the fight. Hate was like an inferno inside of him, and though he tried to hold it in, to press it down as he had for so long, it would not be contained. Not this time. It strengthened with every word the witch spoke.

No, not a witch. A Fate. He understood that now. Nothing else could have commanded him thus—could have overwhelmed his mother and put this demon inside of him—except a god.

His…master.

Yes, that was it. She was his master and his mistress. His queen and his goddess .

Yes.

Yesssssssss .

The heat was delicious. It seared through his bones, through sinew and muscle—contained by this weak shell that had bound him for too long. He needed to break free. Do as his goddess commanded, and tear out the star’s little heart.

Star.

His thoughts, unwieldy as they were, snagged on that one word. It was like a distant flicker in the darkness, a point of calm amidst this tumultuous sea of rage and bloodlust. He tried to rip himself from it—it was a distraction from his mission.

But he could not look away.

He did not want to look away.

Alder…fight this! Come back to me!

Those were not the words of his goddess and master, they were?—

Alder shook his head violently. The darkness disappeared, his vision cleared, and he was gazing across the rubble, at her.

Josephine .

She was lying on her back upon the floor, crying—why was she crying? And his cousin was kneeling over her as Josephine tried to hold the blade in Evora’s hands at bay.

“Alder, please…” Josephine cried, looking only at him.

Her eyes were so blue, like the summer sky and deep as the sea. He remembered that she’d never seen the sea until they’d been crossing the moors by Peressian.

That he had wanted to take her there.

His thigh suddenly burned white-hot, he cried out, and darkness consumed him again. He was drowning in it, blood and black, and he found himself looking for that little light again, the place of calm.

It’s what she’d been in his life, since the day he’d met her.

Light. Hope.

A chance at a new life. One that he wanted to spend with her . But he didn’t know how to get back to her…

And then so softly he almost didn’t hear it, that little light broke through the darkness again: Alder, please come back to me. I love you.