Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Ouch. “Yet now you ally with him?”
“A temporary arrangement. A kingdom divided in war will always fall.” Even as his gaze slid from me, he caressed his thumb over my hand. “He offered it to me once, years ago. If I begged for it.”
I could not imagine Sebastian Mórisi begging anyone for anything. “What did you do instead?”
A cold, murderous smile flashed, satisfaction oozing from him. “I only recently delivered my vengeance, wiping out half of his army and letting him believe the primordial did it. Afterward, Jon begged me for a truce.”
Such cunning. He’d turned Jon’s scheme against him. But the patience required to wait to deliver his vengeance must have been staggering.
We paused before a monument set in a recessed alcove. Unlike the primordial artwork, this piece used pale, smooth driftwood. It depicted a kraken queen standing at the edge of a tide-ring, one hand lifted, clutching a rune stone, the other palm braced over her heart. Unarmed and unarmored, yet the tide beneath her feet surged outward, frozen in rock mid-crash, as if obeying her very will alone. Fine lines of light traced the rune, seeming to radiate from her touch.
“Can you hear these?” I asked, curious.
“They are decorations, not real.” He peered at the statue. “This is my mother. Magnificent, wasn’t she?”
My jaw dropped. His mother? “She was beautiful.” Elegance merged with strength.
He breathed deep. “I did not drive out Jokull before. She did. She’s the one who wielded the convergence rune back then. The reason it awoke.” His expression became adoringly soft and terrifyingly lethal. “She did it to save me.” Then his face blanked. “And she died for it.”
I squeezed his hand and pressed closer, resting my head on his shoulder. No words, just comfort.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Everyone assumed I was the one to expel Jokull, and I let them think it. I wanted—need—my shot at the primordial, and seizing the crown was the only way.”
Well, no wonder he didn’t have the rune now. It hadn’t faded from him because it had never been his.
I’d been so sure he’d done the deed, that he’d paid the toll himself. I’d been wrong about the payee.
“My mother welcomed the rune, and it fed her its power. It will do the same for me, but better.” He jutted his chin. “She was frail from hunger and weak from blood loss, and it drained her fast. Jokull, however, operated at full strength. And yet, even still, she was strong enough to spew him from the dome.”
That. That must be the cost. Would it drain Sebastian?
He spotted the question on my face. “I won’t let it drain me.”
Pretty words, but some things couldn’t be controlled. I kept the thought to myself, intending to sit with it before I instigated any kind of debate.
“And you, back then? You were missing a pinky and probably hurting in a thousand other ways.”
His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I helped her as best I could until she took her last breath. I couldn’t save her. This time—” any softness in him vanished “—I will wipe even Jokull’s memory from this realm.”
Aching all over again for the boy he’d been, I flattened my free hand against his chest, just over his thumping heart. “And I will help you.”
“You will.” His gaze dropped to my hand. Something in his expression softened. His fingers curled around mine, then abruptly severed contact with a curse.
Cold rushed in, swamping me, shattering the soft tenderness of the moment. “Sebastian?” I fought both sadness and frustration. This was the same kind of withdrawal he’d executed after the Tideweave. This man despised vulnerability; that much was obvious, even without Lady Harpa’s warning.
He raked his hand through his hair. “My enemies would love to exploit my woman. I cannot count the number of warriors I’ve watched fall because they chose romance over obligation. I will not—cannot—do the same.”
His grandmother was right. The man before me would never want to keep his firebrand long-term. But she was wrong about one thing: minds could be changed, even Sebastian’s.
“I’ve seen the opposite. In Ashmorra, dragon couples thrive, strengthened by their unity. Firebrands—” I said the word out loud, rather than gluing a pretty label over it “—protect each other.”
“Give them time,” he said, his tone bleak. “They’ll fall. They always do.” Head high, he started off without me. “Come. There’s more to see.” He disappeared around a corner.
I stood rooted, wondering how to proceed with him. If I wanted this man, I’d have to fight for him. That much was clear. The belief that love and firebrands were a weakness ran deep. Straight to the trauma he hoped to avenge. The death of his parents. The loss of his finger. But fighting for him meant putting my own heart on the line. Right now, only the mission mattered. After we won, he would offer to set me free from my contract, as our bargain stipulated, but I could say nein. I could maybe… stay.