Chapter 61 A Deal is a Deal
A DEAL IS A DEAL
I hammered at the door.
The wood shuddered but held. I pounded until my fists ached and my voice cracked from screaming. The guards didn’t answer, not even to order me to stop.
I backed away, chest heaving. The chair. I grabbed it and swung it into the desk. Glass shattered. Ink splattered the carpet. I swept my arm across his worktable, sending journals and instruments crashing to the floor.
I stood in the wreckage, my hands shaking. He could come back any second. I needed a weapon. A plan. Something. The fireplace poker. I lunged for it—
Footsteps outside the door.
The lock clicked. Vaeris stepped inside.
He glanced at the overturned furniture, the broken glass, the ink bleeding into his carpet, and closed the door behind him.
No.
He should’ve pinned me to the wall and snarled about the mess. Instead he looked…resigned, and it made me bite my lip until it throbbed.
He raked a hand through his hair. “You asked me what I planned to do with you.”
I took a step back. Kairos.
“You’ll stay here,” Vaeris said firmly. “You’ll help me manage the dragons…the political fallout. I need a Speaker to interpret their speech.”
My stomach hollowed out. “No.”
“I can’t keep another king’s mate.” His voice was as hollow as his gaze. “And I can’t let you go. Hence my dilemma.”
Ice slid down my spine.
Kairos, please.
Vaeris let out a tense breath. “As long as you’re bonded to him, you are a liability.”
My blood chilled. “What?”
“You don’t intend to betray anyone. I know that.” His mouth twisted. “But the bond doesn’t care what you mean to do.”
I shook my head. “I just want—”
“He feels everything inside you. Your fear. Your pain. Your relief. He knows where you are. When you’re close to something important. When you’re afraid.”
I didn’t answer.
“And it works both ways,” he continued. “Which means anything you learn here, you’ll carry straight to him.” His gaze sharpened. “You’re a door he can walk through whenever he likes.”
“That’s not fair! I didn’t choose this.”
“I can’t give you back to him.” He began to pace. “You broke a seal that held gods. You speak to dragons. Your sister can amplify runes. Together, the two of you are a force no realm can afford to ignore.”
I licked my dry lips. “We don’t—”
“And you’re bonded to a king who answers to no one.” He stopped in front of me, his eyes burning. “If that bond remains, every realm will unite against him. Against you. Not because you’re evil, but because Kairos will be unstoppable.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“They will call it balance,” Vaeris growled. “They will say they had no choice.”
“Then let me leave! I’ll take Rheya and go. We won’t be anyone’s threat.”
Vaeris smiled sadly. “You already are.”
Kairos!
“I’m calling in our deal,” Vaeris said calmly. “I kept your sister safe. I honored my terms, and now you will honor yours.”
The magic closed around my body.
“Break the mating bond.”
My knees buckled as the deal controlled my will, squeezing, demanding. It didn’t care that I was screaming inside.
Kairos.
The bond flared in response—warm, desperate, confused. I felt him reaching for me, his alarm spiking.
Aelie? What’s happening? Where are you?
I’m in Skalgard.
Everything on his end was disordered. Pain. Darkness. The sensation of a mattress under his cheek.
Fuck, you’re with Vaeris. Hold on. I’m coming.
I pressed my fingers against the rune, the mating bond I’d barely discovered. Gold threaded with crimson, pulsing with his heartbeat alongside mine. The most precious gift I’d ever been given.
Vaeris faced the wall, his shoulders slumped.
“Don’t do this,” I begged him. “Please. I’ll be your Speaker. I’ll help you with the dragons, the courts, whatever you want. Just don’t—”
“Don’t take the one thing you actually care about?”
“Yes.”
He kept his back to me, like looking at me would fracture him.
“I love him.” My voice splintered. “I loved him before I knew what we were.”
“The bond came first.”
“No, I swear. I fell for him.”
“It’s magic.” His voice softened. “It rewrites your heart—all your desires. You didn’t notice. That’s how they work. By the time you feel it, you’re already drowning.”
I shook my head. “That’s not true.”
Vaeris rubbed his jaw, sighing. “He let you believe it was choice, but the magic had its teeth in you from the start. Trust me. I’ve seen what they do.”
“I’m happy.” Tears streamed down my face. “And you want to take that from me? Rip out the best thing that’s ever happened to me?”
His fingers curled against the desk. “You’re a weapon I can’t afford to lose.”
“Is this how you prove you’re more powerful than them?” I asked quietly. “By choosing what gets sacrificed?”
He didn’t look at me.
“Break the mating bond. Now.”
The command echoed in my head, digging its claws into me. The deal demanded I break the bond, but it didn’t specify how much.
I can’t fight it. He’s making me. I’m sorry.
Aelie. His voice broke. Whatever happens, I will find you. Do you understand? I will tear apart the realms until I’m holding you again.
Kairos—
Tell me you believe me.
I believe you.
Tell me you love me.
I love you. The words caved in my chest. I love you so much it terrifies me.
Then hold onto that. His fierce presence wrapped around me. No matter what he does. That part of us, he can’t touch. It’s ours.
I was sobbing now. I can’t lose you.
You won’t. Then, softer: You’re carved into me, deeper than any magic.
I’m sorry, I whispered. I’m so sorry.
Don’t be. Survive, and I’ll do the rest.
I pressed my fingers into the mating bond rune, and fell.
The world vanished into infinite golden light. It stretched in all directions—threads upon threads, woven together in patterns that hurt to look at. Some glowed bright. Others were dimmer.
Aelie? Kairos’s baritone, all around me.
I reached for the nearest thread and—
A boy with silver hair scrambled up a tree, laughing. Below, a fae female called his name. He climbed higher, wanting to fly.
The memory released me and I gasped. A thread brushed my fingers and—
He was older. Kneeling in blood, his wings shattered—
I grabbed another.
A century of darkness. Commands he couldn’t disobey. The slow death of hope, year by year, until nothing remained but rage. And then snow. A human girl with dark hair, standing her ground.
I saw myself through his eyes. Felt his confusion, the irritation, the desperate need to understand why this fragile creature made his dead heart stutter.
Her laugh in the library. The way she argued with him. The smell of her hair. The softness of her skin. The first time she said his name. Mine, something whispered in him. Mine, mine, mine.
I was weeping. The threads pulsed, golden and crimson, beating with two hearts that had learned to sync. This was us, woven together into such a beautiful tapestry, it made my chest ache. And I had to break it.
Aelie, I can feel you in here.
I-I can see your whole life.
I’m not ashamed of any of it. Not anymore.
The compulsion squeezed. Vaeris’s command echoed through the space, poisonous and wrong. Break the mating bond.
No, I sobbed. No, I can’t.
You have to. His voice gentled. Find a thread that won’t kill us.
I don’t want to hurt you.
You won’t. You could never.
I moved deeper into the bond, searching. The threads here were thicker—love, trust, the things that made us. I couldn’t touch those. I wouldn’t survive it. There. A thinner thread, pulsing faintly, that carried his words into my mind.
This one?
Yes. He sounded wrecked. That one.
I won’t be able to hear you.
His presence pressed closer. You’ll just have to find me the old-fashioned way.
I laughed through my tears. I love you.
I love you too. Now do it. Before he realizes what you’re doing.
I gripped the thread, and the light flickered. Somewhere far away, I heard myself scream.
And I pulled.
Thank you for taking this journey and staying until the very last page!