Chapter 29
Viri’s memory faded like a dream, her mind rearranging to accommodate everything she’d just recalled and reconciling it with what happened next.
The Nox arriving. Sarielle comforting the shell-shocked Viri before inviting her into her home.
The High Council asking questions that Viri struggled to answer, unable to believe her parents were dead despite having seen Braedan standing over them with blackened veins; unable to believe Reeve had abandoned her when she’d needed him most, fleeing with her murderous brother and leaving her alone in her grief.
Only now, Viri knew none of that was real.
The garden rematerialized around her, the bioluminescent trees and flowers glittering at the edges of her vision, the fountain bubbling softly into the pond, the glowmoths fluttering through the air, and Reeve—
He was exactly where she’d last seen him: standing in front of her, his arms still circling her waist, holding her, supporting her, protecting her.
Just as he always had.
Reaper, monster, killer—none of those things were true. They never had been.
“The girl you killed,” Viri had asked him mere hours ago, “do you regret it?”
“No,” he’d answered. “I don’t regret siphoning from her.”
A tear dribbled down Viri’s cheek. Then another. Soon her eyes were flooded with them, but she didn’t utter a sound, crying silently as she held Reeve’s understanding gaze.
He’d saved her life.
He’d never abandoned her.
And she’d—she’d—
She’d forgotten.
She’d believed he was a monster.
She’d hated him for it.
And he’d let her, saying nothing in his own defense, knowing she wouldn’t trust anything he said.
Her tears continued falling like rivers down her face, until slowly, ever so slowly, Reeve leaned forward and kissed them away.
“It’s not your fault,” he whispered against her skin. “None of it is.”
He was wrong—all of it was her fault, even the parts she didn’t understand. Especially those parts.
He kept saying the words over and over, one hand rubbing her back and the other wiping her tears away until, finally, they began to ease. Her mind was a jumbled mess that seemed impossible to untangle, but there was one thing she needed to say, her words coming out rough with emotion.
“You didn’t want to leave me.”
“No,” Reeve said, brushing her tear-damp hair behind her ears. “But you asked me to. And you were right—Brae needed me, more than either of us realized.”
“Does he—” Her voice broke. “Does he hate me?”
Reeve’s arms tightened around her, his expression turning fierce in the moonlight. “Never, Viri. Everything he’s done is because he loves you, and he’d do it again in an instant. We both would.”
Another tear dribbled down her cheek, and Reeve caught it with his thumb.
Viri closed her eyes at the tenderness of his touch, unable to resist leaning forward to rest her head against his chest, his heart beating steadily beneath her ear as she wrapped herself fully around him. She had so many questions, and yet, all she could do was whisper, “I missed you.”
“You have no idea,” he returned hoarsely, pulling her even closer, until there was no space left between them.
“Every day, every minute, every second of the last seven years, all I thought about was finding my way back to you. And now that you’re here, standing in my arms, I’m terrified I’m going to wake up and realize this is all a dream. ”
Viri swallowed against the lump in her throat. She drew back slightly, but only far enough to look at his beautiful face. “If it is, then I’m dreaming, too. And I never want to wake up.”
Reeve’s eyes softened at her admission. But then a hint of familiar wryness touched his features. “Finally something we can agree on.”
Despite the torrent of emotions she was feeling, Viri couldn’t keep her mouth from quirking upward. “A miracle.”
As if he could sense how desperate she was to not fall back into her despair just yet, Reeve’s tone shifted into something lighter, something more conversational.
“Speaking of miracles,” he mused, “for a while there, I feared I might need one of those. But I think I’m going to be all right now that your memories are restored. ”
Viri’s brow furrowed, not following. “What?”
“In fact,” he went on, as if she hadn’t spoken, “I’d go as far as to say it’ll be almost too easy for me to prove you wrong.”
Viri’s confusion only grew. “About what?”
Reeve’s lips curled up at the edges—the only warning she had for what he was about to say next.
“When we were in the Summit, you swore there would never come a time when you’d ask me to kiss you again.
” Her breath hitched in surprise—and something else entirely—causing his smile to widen.
“We both know you were struggling to keep your word when you hated me, but now…” His eyes sparkled knowingly in the moonlight.
“Let’s face it. You don’t stand a chance against my vast array of charms.”
Heat touched Viri’s cheeks, but she grabbed on to the reprieve he was offering and squinted incredulously at him. “Vast array of charms?” Her squint deepened. “Who’s been lying to you?”
A delighted laugh left him, his relief at having helped ease her pain clear to see—and soothing something deep within her. “That hurts, Little Shadow.”
“The truth often does,” she said. But then she added, “You deserved it. We were having a moment, and you ruined it.” She would be forever thankful that he had, that he’d known her well enough to give her exactly what she’d needed, just like always. But even so…
Reeve arched a brow. “A moment?”
“We were sharing our feelings,” Viri said. “Something that’s clearly a foreign concept to you.”
His brow arched higher. “I’m pretty sure my prediction that we’ll be making out again in the near future is covered under the topic of ‘feelings.’ ”
Viri rolled her eyes. “So presumptuous.”
He smirked. “Am I wrong?”
She pressed her lips together and looked away.
Reeve chuckled, knowing he had her. But then he sobered again and trailed his fingers across her dried tear tracks, quietly asking, “Better?”
Viri swallowed and nodded. She wanted to stay in the lighthearted bubble he’d just given her forever, forgetting everything she’d remembered about her parents, her brother, and the Reaper Lord, forgetting the threat of the Aurora Comet hanging over their heads and how they still needed to figure out how to save Jessalyn and the other children—and the city.
She wanted to stay in this magical garden with Reeve’s silver eyes locked on hers…
Just as she wanted to utter those two words he already knew she was longing to say: Kiss me.
But she couldn’t do it—not yet. Because as much as she wished she could ignore the questions nudging at her mind, they were becoming more insistent with every passing second.
When she and Reeve finally kissed again, she wanted no distractions, and that wouldn’t be possible unless she received some answers first.
Clearing her throat, she eased away slightly and made herself say, “I need to understand what happened that day. What went wrong with the obelisk? How am I alive if you siphoned from me? Why didn’t your veins turn black?
Why could I see reaper veins at all?” She ticked the questions off her fingers, finishing with, “And what does the Reaper Lord want with me?”
Reeve’s gaze slid past her shoulder just as a warning seared across her palm. “I think someone else would like to explain.”
Viri turned to find Braedan walking across the courtyard toward them, looking apprehensive enough that she half expected him to bolt back into the castle. But he continued striding forward, his torn green cloak billowing behind him until he halted beside the pond where she stood with Reeve.
For a long moment, no one spoke, the tension so thick that even the glowmoths kept their distance.
“I’ll just…go for a wander,” Reeve said, glancing between the two siblings.
“It’s not every day I get to explore an ancient magical castle.
” That was true, though he couldn’t have been more obvious about giving them privacy.
“Come find me when you’re done, and we’ll make a plan to stop the sacrifice. ”
Viri only had a second to note Braedan’s nervous but grateful look before her focus was wholly diverted when Reeve leaned in and pressed a whisper-soft kiss to her temple.
She sucked in a startled breath, and then shivered when he murmured into her ear, “I won’t be far if you need me.
” His hand trailed down her side until his fingers twined with hers, squeezing once.
“Whatever happens in the days ahead, that’ll always be true.
No matter how dark the shadows seem, you’ll never be alone in them. I promise.”
There was a strange weight to his words, and an even stranger expression on his face before he wiped it clear, his emotions passing too quickly for Viri to read them all, but she could have sworn she saw uncertainty, dread, and even a hint of despair.
They were gone again in an instant, though, replaced by an encouraging look as he prodded her toward Braedan, then turned on his heel and left the glowing courtyard, vanishing between a pair of pillars back into the castle.
The silence was even more tense with Reeve gone, enough that Viri hugged her elbows, having no idea what to say.
Braedan had sacrificed seven years of his life for her, and the whole time, she’d been hunting him, consumed by her desire for vengeance over something he’d never done.
She wasn’t sure whether to leap into his arms and sob her gratitude, or curl into an ashamed ball while begging for his forgiveness.
She settled on something in between, blurting out the words that had been bubbling within her ever since her memory had returned. Only, she wasn’t alone in saying them, both she and Braedan speaking at once.
“I’m sorry.”
Viri’s mouth dropped open. “What are you sorry for?”