Chapter Thirteen Bonds and Stones #3
Saeldian was in his arms. They would kiss.
They would dance the last few steps, Kell leading, Saeldian following, right into the suite’s bedchamber, and everything would be the world he’d believed in until he woke up to the truth.
This could be his. All he had to do was…
not listen to that part until it sank under the waves of memory for good.
Just don’t let go, and this was all his.
Dream-Saeldian’s eyelids slipped closed, and they melted into him, caught in the silken net of surrendering for a kiss. Exactly how he knew it would happen. Exactly how he remembered it—not from that night in Baldur’s Gate, but from Lady Elezia’s villa.
This would never be real.
Kell stepped back. He dropped the ball into the bowl. It bumped against Saeldian’s with a soft thump, and he was back in the center of the maze.
The real Saeldian stood on the other side, armored exactly the way Osalor had directed them, wearing the face that Osalor had wanted for them, watching, waiting.
The pendant they always wore, the silver heart made of thorns and brambles, lay slightly off-center, as if they’d been holding it for comfort.
Now Kell understood the stones that had been between them. Now he saw Saeldian the way he couldn’t have back then. It wasn’t their fault he’d fallen in love with them. They couldn’t have done the same.
Saeldian was utterly devoted to their patron. Everything they did was for Osalor, who saw them as nothing but the prettiest weapon in his arsenal. They couldn’t be loyal to anyone but Osalor the Beguiling, who merely assumed that loyalty belonged to him.
Saeldian fidgeted. The light glinted off their amulet. They cleared their throat. “I don’t hate you.”
That was true. “I know.”
“I didn’t rat you out to the Fist.”
That had to be true. “I know. You didn’t intend to sell me out.”
Saeldian relaxed. “I didn’t. I had no idea. If I had, I—”
“Would have escaped that very night,” Kell said. “You would have vanished the moment we were clear. Right?”
Saeldian stepped back. They looked at the leather ball in the bowl, then closed their eyes. “Yes.”
“Why? Why did you leave me?”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
Saeldian swallowed. It hurt to do it; that was all over their perfectly crafted face. One shoulder rose, and they looked back at their leather ball resting in the bowl.
Kell’s throat went tight.
Osalor. He knew it. But it still slid so deftly between his ribs, he didn’t feel the hurt until he gasped. Kell understood. Saeldian loved Osalor. Completely. Helplessly. There was nothing else to say about it.
Kell had faced his heart instead of gloating as Saeldian faced theirs. He couldn’t blame Saeldian for deserting him any more than he could blame a tiger for killing the rabbit that tried to run from its claws.
“I don’t need to hate you, but I don’t need to be your friend, and I don’t have to like you.”
Saeldian’s shoulders sank past relaxed to skim the surface of defeat before they were again standing with the perfect posture that Osalor liked. “I know.”
The pact with Osalor, whatever it was, was everything to Saeldian, and Osalor, no matter how distant, came before anyone. He’d come before Kell. And one day, Jubilee would be next.
But there was bargaining to do. “I can trust your skills. But I have to be able to trust you. And I can’t. I understand what you did, I think. Osalor pulled your leash, and you went running.”
Kell watched it hurt Saeldian and watched them gather up that accepting, infuriating calm. “That’s closer than you know.”
“I know you, Saeldian. I probably know you better than anyone. But I can’t forget what you did. I can’t forget how it felt.”
“Don’t forget how it felt,” Saeldian whispered. One tear slipped from their glittering eyes. “Don’t ever forget that.”
That had to be true.
It hurt to watch that tear fall and to not know why. It hurt to know that Saeldian, here, in this place where they could not lie, was revealing this pain at last.
Kell waited silently. He couldn’t fix this. Nobody could. But Saeldian might never get to cry about this again, and he wouldn’t take it away from them.
When it was over, they swiped at their eyes; they lifted their face. “I understand that you have no reason to believe me. But this I declare, under the sky and its stars—”
What?
Saeldian smiled through the tears in their eyes. “I will not betray you. I will not abandon you. I will help you and your friend get this job done as much as I’m helping my friend Jubilee. You will return to your home. She will save hers from falling. We all win, or nobody wins.”
Tiny lights winked and danced around them. Illusion? No. Not here. The maze’s magic was listening. Saeldian’s vow made fireflies to hold it.
Kell had to answer. “I will not betray you. I will not abandon you. I will help you and your friend get this job done so she can save her home. I will stay with my family, and Lorzok will become brothers with Verandil the way he is with me. We all win, or nobody wins.”
The fireflies wove around them both. Saeldian swiped at their eyes again, then put out their hand. “Shake on it?”
Their grip was firm, and the fireflies became a ribbon of light, leading the way out.
But when they stepped out of the maze, Shuahn rushed forward and grabbed their hands. “What took you so long?” she cried. “There’s no time. Get back in the cottage. Run!”