Chapter Twenty Withering #3
Saeldian had control over this realm. They had carried a link to the realm’s power even when they’d left it.
That was why they’d been so strong in the fight against the dire troll.
But Saeldian had awoken in Kell’s bed after deciding to give the others the chance to escape, and that should have broken their oath.
They really should have figured it out sooner. Saeldian knew what they were doing when they told the others to run. But Osalor didn’t seem concerned with Saeldian breaking their pact. Why not?
“I was a child,” Saeldian said. “I had no idea what I agreed to when I made that bargain with you. I never dreamed of this.”
“I know what you dreamed.” Osalor’s fond look used to be enough to make Saeldian thrilled when they had succeeded in lessons. “You told me why you were in the wood. Because you knew better than to stand in the sight of the man who wasn’t your father.”
“He was awful,” Saeldian said. “He hated me because I wasn’t his. My mother hated me because I wasn’t his.”
“Do you remember? It was so sad,” Osalor said. “You wanted nothing more in the world than for them to love you. You were miserable and so afraid.”
“Until I met you. And I had to give you something I didn’t need—love. I promised that I would never love anyone.”
Kell was still frozen with everyone else, but he had to know what that meant.
Osalor rolled in the praise he knew he was owed.
“And weren’t you safe afterward? Didn’t our pact protect you? Are you not beautiful; are you not terrible; are you not heartbreaking to behold?”
He never noticed what Saeldian had said. Osalor had told Saeldian that they were helpful. That they were caring, and clever, and could grow up to be beautiful, and Saeldian, starved all that time for a kind word, had fallen gratefully under his spell.
They had listened to every word, agreed to his bargain, and carried power home in the amulet he had given them.
That was where the magic of Saeldian’s pact was bound, and it was elegant.
Saeldian had to protect it or lose their power.
What better to be the focus of all the magic Osalor granted them?
Saeldian didn’t understand that, though. They knew only that they never again had to fear the man who wasn’t their father. They had someone else to look up to. They worked so hard for Osalor’s praise, and when they met his standards, he gave it.
He had given everything he promised. They had kept their promises too. They kept the amulet safe. They never gave their heart away in love. Whenever that feeling touched Saeldian’s heart, they had left it behind them, every time.
“I am,” Saeldian said. “I am all of those things. Beautiful, and terrible, and heartbreaking.”
The witch, saying, You don’t know, when Saeldian asked her why she didn’t just take the amulet from them when she’d trapped Saeldian with a spell. Not the magic of the pact. The magic of the realm Saeldian had no idea they’d already stolen.
It made sense now.
“And now here you are at last,” Osalor said. “Everything I promised you is yours. This domain is yours to order. There’s only one thing left to do.”
“What is that?”
“Destroy them,” Osalor said. “Destroy the court of Hearthaven’s Repose.”
One last thing. The final proof of their devotion. The proof that Saeldian would do anything for him. Saeldian met Kell’s eyes. Did he trust them?
Did they deserve to be trusted?
“But all this time. It was all for this? You never told me.”
“That’s not important,” Osalor said. “There were things you weren’t ready to know. But you kept the pact. You never wavered.”
Because Saeldian had chosen the power of their pact over everything. The pact that Saeldian had paid for over and over again, no matter how much it hurt.
The pact Saeldian was sure Osalor didn’t know was broken.
The amulet thumped.
Saeldian kept the surprise off their face.
“Accept my bargain,” Osalor said, “and nothing will hurt you again. Your power will no longer depend on me. You will rule all of this, and your power—our power—will grow with every bargain you make.”
Now it made sense. Saeldian would own this domain, but Osalor would still own Saeldian. That was Osalor’s plan. And by the way he smiled, full of triumph and dark pride, he thought their pact still held.
“I did it,” Saeldian said. “I kept your pact above anything else. I always did what I had to do, even when it cost me.”
Osalor looked so proud of Saeldian. His fond gaze was everything Saeldian had ever wanted. “You never wavered once.”
“Never once. And now this one last thing is what I have to do.”
Osalor’s smile widened. “I am so proud of you, my dear. I might be prouder of you than I am of this. My finest work. My triumph. Do it.”
“I will,” Saeldian said.
The amulet thumped as they turned to Kell’s frozen form, his hand outstretched to protect them, and smiled.
“I love you, Kell Redsong,” Saeldian said, “and I don’t care what that costs me.”
Osalor’s smiling praise turned to rage. Saeldian tore the amulet away from their neck and dropped the spell that held everyone frozen.
In the moment that Osalor shouted “No!” and the fey of Hearthaven’s Repose lurched forward in their charge, Saeldian threw the amulet to Ilondrel, who caught it and slammed it onto the clear glass lid of Jadiris’s casket.