Epilogue
ROARK
I rubbed the back of my neck, recalling all the moments of a wretched past. Time in Dravenmoor with playmates, a simpler life, a brother.
I winced and closed my eyes. Part of me desired to return to not recalling Nivek. A sharp sort of agony carved through the center of my chest, but within the darker edges of my split soul, rage burned.
I still did not know who killed my brother. There was a new need rising inside me to find his killer, to deliver a bloody fate that was long overdue.
For Nivek’s boldness, for his belief in a feckless younger brother, he’d lost his life. I let my chin drop. He’d lost his life so Lyra could keep hers. The prince said one day we might find each other again, my soul bond. We had, only I was not certain she would still want me.
Not when she learned every truth about me. My soul was divided, but I would be hunted for more. Now that I was free from the control of my clan, Dravenmoor would come. She’d know who I truly was, birthright and betrayal.
Leaves rustled at my back. Blood went cold when I turned around.
Lyra stood a few paces away, awake, weary. Her arms were wrapped around her middle. For a long pause, I did not know what to even say.
Lyra let out a long breath. “I never saw the glow of your form. When I would meld, anyone in the room glowed while in the trance. But not you. I didn’t realize it until now.”
I squared to her body. Only now that everything was clear, that control was mine, did I recall every damn moment her soul found mine in the darkness of the realm of the fallen.
She took a step closer, hesitant, a little angry. “Whenever I went into the mirror, I didn’t see the light of your soul because you were there with me.”
I held out a hand. Lyra jolted. Dammit. She feared me. I curled my fist and pulled back.
Slowly, I spoke with both hands. You did not see the light because it does not exist within me. You were never meant to see my darker pieces.
“So you would’ve gone on lying to me, letting me love you?”
My gaze snapped to her. She loved me?
Lyra did not seem to realize her slip and barreled on. “I told you about how I feared the shadows, how I feared him, how I was drawn to him, and you said nothing.
The deledan was my darker soul. Skul Drek. Gods, I wanted to touch her. It should never have meant anything. You were supposed to be another melder who hunted the bones, who I hunted. Instead you destroyed me.
Another step, then another. I only stopped until our chests touched. Lyra didn’t move away. She didn’t flinch again. I lifted my palm, slowly gesturing the words that my clan stole with my voice that horrid night. Leave me in ruins, I no longer care, as long as it is you.
The silver scars in Lyra’s eyes flashed. “I don’t know what to think. After all that has happened, all the lies from everyone, I only want a bit of truth.”
Lyra sat on a fallen log. I remained a pace behind her. Blood pounded in my head. She deserved to know the truth. Everything. Gods, she needed to know that from the first moment a lost Draven prince stumbled into the melder girl, she was his whole heart.
She always would be my melder girl.
I sat beside her on the log, my hands as my voice, and began to tell her the tale of every dreary moment of a past we’d both long forgotten.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into the backstory the made the Sentry of Stonegate into the man he became in brOKEN SOULS AND BONES.
There is more still to understand, questions about a fallen brother and why he agreed to save a young melder girl. You’ll find those answers here, in book 2 HEIR OF TWISTED LIES