Chapter 46
?ROWAN
Paeonia closed her eyes, and Rowan wondered if she was searching for the curse. Seeing if she could feel the magic as easily as he could.
To his amazement, the locket popped open, and in one sharp blow, a weight lifted from his shoulders.
The locket at Paeonia’s throat ignited. Its glow pulsed like a heartbeat, spilling over the chamber, freezing Laurus in place, his eyes flaring. Laurus’ shadows recoiled with a violent screech, dissolving like smoke in sunlight.
Rowan gasped as the decay halted mid-climb, then shuddered as warmth surged back into his body. He felt the curse uncoil, peeling away from his limbs, melting from his fingertips. His own Grim magic rushed back into him, raw and unsteady, fitting into him like a jagged key—but it was his again.
But it wasn’t enough. He broke a bargain. His magic was doomed. His body weakened.
Laurus stumbled, regaining his composure as Paeonia summoned the curse into her necklace. But he was quick to stand steady, his vines booming from the ground and grabbing onto Paeonia again.
“No—” Paeonia’s voice broke, her eyes wide as she watched the last traces of decay cover his skin.
The magic he had just reclaimed began to flee. The garden, weak without Rowan’s magic, was killing him. Laurus shook his head in mockery, as if he had expected this.
And as the wilt locked his body in place, his heart not wishing to fight the plight of rot that coiled inside him, something odd happened.
Their bond erupted, shattering like lightning across the garden.
Flowers burst from the earth in a riot of color, vines curling around the shattered stone, blossoms climbing toward the light.
The air thickened with the scent of roses and wild growth, vibrant and alive.
Rowan blinked several times as he stared at his hands.
His skin was no longer peeling back, returning to a violet hue, his chest heaving, stunned beyond words.
He had expected ruin and death—an end. Instead, he had been saved.
Their bond connected him irrevocably to Paeonia.
It wasn’t just her who felt what Rowan did, he also mirrored her sanity.
If she wasn’t stolen of magic, neither was Rowan.
Saved by her. Always her.
In the bloom of their bond, he knew no sorcerer, no curse, nor his brother’s vengeance could sever what bound them now.
Laurus must have realized it at the same time because his eyes flashed, using all his shadows to gather in front of him.
Rowan’s roots came hurling through the garden, finally free of his curse, no longer dying, raging and growing too fast for Laurus to stop.
They wrapped tightly around him. The roots grew and grew, sticking him in a web of snakes.
His shadows pulled at the roots but it was no use.
Rowan had always been more powerful. More sinful. More full of Grim rage.
He called to the trees, felt them more strongly than ever before, made them overflow around them, breaking and shattering anything in the path, capturing Laurus in a cage of greenery.
“You fool. You should have killed her when you had the chance,” Rowan shouted, stepping closer to Laurus who choked from the sheer power.
“But now you never will. And you will pay for touching her. For just imagining what it would be like to have her.” His roots retreated just enough to expose his neck, Rowan’s hand taking their place, squeezing.
“You truly are living up to your title.”
Rowan laughed like that could hurt him. “You think your words bother me, brother?”
He tightened his fist.
“Don’t kill him,” Pae shouted from somewhere behind him.
He turned to see her climbing over roots, her face marred with tears.
“I know you think me good, little flower. You think you can fix all the darkness that shrouds me.” Rowan shook his head.
She gave him a pleading look.
“But you cannot.” His chest sparked with fiery pain. “Darkness is a part of me.”
Paeonia reached him, her hand stretching toward his cheek, her fingers laced with blooming flowers. When her skin touched his, a spark of light coursed through him, soaking his veins in sweetness. He drowned in her light.
Rowan held Laurus down, his lips parting in surprise. “You wish me to keep him alive? Even after all he has said to you—threatened you with?”
Paeonia swallowed, her hair alight with a golden glow.
She glanced at Laurus currently at Rowan’s mercy.
“I will not blame you if you take his life—I will not fault you. But it won’t lessen the burden that weighs on your heart.
It won’t alleviate the pain, Rowan. The guilt will consume you just as his curse did.
You’ll replace one burden with another.”
Rowan’s hand tightened his hold on Laurus’ throat, his roots twining his limbs. “What would you have me do?” He surprised even himself when he asked her the question—asked her permission.
Her lips tilted sideways, and a deep pang settled in Rowan’s chest. Her light consumed him, tore him apart from the inside out.
Her sweetness sweltered in the air, forcing his senses to only radiate with the likes of her.
He knew then that he’d do anything for her.
That he’d never let her go again, would never let her part from his side.
If she had asked him right then and there to take his own life, he knew he would. All she had to do was speak the word.
A small part of him wondered if it was the mating bond clouding his thoughts, overriding his emotions. But it wasn’t. It was all her doing, all of her own accord. The tug may have led him here, but she pried his heart open and weaseled her way inside.
“And if I kill him,” Rowan began, his roots taking the place of his hands, tightening their grip around Laurus’ neck and limbs, “you’d still love me?”
She smiled wistfully. “I would.”
He stood in a swift motion, the vines tangling with Laurus, stringing him up, displaying him like the Eldritch had done to Paeonia, barely leaving him any room to breathe.
Rowan grabbed her, dragging her against him, slanting his split lips over hers in a bruising kiss.
He had trouble separating from her, his breaths coming out in heavy pants.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “No.”
He grinned. “Good.”
She parted her lips to question him, but Rowan had already let her go, spinning toward the audience watching him in fear. His vines had snapped, left tangling him in chains. “Take him to his old room,” he commanded the Stoneborne watching.
Castor and Sybil grabbed Laurus, his brother going limp from sheer exhaustion.
“And after?” Castor implored, huffing as he draped one of Laurus’ arms around his shoulders.
“I’ll find you all soon. I need a minute with my wife.”
“And to think of the mess we need to clean now,” Lord Olivander scolded behind the two Stoneborne dragging Laurus away. “A terrible example of the Alder Court.” Their voices faded in the distance.
Paeonia raised a brow, her hands reaching out to grab at Rowan’s shirt, partially torn.
“What do we do—?” she began.
Just the fact that Paeonia had reached out for his touch on her own had him reeling. “I’m sorry,” he pleaded.
Her shoulders sank, and the light dimmed in her eyes. “You killed Georgia even though you didn’t have to?”
The saliva in his mouth felt thick. “I did. I had been bound by a bargain I shouldn’t have made. And I had such little time to complete my end after Georgia’s father had broken it. If I didn’t kill her, I would have been turned to stone.”
“There are worse things to be.”
“My father would have shattered me. No son of his would be imprisoned by the Alder Court.” He sighed. “I allowed this place to blacken my heart. I killed her. I regretted it, but that does not matter, she is still dead. I don’t deserve anything good—I meant that.”
She seemed unsure, lost. She wrapped her arms around her chest.
“I will repent every day for what I did. And now I lose you too. Laurus was right, I should be forced to suffer the same pain I caused him.”
“You would want me to stay? After all this, you want me here, with you?”
Rowan almost barked a laugh. “Have I not made that clear enough? You’ve consumed me, Paeonia. You are the only light I will ever have. I love you. I do not wish for you to leave me, but I know now that it does not matter what I want.”
She pushed her curls out of her face as the wind blew.
“I think,” she began, summoning her words, “you’ve done wrong.
Terrible, terrible deeds. But you are also a victim of awful circumstances.
And I do not hold what you did over a hundred and fifty years ago against you.
You have paid for your sins. You’ll live with it in your heart forever. ”
He swallowed to hold back his emotions. “You want to stay?”
She placed her hand on his cheek, and he leaned into the touch. “I want to stay with you. I want to save my father. But then, I want to be with you.”
He didn’t deserve this. But fuck it. He didn’t care. If she was offering, he was taking. Life wasn’t made of fairness.
He cut her off, shoving her against one of the ivy-infested pillars, the stars twinkling above them, Rowan’s horns and feral glamour on full display. Blood decorated his clothes, his skin bruised, his lips cut. He slanted his mouth over hers again, growling when she tightened her hold.
Paeonia pulled back, breaking their kiss. “You promise this isn’t a lie?”
Dazed from her mouth, her taste, he cocked an eyebrow.
“You truly love me. This isn’t some form of torture?”
He caressed her cheek, his heart stinging.
“I,” he began, losing his breath, “don’t deserve you.
I never will. And I shall beg on my hands and knees every day for your forgiveness.
” He never thought he would ever be able to utter such treacherous words.
But when he gazed into her green eyes, they came naturally.
Her cheeks deepened to a crimson shade. “You don’t need to do that.”
“What? You don’t want to see me on my hands and knees for you?”
She shoved him but he didn’t budge. He kissed the top of her head. “I don’t deserve you. But I am going to try every day to earn it.”