Chapter 69
Everything hurt as I cracked my eyes open, although I wasn’t only lying on more than one bedroll but also in a nest of pillows and enveloped in the best kind of fae—the one smelling like evergreen, petrichor, and safety.
How much I’d missed Dion hit me like an angry horse. I’d longed for him so much that I still wanted to weep.
But instead, I observed his profile while he slept. He always appeared so much softer and more peaceful during a slumber, and my fingers twitched to touch his cheek. If only my arm didn’t weigh a ton.
The telltale rhythmic purr around my waist alerted me to Harc’s presence, and a smile invaded my features. Yes, I’d missed my little pet as well.
The sound of rain prattling on cloth hung in the air, and I glanced up before I realized we were resting under a baldachin.
Not once had Dion bothered to build a roof over our camp during all our travels, and the simple fact he’d caved, now of all times, told me more about my situation than I could securely digest.
I was tired, but my head was clearer than it had been in a long time. Almost without conscious effort, memories of the last days or weeks sorted themselves, from my arrival at the Cuirt until its bloody demise.
Not all recollections were coherent. Most of them remained engulfed in fuzzy clouds and held a surreal edge, but the moment I recalled how trusting I’d been toward the resident fae, I couldn’t help myself—tears broke free.
Only a heartbeat later, Dion’s arms tightened around me, and his sleep-drunken voice rumbled in my ear. “Don’t cry, my heart. You’re killing me when you’re in pain.”
“I did so,” a giant hiccup shook my body, “much wrong.”
“Calm down, Nayana. You mentioned how they drugged you. Yes, Laiga is a drug, a bad one. You weren’t yourself.
They took advantage of you. In a way, they weren’t better than the cretin you’d brought to justice in your hometown.
” His voice transformed into something darker as he tugged me deeper into his embrace. “And this time, I avenged you.”
“You—you aren’t angry?”
“Oh, I’m livid, Nayana. But not because of anything you did. I’m furious about how they stole your agency. How yet another person or more decided they had a right to take away your free will.”
“But I didn’t—I didn’t fight them, Dion. I—” Another sob rattled me, and I mentally prepared myself for Dion to push me away at any second. “Cantarlann initiated me because I agreed, and the same with the ritual.”
“The drugged version of you did. They robbed your sanity and implanted another reality into your mind, if that makes sense.”
“You don’t hate me?”
“No. Fuck, Naya, no. Those fae took advantage of you.”
Slowly, my tears dried, and relief settled over me like a warm blanket.
I pressed my face into Dion’s chest—clothed in one of the simple cotton tunics he always wore when sleeping outside—and basked in his scent and warmth.
My limbs were heavy, and breathing was a chore that required more energy than I was able to muster. “Dion?”
“Yes, Nayana?”
“Is there something more wrong with me than the parasite?”
Dion’s loaded silence confirmed that my hunch was correct, and I peered into his beautiful face, which was contorted in emotional pain. Simultaneously, a realization shot through me.
What was this emptiness? This was as if—
Dion’s magic.
His magic was gone.
Agitated, I wriggled in his arms, no matter how much energy the movement cost me. “Dion, your powers.”
“Calm down, Naya.”
“Your darkness is—gone. Did you spend it all on revenge?”
“Fuck, you don’t remember? They—those bastards cut our binding.” He shifted, fumbled around with his bracelet and, after he’d opened the clasp, showed me the scarred skin underneath.
No.
The inky living pattern of divine darkness was absent.
Gone.
The binding had been severed.
Once upon a time, I’d believed tethering myself to another soul would equal voluntarily wandering into a prison of my own making. But now, I knew better.
This wasn’t freedom, but loneliness.
I lifted my fingers to touch his wrist, more tears gathering in my eyes. “My—”
“Your neck looks the same. Still, I put your jewelry back on. Harc retrieved the choker for you, and I had a feeling you’d want to wear that.”
“Yes. Thank you.” I swallowed around the big lump in my throat. “We’ll just repeat the rite, right? We’ll do the ceremony again?”
“If that’s what you want, Nayana. As long as the gods allow us a second chance—”
My breath hitched. The rules of the binding were clear—one time and no more.
“—but since breaking the unbreakable shouldn’t be possible in the first place, I sure as fuck hope for an exception.”
“Yes. Yes, we’ll try.”
“My sweet.” He shifted, gently kissed my forehead, and I melted into his arms. “But there’s more.”
“Your tone scares me.”
“Do you recall when Ireas examined you?”
An icy shard stabbed into my chest as the gruesome reality returned, and a sense of dark desolation trickled down my spine. Still, I tried my best to stay calm, even though all the answers I needed were already written on Dion’s face. He appeared to be downright tortured.
“I’m going to die.”
“No.”
Wincing, I faced his stormy gaze. So many different emotions battled in his expression. Pain, anxiety, but also resolution. “So, did you find a way to get the parasite out?”
“We’re in the process of figuring out the correct removal procedure. But Nayana, stop assuming I’ll let that thing win. You won’t die, I simply won’t allow you to.”
With this fiery declaration, he tucked me into his chest once more, his chin resting on top of my head. That I’d gain more information was highly unlikely, no matter how much I prodded the male who believed a magical malady would simply cease doing harm because he’d decreed so. “That bad, huh?”
Dion hesitated to answer before he sighed, and his chin moved.
“Yes, bad. But not hopeless. Ireas was involved in treating others who were infected, and thankfully, there’s a way to slow down the process.
That’s what he does, remember? Wins more time for the sick to increase the span in which finding a treatment is possible. ”
Nodding, I soaked in his presence. A feeling of safety enveloped me, despite the grim circumstances. Yet there was something else. “What if there’s no solution?”
“Then we’re going to Udiona together, and I’ll rain untold horrors upon Noelk if he dares to consider separating you from me. Do you really think something as trivial as death will keep me away from you?”
What was I supposed to reply to such a declaration?
“You say so because of that infatuation of yours.” Trying to smooth my insecurity with humor—a trusty method of mine.
In all honesty, I should have guessed that Dion—the fae male who had just slaughtered not only a whole hall of his brethren but had also annihilated some of the most ancient beings in his world because, in his opinion, they’d done me wrong—wouldn’t let my attempt at a joke stand.
He tensed, then shifted. Suddenly, he’d grabbed my chin, still incredibly gently, and bent my head back so I was facing his eyes.
His amethyst gaze was glowing brighter than usual, as if his irises had been ignited by a blazing flame.
“Nayana, let me spell something out for you, because obviously, I haven’t done a very good job so far. ”
Sucking in a deep breath, my heart flipped in my chest. “What—”
“No, listen to me. What you call infatuation…is as if you’d describe the Triad as a deluded, unimportant bunch of mystics.
This infatuation is burning brighter than the sun, hotter than the Breocharn, deeper than the depths between the Hungry Giants.
What I feel for you is something I’d start wars for, or end worlds.
And my feelings are infinite, without a single doubt.
Don’t compare me to your fickle backwater boys, even if those are all you’ve encountered during your whole life.
My love for you is true and eternal, and I need you to understand that I’d rather fight all the gods and godlings before I’ll ever give up on you.
And one sweet day, you’ll finally believe me instead of pushing me away all the fucking time. ”
His heated gaze was burning into my very soul, igniting something I didn’t understand. “Dio—”
“So, yes, a fucking parasite won’t take you away from me. You’re mine, and it’s about damn time you get that into your tiny pretty head.”
Again, my answer was cut short as Dion let go of me, and moments later, he held a small package out to me. “I despise that the Second Act of Courtship got interrupted.” Softly, he pushed the velvet-wrapped gift into my hands.
In secret, I was glad he presented me with an opportunity to distract both of us from his renewed declaration of the emotions he allegedly had.
Although the voice arguing that I was just clinging to a conviction I’d nurtured my whole life so I wouldn’t have to admit to myself I’d been wrong gained volume the longer this courtship went on.
Honestly, by now, I wanted to be wrong, and that revelation scared me more than the parasite happily munching away at the mystical energies inside of me.
And what did I do? Of course, I shoved this theory very far away and distracted myself.
Opening the package, I extracted its contents and frowned. Inside was a metal-made object, and the mystery gift had a silver-colored handle and two prongs in a U-shape. Meeting my gaze, Dion smiled.
“You have no idea what that is, do you?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. On the surface, that’s a tuning fork.” He took the item from my hand, gently hit the tool against his bracelet, and held the small thing close to my ear. “Do you hear that?”
A clear sound caressed my eardrum, and moments later, Dion hummed in the same tune. “The note the fork plays helps you find the right pitch?”
“Yes, exactly.”
Not showing my confusion about why he’d gifted me something like that, I received the present back and examined the object.