Chapter Fifty Six #2
‘I knew too, Gedeon,’ she told him. No more secrets.
Nothing but truth, from here on out. ‘I think I suspected for a while. I knew there was more to our projections than the simple fact of us both being Wardens, but I ignored it. And then, the night of your trial when I saw you in the flesh… it was like the sun in me called to the night in you and… it terrified me. I think I probably knew what it was then, but still I ignored it. I didn’t want to admit to myself what I knew it could be.
And then you almost died in your own fire.
’ Kyra wrapped her arms around herself. ‘And I couldn’t let that happen.
Despite barely knowing you, despite feeling like I should have hated you for who you are, for everything you’ve lived for, I knew I could never let you die.
My sun magic couldn’t bring just anyone back from near-death.
It’s like it was made for you. A tether that brought you back to this world. A balance to your night.’
She half-sobbed, ‘I was in love with Kawai. I really did love him. And after admitting to myself that you were my mate, I hated you for ruining that. Because it was ruined. Forever. How could I ever love him, how could I ever give him all of me when I’m destined for someone else?
’ She swiped her cheeks of tears. ‘I don’t hate you anymore, Gedeon.
But I don’t love you either. We don’t know each other.
Our souls do, I suppose… but I don’t want fate to decide who it is I ought to love.
Even without the prophecy now keeping us from accepting it…
I don’t know if I would. So much of my life has been willed by the divine, dictated by fucking Gods and Goddesses.
If there’s one thing I want to choose for myself… it’s who I give my heart to.’
There it was. Out in the open. She felt no remorse for saying what had been weighing on her heart and soul. Only liberation, for finally being able to do so.
Gedeon was very still at her side. ‘You never have to explain yourself to me. Your heart is your own, and always will be.’
That was all he said.
But then his expression was falling, remorse darkening his features like a foreboding storm. ‘Kyra… if there had been any other way to save Rosary’s life, I would have done it.’
Her eyes instantly filled. So much of her wanted to blame him.
To shove him from the rocks into the churning waves, to claw at his throat again until she drew blood.
But there was another part of her that was so tired.
Beyond any vengeance or blame. That part of her was not angry.
It didn’t want to fight anymore. It craved, above everything else, peace.
A wholly new sensation. She met his gaze.
‘I know,’ she said, and meant it. In the night of his eyes, something softened.
???
Phaenon.
Naal.
Sometime in the earliest hours of morning when the sun still slumbered, a hawk’s cry pierced through the temple.
Naal did not need to hear the second one before she flung the sheets from her body and clothed herself in a robe and mothsilk cloak.
She eyed the leather sheath hanging on the wall, then donned that too, buckling it around her waist and slicing her sword inside it before bolting upstairs.
The hawk’s cry was an alert. That an Eternal had come home.
At least she knew without needing to see him that Gedeon was alive. She prayed the same could be said for Kyra.
And even Rosary.
Let her be with them, Mother. For all she has done, let the poor girl be unharmed. Let their mission have been successful.
Gallena did not reply.
Naal paused outside Winvara’s door, fist aloft. If she woke her and Kyra was not with Gedeon…
She shook the thought away. Win would skin her alive if she chose not to involve her, regardless of the outcome. Her knuckles rapped on the wood.
The door swung open almost instantly. Win was before her in little more than a nightgown. Her hair hung in spirals around her shoulders. ‘I heard,’ she said bluntly, then began slinging a cloak and furs over her arms. ‘The whole of Phaenon probably did.’
‘The hawk calls for Gedeon, Win,’ Naal said regretfully. ‘Not for Kyra. I do not know if she will be with him.’
Win’s movements slowed. Her expression gave nothing away.
‘Should we wake her sisters?’
‘No,’ Win murmured. ‘This is the first night Aeliah has not woken from night terrors. I would let her sleep. If Kyraena is with the Fire Warden, she can wake them herself, if she wishes.’
They met Maida and Nysari in the atrium by the front doors. Dying flames on melting candles at the Mother’s feet cast a dim light over them.
‘Will you be detaining the Destroyer as soon as you see him?’ Nysari asked as they approached. ‘He disobeyed you.’
Naal schooled her voice to neutrality, even if her Third’s blatant disapproval of her leadership was becoming tiresome. ‘Gedeon did not disobey an order, Nys. I gave him permission to enter the Council Room.’
‘Did you also give him permission to steal Takabah and fly to Zarynth on a rescue mission?’
Maida held nothing back as she snapped, ‘Goddess, girl, do you ever get bored of your own voice? Stop searching for reasons to condemn him. You only make yourself look a fool.’
‘I do not need to search for reasons,’ Nysari said darkly. ‘They have already made themselves known.’
Deciding it was better to ignore her, Naal moved to the double doors and pushed them wide open.
Traipsing up the well-trodden snowy path from the Sky Horse, were two figures.
Both of them were bundled in thick furs that appeared to be fresh off the back of some animal.
Both faces were worn and exhausted, pink from cold, with frost clinging to their hair and eyelashes.
Gedeon’s short black beard was tipped white with it.
Both alive.
As Fire and Earth Warden approached them, their breaths puffing clouds thick and fast, Naal’s heart sank to an icy depth.
Rosary was not with them.
Gedeon and Kyra stood before Naal. Neither said a word.
Kyra’s face was thinner. Gaunt, almost. There was a darkness under her eyes that added years to her life. She need not say anything for Naal to know why. Grief had a way of altering people’s appearances.
Gedeon broke the silence. He spoke directly to Naal. ‘We have much to tell you. It shouldn’t wait until dawn.’
Naal inclined her head. ‘Then we will speak now. Come.’ Without delay, she turned, and began to lead the way into the warmth of the temple.
Behind her, a broken voice said, ‘Win?’
Naal turned around. Kyra was staring at Winvara, those mossy green eyes unblinking.
The impassiveness on Win’s face could have been mistaken for a lack of care. Naal knew it to be something entirely different: a mask that carefully concealed how she really felt.
‘Hello, Kyraena,’ Win said in a soft voice. A mother’s voice. One Naal had not heard for some time.
Kyra padded to Win until she was right in front of her, standing just a little taller than her matriarch. Naal tensed as they glared at one another, sensing a fight was about to commence.
But then Kyra surprised them all and embraced her.
Win hesitated, her eyes widening. She never had been an overly affectionate female. But then she returned the embrace, wrapping her arms tightly around her granddaughter. Kyra’s shoulders twitched with emotion as she buried her face in her shoulder.
‘Hush,’ Win whispered, a hand holding the back of Kyra’s frozen head. ‘You’re home now.’