Chapter Thirty-Eight – Mira
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Mira
‘He’s regaining consciousness,’ Cassius warned, checking the bindings that secured Aric to the base of a particularly thick tree.
I crouched down so that I was at Aric’s eye level – though I was careful to remain just out of his reach. Cassius strode to my side and drew his sword, the silver gleaming threateningly in the midday sun.
‘Put that away,’ I said sharply, my chest constricting at the sight.
‘You should let me end him,’ Cassius said, his hard gaze trained on Aric. ‘He’s a danger to you – as long as he’s being controlled, he won’t stop until you’re dead. He isn’t the person you once knew, Mira. Not anymore.’
But when Aric looked up, it was the young man I remembered staring back at me – not the black-eyed monstrosity he had become.
‘Mira,’ Aric murmured, and he said my name the way he used to. When we had meant everything to each other.
‘Your eyes . . .’ I studied the familiar, warm brown, and tears slid down my face. Not just because of how close Aric had come to dying, but because it felt as if I was seeing him for the first time in months. ‘They’re back to normal.’
Aric gave me a wary frown. ‘What happened? The last thing I remember, I was in the Temple with Scarlett after kidnapping Roran’s son–’
Cassius’s significant glance confirmed my suspicions.
‘It’s Scarlett,’ I said grimly. ‘It has to be. I knew she was twisting your mind somehow, but it seems she’s moved beyond that now. She’s actively controlling you – forcing you to hunt me like an animal.’
‘I don’t–’
‘You don’t remember riding here and attacking me? If Cassius hadn’t knocked you out, you would have killed me.’ I tilted so that he could see the bruises mottling my skin. Bruises in the shape of fingerprints.
I watched Aric swallow. Watched doubt enter his eyes, followed by recognition – and something darker. For the first time, it occurred to me that perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to force him to remember.
Aric shook his head firmly. ‘Scarlett couldn’t have done this. She wouldn’t.’
‘How can you know that?’ I hissed, standing until I was looming over him. ‘She’s Zandri’s daughter – she could have all sorts of abilities you know nothing about. And she’s already betrayed me once.’
The words came flooding out – everything that had really happened the night I had escaped Ravalia. I held nothing back. I recounted my every thought and emotion from the moment I had bought that blade from Madam Mandrakes to the moment Aric had confronted me at the docks.
A few times it seemed as though Aric might interrupt me, but he didn’t. And with every confession, every recollection, his face began to darken. Not magically – there was no trace of the eerie blackness that had shadowed his eyes earlier – but with slow-dawning realisation.
‘You really didn’t–’ He stopped, unable to finish the sentence.
‘I told you.’ There was a bite to my voice. ‘I gave up my revenge. For you .’
Aric said nothing, just watched me carefully. Gods, if he still couldn’t see the truth–
‘Whatever you think of me,’ I pleaded, ‘whatever cause I’ve given you to doubt me – I’ve always been honest with you. And I’m being honest with you now.’ I didn’t know how else to convince him. What else to say to make this right.
My heart squeezed as Aric looked away – as if he couldn’t bear to look at me. But when he spoke, it wasn’t to protest. ‘I wondered, when I found out she had the power of illusion, but . . .’
‘But you didn’t want to believe it,’ I said, my voice cool. Whatever relief I’d felt at the knowledge he believed me was gone. ‘Far better to believe I had betrayed you than your precious Scarlett.’
Aric’s eyes met mine, and the pain in them dissolved some of my anger. ‘Far better to believe you had betrayed me,’ he said at last, ‘than to accept I had thrown away everything we had based on a lie .’
‘Mira,’ Cassius cautioned, but I wasn’t listening. My focus was entirely on Aric – on my best friend and my first love.
I’d never told him that, had I? Never said those three precious words. I’d meant to at the Ravalian docks, but I’d never had the chance. And now . . . How did I feel about him now? After everything he had put me through, after everything I had shared with Cassius and everything he had shared with–
‘That’s why she did this,’ I told Aric, raising a hand to his scarred cheek. Just the sight of it filled me with an unexpected tenderness – and sadness, too. ‘Scarlett knew that I still cared about you. And that you still cared about me.’
That last part was more of a question than a certainty, but the moment Aric’s fingers intertwined with mine, I knew it was true.
I had no intention of kissing him before I did it. It just happened, surprisingly natural, surprisingly sweet. As though I was trying to reassure him.
As though I still loved him.
And I did, I realised. I had never really stopped.
And neither had he.
The kiss only lasted for a handful of seconds, but it felt electric all the same. I stepped back, blinking at him as he studied me in silence. His warm, tentative smile felt like coming home.
‘You can fight this,’ I told him, low and fierce. ‘Whatever hold she has on you – you’re stronger than it is. You’re stronger than she is.’
‘I’m not sure that I am.’ His words were nothing more than a whisper.
‘I’m starting to remember. Bits and pieces – flashes.
When I was trying to kill you, it was like a haze came over me.
Nothing felt real except the compulsion to .
. .’ Aric closed his eyes, as if he was in pain.
When he reopened them, they were still brown, but they were no longer warm.
‘Even now, I can feel my clarity slipping.’
‘And that’s your cue to leave,’ Cassius said pointedly, pulling me to my feet. ‘Go – while he still has control over himself.’
Guilt surfaced as I met Cassius’s eyes. I had forgotten about him entirely – hadn’t even given a thought to his feelings when I kissed Aric, and yet he was still here. He hadn’t left me alone and defenceless.
‘I can handle this,’ Cassius said again, his hand wrapping firmly around my arm in a way that made his intentions perfectly clear.
Whatever guilt I felt dissolved, replaced by anger. ‘I already told you – I won’t let you hurt him.’
Cassius’s expression shuttered so completely that for a moment, I could almost imagine he was the one under Scarlett’s influence. I tensed, preparing to step in front of Aric and shield him with my own body.
‘You would choose him, then?’ There was no inflection in Cassius’s voice. No hint that what we had shared had meant anything to him.
But I knew him well enough now to find the evidence of his true feelings. My eyes lingered on the hard set of his mouth as I said, ‘This isn’t about choosing anyone. It’s not as simple as that.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Cassius’s words were cutting. ‘You gave yourself to me. You drew a clear line between your past and future. Let me dispense with that past once and for all. Nothing good can come of letting him live.’
I glanced past Cassius to where Aric was watching me. The comprehension on his face, the hurt and understanding . . .
‘You didn’t.’ His jaw clenched, so hard it looked like it might break. ‘Not with – not with him .’
Cassius’s hold tightened on my arm. His eyes were glacial as he turned to Aric. ‘Given your romantic entanglements with my sister, and the fact that you just tried to kill Mira, you no longer have the right to an opinion. You forfeited that right when you threatened her back in Ravalia.’
Aric’s expression was anguished, but he didn’t try to argue.
‘No matter what you feel for him, Mira,’ Cassius continued, tipping my chin so that I was staring up into his face, ‘he’s a liability. If he cared about you at all, he would beg me to end him.’
I refused to even entertain the idea. ‘I’ll find another way.’
‘Maybe . . .’ Aric’s voice was soft, but my attention instantly returned to him. His eyes were on Cassius’s hand, still wrapped around my arm. I shifted out of his grip, but it was too late. Something sad and indefinable shadowed Aric’s gaze. ‘Maybe you should let him finish this.’
My voice was low and imploring. ‘You don’t mean that.’
‘Even if you’re right, and Scarlett is behind this, you can’t kill her. Lillian’s life is tied to hers.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said firmly. ‘There are other things I can do to her. I don’t care what it takes, I will find a way of convincing Scarlett to release you. But until then, you need to keep fighting. Promise me.’
Aric nodded once. But then his eyes went past me – to Cassius. As his eyes darkened to black, he gritted out, ‘Do it.’
Before I could intervene, the pommel of Cassius’s sword came flashing down. Aric went motionless once more.
We reached the Temple just as night descended, and I had the sense we were all relieved to dismount.
Cassius had led Aric’s horse the entire way, with Aric bound to the saddle. He had dozed most of the trip – which was probably for the best, though I had continued shooting him concerned glances throughout the journey. Glances that had further contributed to Cassius’s foul mood.
This was far from the triumphant return I had imagined. Even the Temple itself was eerily silent.
None of the refugees emerged from their makeshift dwellings, and the Kalurian warriors gathered in front of the sandstone steps were curiously still.
‘Just when I thought this place couldn’t get any creepier,’ Cassius muttered.
I frowned. I had never found the Temple unnerving before, but I was unnerved now – and it didn’t help that Aric lay unmoving on the horse tethered behind us. When I moved to let him down, Cassius placed his hand over the restraints. Stopping me.
‘Aric is Scarlett’s most effective tool to kill you,’ he reminded me. ‘It’s safer to leave him here.’
I reluctantly conceded the point. Together, we climbed the sandstone steps to the Temple complex. The clansmen showed no reaction to our presence. They were as still and silent as statues.