I lean forward, ignoring the protest of torn muscle and sinew. Blood seeps through one of the bandages, but I don't bother acknowledging it. "Then let me speak. Please."
She doesn't answer, but she doesn't walk away either. I take it as permission.
"I was sent to hunt you. That is true." The words scrape my throat like broken glass. "The price on your head that would've set me up for life. Five hundred novas. Enough to drink myself to death in relative comfort."
Her face doesn't change, but something flickers in her eyes—a wounded animal recognizing the shape of a trap long suspected.
"But I told you that as soon as I saw you, I knew I couldn't do it." I run a hand through my slightly wet hair. "I didn't have a plan after that. I just knew I couldn't harm either of you. Couldn't walk away either. So I stayed. Watched over you both from a distance."
"Until you didn't." Her voice is quiet.
"Until I didn't," I agree. "Until I couldn't bear to just watch anymore."
I already told her some of this, but I think she needs to hear it again. Hear it when she is really listening and not just shoving me away.
The fire pops, sending a shower of sparks into the night air. "I've killed more people than I can count, Esalyn. I've spent my life taking bounties, hunting targets. Never questioning, never caring." My hands hang between my knees, stained with dried blood that will never truly wash away. "Until you. Until him."
She stares into the fire, her profile edged in dying light. "And now?"
"Now?" I laugh, the sound harsh even to my own ears. "Now I'm terrified. Not of any repercussions for killing a lord. Not of what I've done or what I would do again. I'm terrified because I've fallen in love with you. With Erisen. And I have no fucking idea what to do with that."
Her eyes snap to mine, widening with shock.
"It's the truth." I hold her gaze, refusing to look away even as vulnerability flays me open. "I don't know how to be anything other than what I am. But I know I'll spend the rest of my life choosing you. Choosing him. Every day, without question or regret, if you'll let me."
I reach for her hand, stopping just short of touching her. "I should have told you about the bounty. I know that. I know I've given you no reason to trust me." My voice drops lower, rougher. "But if there's any chance—any way you could find it in yourself to let me try to earn your forgiveness—I'm asking for it. Because the thought of being without you both... it's worse than any death I've ever faced."
Esalyn doesn't move, doesn't speak. Firelight dances across her face, revealing nothing of what she feels.
A hollowness spreads through my chest. Maybe I've destroyed whatever fragile thing was growing between us. Iwouldn't blame her. Trust is a luxury for people who haven't been betrayed as systematically as she has.
But as I look at her across the dying fire, I know with absolute certainty that I'll find a way back to her. To them. Whatever it takes.
27
ESALYN
Isit across from Domno, the fire between us casting shadows that dance across his battered face. My heart thunders against my ribs like a trapped animal, his words—I've fallen in love with you. With Erisen—echoing in my mind.
The weight of everything presses down on me: Erisen's safe return, Vorrak's death, the truth of who Domno is and why he found us. A bounty hunter. The very thing I've been running from for years.
And yet, he's the one who saved my son. Who chose us over wealth, over his own safety. The one who sits before me now, bleeding and vulnerable, asking for something I've never given anyone—a second chance.
"I never meant for this to happen," I finally say, my voice barely audible above the crackling fire. "I never meant to get close to you."
His golden eyes reflect the flames, making them look molten. Despite his wounds, despite the exhaustion etched into every line of his face, he watches me with such fierce attention that I feel exposed. Seen in a way I've never allowed myself to be seen.
"When I first let you near Erisen, it was because I couldn't bear to take away something that made him happy." I twist my hands in my lap, callouses catching on each other. "I told myself that's all it was."
"And now?" His voice is a rough whisper.
I close my eyes, summoning courage I'm not sure I possess. "Now I don't know what to do. Because somehow, in the middle of all this fear and running and survival, I've fallen in love with you too."
The admission feels like jumping from a cliff—terrifying and exhilarating all at once. When I open my eyes, Domno's expression has transformed, hope and disbelief warring across his features.
"Esalyn—" He shifts forward, wincing as the movement pulls at his wounds.
"Don't." I hold up a hand. "I'm still angry. I'm still afraid. Everything I've built, every wall I've put up to protect us—you walked right through them all."
