“Don’t ever do that again,” I say, my voice hoarse with emotion. “I can’t lose you. I won’t survive it.”
She shifts closer, as if needing to feel my warmth. “I had to stop Aleksander. He was going to make me hurt our people, hurt you, and I could never hurt you, Jasce.”
Fuck Aleksander!
I’d kill him if he wasn’t already dead.
“Can I have water?” she asks, her voice raspy.
I cross to the table where a pitcher sits and pour water into a goblet. Some of it sloshes over the rim as I bring it back to her.
She drinks deeply, her throat working as she swallows. I watch every movement, taking in the sight of her alive and breathing. When she finishes, I take the goblet and set it aside.
The mattress dips as I settle next to her and take her hand in mine, rubbing my thumb over the turquoise ring. For as long as I can remember, my mother had told me how special that ring was.
But I never understood until now.
Chapter Seventy-Two
Jasce
After holding Annora for a while,a shadow falls across the entrance of the tent, and Reeve’s deep voice carries through the canvas. “Jasce, I need to speak with you.”
I kiss Annora’s forehead before rising from the bed.
The moment I step outside into the cool night air, Reeve speaks. “Aleksander is alive. He didn’t die when Annora...”
White-hot rage floods my veins at the mention of my traitorous brother. I storm back into the tent, grab my sword from where it lies near our bed, and march with single-minded fury toward the tent where we’re keeping the bastard tied up.
As I rip back the tent flap and step inside, I find Aleksander sitting upright, ropes tightly binding him to the chair. His blindfold and gag lie discarded on the ground.
His cold eyes meet mine, still defiant even now after everything he’s done.
I raise my sword, ready to separate his lying head from his shoulders in one clean stroke when a shimmering glow materializes between us.
My mother’s ghostly form stands there, radiant even in death. “You cannot kill your brother, Jasce,” she says, her voice carrying the same quiet steel I remember from childhood.
My grip tightens on the leather-wrapped hilt until my knuckles turn white. “Get out of my way.”
“No, I will not allow this,” she says firmly.
“He betrayed us all.”
“You cannot kill your brother. The ring has chosen life for AnnoraandAleksander,” she says in that same steel-like voice.
How I hate it. How I hate that she is trying to save him, even after everything he did.
Ice spreads through my chest. “So, he’s still controlling her?”
Torchlight catches off my mother’s raven hair as she shakes her head. “No, that bond has been severed, but you cannot kill him. Not when you will need him, Jasce.”
“I don’t need anything from that fucking bastard!”
Her response is simple, final. “You will.”
She disappears, leaving only emptiness where she stood.
I whirl around, searching the shadows, but she’s vanished. Only Aleksander remains, watching me with empty eyes—eyes I want to stab out.
