Ricordan promised to write in three days’ time, and while I wanted to hope that united, we may stand a chance, the entire hurried flight back to Xenovia with Sapphire and Tolek, Zaina’s question pulsed in my mind:How will you kill a god?
And as I scanned the deserts for any hint of attack, I feared I didn’t know.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Cypherion
Back in ourroom in Xenovia, unscathed but emotions warring through the bond, Vale looked out the window with one arm crossed over her stomach, her other elbow propped against it and her chin in her hand.
And silence stretched with a deafening roar.
“Vale,” I said softly from my spot on the edge of the bed.
“Mm-hmm.” In her reflection in the glass, her eyes swirled a dim silver. Down the Fatesworn bond, worries flickered back and forth, but I couldn’t understand a fucking thing. They were too jumbled, my own tangling with them.
I sighed, exhaustion weighing down every inch of my damn body. “Can you tell me why you did it?”
“Did what?” she asked, voice distant.
Pushing up and ignoring the soreness radiating down my muscles, I approached Vale and braced a hand on the window over her head. “Can you try to stop reading for a minute and look at me?” I asked softly. It wasn’t her fault, but we’d been sitting here for hours.
She shook her head, snapping out of it as if she hadn’t even realized what she’d been doing. Those fucking Fates. I’d foundthis Fatecatcher business damn impressive at first, but it was consuming her. I couldn’t help the worry.
“Sorry,” she muttered, looking at me over her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“Why did you do it?” I asked again.
“Do what?”
“Why did you push me off the khrysaor?”
Vale stiffened, turning all the way around and looking up at me with those damn stunning olive-green eyes. Thank the cursed Spirits.
But there was a guard in her voice when she said, “The gorgons were preparing to attack.”
I scoffed, as if that was a fucking explanation. “I was aware. They sprouted wings, and you shoved me to the sand like I was some defenseless child.”
“I didn’t do it because I thought you were defenseless,” she said, confusion creasing her brow.
“Then why?” The terror that had lashed through me at that moment clung to my heart now, scratching against my ribcage. When she flew off without me, when she disappeared in the mist…
I’d yelled down our Fatesworn bond.
And she’d ignored it.
I cleared my throat, straightening. “Vale, when you did that, and then I couldn’t see you, it fucking terrified me.”
“I was fine, Cypherion,” she said calmly. “I was able to read the movements coming for me quickly enough that I could easily dodge them. Dynaxtar has claimed me as her rider, so between the two of us, we’ve got a connection that makes us faster. More agile. On the same page.”
On the same page.
On the same page as a fucking khrysaor and not me, apparently. I paced the distance between the bed and the floor-to-ceiling windows, the setting sun streaking through heating the room, testing me as I tried to keep my temper down and have a rational conversation. Dammit, when it came to her, it was so hard to be rational.
“You can’t just shove me away, though,” I said.
“So, you get to keep me out of harm’s way, but I don’t get to do that for you?” she asked, the tiniest bit of snap in her voice.
“What do you mean?”
