She arched a brow. “Then how come every time you meet my eyes, you get a look in yours that says you’re about to find a fighting ring to work out the tension?”
“Isn’t that a better reaction than trying to kill the Angel who put the magic there?” I joked half-heartedly, but Vale just leveled me her most admonishing look. I rubbed a hand down the back of my neck, over the Bond tattoo that committed me to the mountains. “It’s not that I’m angry.”
“What is it, then?” Vale asked, turning to face me fully.
“The first time I saw that look in your eyes was in the Valyn Archives.” Her expression softened in understanding. “We all know how that night turned out.”
“We do,” Vale said, casting a glance back over the water. “But I’m a different person now. I’m stronger, and my magic is no longer restrained.”
Gripping her chin, I gently turned her gaze back to mine, forcing myself to look into those eyes that held my entire life—my fears, my future, my love—and to see the power within instead of the consequences. It was hard, given that rationale and logic were the two things I’d prided myself on for most of my life and consequence was the natural extension of them, but for Vale, I tried.
Undying strength stared back at me.
“What changed with your magic?” I muttered, cupping her jaw.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.” Vale wrapped her arms around my waist and rested her head on my chest. I settled into her heartbeat, and for the first time since Ophelia and Malakai had been taken, I tried to fucking unwind. I’d spent every moment with Meridat’s team, studying Artale so maybe we could learn how to combat Echnid.
Honestly, I was drowning beneath the pressure of it all. How did Ophelia accept it so readily?
But for a breath, I just tried to relax.
For the briefest moment, it worked.
But when Vale said, “I can’t be protected from fate, Cypherion, and I won’t sit by while I may have a way to fight,” every muscle in my body stiffened.
She leaned back, looking up at me expectantly. We’d had this conversation repeatedly.
“We need to be smart,” I muttered for the hundredth time.
“We can’t leave them locked up there.”
“If Ophelia is willing to let Malakai stay there with her, the circumstances can’t be that bad.”
“I was willing to remain with Titus, and that didn’t stop you from rescuing me.”
Fuck. That was a card she had yet to play, and it was clear from the way the silver in her eyes glinted that she’d been holding onto it for a while.
“Vale.” I sighed, stepping back and running a hand through my hair. “Don’t use that against me.”
“Don’t make me,” she said calmly. So fucking calm, as we always were when we tried to come to an understanding.
But anger roared beneath my skin. Not at her—never at her—but at the fact that we were in this situation. That she’d experienced such horrendous manipulation that she had this argument to play against me in the first place. That I was drowning.
I propped myself on the edge of the bed, crossing my arms. “I never wanted to be a leader.”
Vale softened, sitting beside me. “And yet, you’re a terrific one.”
I scoffed. “Don’t compliment me when I’m trying to argue with you.” Sweeping her hair behind her shoulder, I traced the silver tattoo that had bonded her to Titus, but upon his death, became nothing more than her own personal constellation. “When I made the decision to rescue you, I was only prioritizingyoursafety.” Truly couldn’t have cared less about the rest of the world. “But now, with Ophelia gone, I’m trying to balance the interests of an entire warrior clan.”
“So, use me. Echnid had Valyrie and Damien tell Ophelia not to look too closely at the stars because he didn’t want her to see the threats he posed to the world. Didn’t want us to know that maybe he shouldn’t be free.” Her hand landed atop mine. “There has to be more I can find. I can read and try to find a way to rescue them. Then Tolek, Mila, and I will be in and out of Damenal within hours.”
I wasn’t asking her to stop reading, but I couldn’t support a plan that sent her into the Revered’s Palace right now. “We can’tbe sure that even magic as strong as yours will get past Echnid’s barrier.”
“We have to try!” she cried, pushing up from the bed.
“He’s a fuckinggod, Vale!”
“And I havenine Fate ties, Cypherion! I can read higher powers! Don’t you think if I’m on Ambrisk now, alive and allied with the very people who may be able to change the fate of the world, that’s for a reason?”
