“We needed everyone to believe it was real. Including you. Including Ezra, who we knew would be watching. Your devastation sold it better than anything else could have.”
I leaned against the wall to hold myself up, my mind reeling. “She’s not your wife.”
“No.” His voice softened. “She’s not. And she’s waiting for you, by the way. In her room.”
I looked up sharply. “What?”
“Gods. Keep up, would you?” He pushed off from the desk, heading for the door. “Go to her. And next time, try trusting that she knows her own heart.”
He paused in the doorway, glancing back with that familiar mischievous glint in his eyes. “Oh, and Thorne? You might want to change first. You look like shit.”
“If I wasn’t contemplating kissing you right on the mouth, I’d punch you in it,” I said, throwing my arm around his shoulder, and digging my knuckles into his hair. “You’re the greatest mortal I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.”
“Hey,” he ducked away. “Not the hair. I’m a king now. I can’t walk around here all roughed up. Plus, my wife’s a demigod. She’ll kick your ass.”
She stoodbefore the mirror in her chambers, still wearing the godsdamn wedding dress that had nearly killed me. The Remnants swirled around her like living smoke, more agitated than usual, reflecting the turmoil I could see in her eyes even from across the room.
“You’re wearing my ring,” I said, my voice rougher than intended.
She met my gaze in the mirror, her fingers instinctively moving to touch the band I’d given her. “Did you really think I’d wear any other?”
I crossed the room in three strides, turning her to face me. “Do you have any idea what you did to me today? What these last three weeks have felt like?”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me across lifetimes?” But there was no bite in her words, only a terrible understanding. Her eyes flickered to something over myshoulder, and I knew she was seeing one of them. The past lives that never left her alone.
I caught her chin, bringing her focus back to me. “I love you. Recklessly. Selfishly. Probably to both our detriment.”
“I know.” Her hand came up to cover mine. “Everything you’ve ever done, every choice, every sacrifice, it’s all been love. Imperfect and messy and absolutely beautiful.” She drew a shaky breath. “Even before you found me in Death’s Court, you gave me the space to choose. To love him. To make my own path. I know what that must have cost you. To watch me fall for your brother, knowing I was your Ever.”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“It matters to me.” Her fingers tightened on mine. “What I felt for Ezra, it was real, but it was a shadow of this. I loved him because he made me feel controlled when I thought I was spiraling. But you?” Her eyes met mine, fierce and certain. “You gave me back my control. You showed me how to embrace the chaos instead of fearing it. I needed time to understand that. To understand myself. And even when it was killing you, you gave me that too.”
She had no idea how desperately I needed to hear those words. To know she saw me, not just the god, not just the Keeper, but the broken pieces I’d become while loving her. The man who would burn worlds to find her and then let her walk away if that was what she needed.
This wasn’t the crushing weight of destiny or the pull of fate. This was something far more terrifying, far more beautiful. This was choice. Raw and messy and real. This was love carved from pain, tempered in sacrifice, made stronger by every scar we’d given each other. A love we’d chosen in spite of everything, or maybe because of it.
A shadow passed over her face as she answered something I couldn’t hear. The Remnants churned faster, darker.
“I’m going to the Fates,” I said, my thumb brushing over her cheek. “I won’t watch you suffer like this.”
“I need to be vulnerable for a minute. I don’t want to be, but I need to say the words.”
“You don’t have to give a warning before you’re vulnerable with me. Ever.”
She nodded. “It’s not the suffering. Today was necessary, but it was another reminder that I’m setting myself up for failure. I’m going to fail him.” Her eyes tracked something I couldn’t see moving across the room. “Some days I can almost bear it. But other days… I’m afraid, Thorne. Afraid I’ll lose myself in their voices. Afraid one day I won’t be able to tell which thoughts are mine and which belong to the ghosts of women I used to be. What happens when the court realizes their queen is mad? When they turn on Archer because of me?”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“You can’t promise that.” She met my eyes, and the raw fear there gutted me. “What if I forget how to hear anything but their poison? What if—” She broke off, attention snapping to something over my shoulder. “Shut up!” The words tore from her throat, desperate and ragged. “Just shut up for one fucking minute!”
I grabbed her face between my hands, forcing her focus back to me. “Listen to me. When I stood there today, watching you with him, I thought I was dying. But this? Watching you suffer? That’s worse.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “I’m going to the Fates. And I don’t care what price they demand.”
“You own every piece of me,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Every life. Every death. Every broken bit of my soul matches yours. That’s why it hurts so much. Because they’re all screaming for you right now, and I can’t make them stop.”
“Then let me in. Let me be louder than their screams. Let me remind you which voice is real.” My fingers traced the curveof her jaw, her neck, feeling her pulse race beneath my touch. “The Fates can wait until morning. Right now, I need you to remember who you are.”
Golden threads of memory magic spun between us as I opened my mind to hers. Not to take or change, but to give. To show her the moments that defined her beyond the deaths and pain. Us holding each other in the Parlor, her laugh echoing off stone walls as I pulled her closer. Quill’s tiny fingers finding hers that first day, trust shining in those eyes. The fierce pride in her stance as she stood beside Thea, facing down the Maestro with unflinching courage. The joy in her movements as she and Archer danced through the Hollow’s shadows, their friendship a light in the darkness.
