Shadows swarmed around my feet, eager for the anger boiling within me to spill over. They turned to claws, reaching into the ground and digging.
“No. That shit was still wrapped in lies. Lord of the Salt? Suffering beneath the hand of a prince? No wonder you were so pissed when Archer and I went down to his lair. You had no control, even in the reality you concocted. There was no need to fear him. You were the villain in all of that, weren’t you? You could have stopped him at any point, and you didn’t because it didn’t fit your fucking narrative.” I laughed. “You couldn’t stop yourself from playing god, from orchestrating misery over and over again. What kind of love is that, Thorne? What kind of twisted devotion leads to centuries of suffering?”
“The kind that’s too stubborn to let go,” he said, his voice low and fierce. “My power is failing. I couldn’t kill the prince because he’s protected by the Fates’ law. Gods cannot directly kill or stop a royal. Those thrones come with their own ranks of power.”
I scoffed, disbelief coloring my words. “Harlow died at the hands of Ezra’s men, and she was technically a princess, so keep lying. Dig your holes, fucker. But I’ll dig deeper. I’ll dig a grave and let you fall in.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he countered. “She wasn’t recognized. The law only applies to acknowledged heirs. It’s part of the balance. Everything is part of the failing balance.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I argued, my voice rising with each word. “If it were true and you wanted to keep me alive, then why not put me on a fucking throne and let me live?”
Thorne’s shoulders slumped, the fight draining out of him as he looked at me with an expression so raw, so vulnerable, it stole my breath. “I tried, Paesha. In one lifetime, I did everything in my power to guide you back to a throne you’d lost. You were already a queen, but you’d lost your crown.” He closed his eyes, pain etched into every line of his face. “The moment I broke and told you everything about our connection, it all fell apart. You were killed almost immediately.”
I swallowed hard, a distant memory tugging at the edges of my consciousness. A flash of a crown, heavy upon my brow. The bitter taste of hard truths. And beneath it all, a love so fierce, so consuming, it burned like wildfire in my veins. In that confession, I could feel her again. The fallen queen that sent another wave of peace into that corner of my mind the others couldn’t find. She’d known. She’d known and loved him anyway.
“I couldn’t bear to watch you die like that again,” Thorne said. “So I stopped trying to interfere with mortal thrones.”
The scowl never left my face. “How terrible that must have been for you.”
He shook his head. “With or without me, you were always going to die.”
“But why?” I couldn’t help the vulnerability in my voice, wrapped around a simple, complicated question. “Why am I damned?”
He moved closer, but he was careful, eyes shifting between mine as he spoke. “Ezra’s full title is Supreme Sovereign, the Unerring Arbiter of Unmaking and the Infinite, and the Keeper of All Realms, Keeper of Guardians. His power lies in the future while mine lies in the past. He can see what lies ahead. A thousand paths of possibility and it’s his nature to unmake those that would destroy everything. When Sylvie was born to Alastor and Irri, he saw a dangerous path. The Huntress would be the one to break the balance between the gods. The Fates confirmed it with a prophecy about you. But it was always only a possibility. He told me there could be peace here. He denies it now, but I’ll never forget those words.”
“Then why not let me die?”
“Before I met you, I thought that was the way forward. I trusted my brother implicitly to know what I didn’t just as he trusted me. But he shouldn’t have. Because I wanted the power you promised. I believed the prophecy meant that you wouldchoose a brother to reign and a brother to fall. I sought you out, determined to be the chosen. Determined to let Ezra fall if it meant my rise.”
I stepped away from him. “So, you’ve always been a selfish bastard.”
He followed, fully aware of what his proximity did to my resolve. “Yes. Always. But never more than the first time my soul saw yours and knew immediately what you were.”
“Weak?” I asked, stepping back again.
“No. You’re my other half. My Ever. Whatever damnation your soul carries, so does mine, because we share it. And there’s no way in any realm, any universe, that I could be anything but fully yours. My heart is consumed by you. My mind, broken by you. But my soul? My soul, Paesha? It’s not just mine. It’s yours, wholly and completely. Every shattered piece, every spark of light and shadow, it all belongs to you. And it always will, no matter how many times we break and mend and break again.”
A new voice swirled through my mind. Not the cold tone of Winter’s nor the serpent that felt like Sylvie. This was honey. This was grace. This was pure logic.You knew this would be hard. He’s had a thousand lifetimes of experience to break down our walls. You’re smarter than this. You know what will happen if you let him in. It’s not about dying. It’s about living. You need to make a choice to die beside him or live without him. That’s the only way this ends. You can leave him here. You can take Irri back to Alastor and leave him behind. All you have to do is use us. Let us break the door once you’ve passed through, just like you broke the veil. Let him live here and forget. Maybe there’s peace in that for him too.
It felt like there was mercy for us both within those words. A difficult choice, but ultimately, probably the right one. He couldn’t know. He would try to stop me. And he’d kept his fair share of secrets so this felt like redemption.
“Come back to me,” he whispered. “I can see you slipping away to the madness. Don’t. Don’t cave to the voices.”
My eyes snapped to his. “All these lifetimes, it’s always been because you think you have some kind of claim over me?”
Thorne shook his head, a sad smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “No, Paesha darling. It’s because you have a claim over me. That’s always been our ruin. You have led, and I have followed. You have breathed, and I have suffocated. You have danced, and I have stumbled, trying desperately to keep up with the wild, untamable rhythm of our soul.”
He reached out, his fingers hovering a hairsbreadth from my cheek, close enough that I could feel the heat of his skin, the crackle of power that always seemed to emanate from him. “I am yours, Paesha Vox. In this life and every one before. I’m bound to you, not by destiny or duty, but the simple, inescapable truth that my soul knows yours, and it will never stop seeking its other half.”
I stepped away, needing distance, needing air. Because I could break for this man and I knew it. I could hear the logic in his words too. Was there justification to his ruse if it was done to save my life? Would I have rather been lied to or have that fucking arrow pierce my heart?
“Do you know what it’s like,” I finally asked, “to have your entire world shattered in an instant? To discover that everything you believed was built on lies?”
When I turned back to face him, I expected to see that same pleading expression, that desperate need for absolution. Instead, I saw something that made my breath catch—raw, unfiltered grief.
“Every time,” he said, his voice cracking. “Every single time I’ve lost you, it’s been exactly that. The world doesn’t just shatter, Paesha. It ceases to exist.”
I took another step back but Thorne followed, his body crowding mine until my back hit the rough stone wall. His hands came up to cage me in. “I can’t change the past. But I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere.”
