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“Why would you help me?”

“Run!” Kaezlyn screamed at me. “We can’t hold him down for long.”

I scrambled to my feet, sprinting through the corridor ahead, swallowed by shadow and the scent of damp stone.

Their voices faded behind me as I ran through the twisted stone, rounding corner after corner until I almost felt dizzy.

The pulling in my chest had grown stronger with every step, and as I rounded yet another corner, the walls opened into a large circle covered in paintings.

The centre.

I tore into the opening, eyes darting around the empty space. Through the ash drifting steadily in front of me was an altar of marble, a locket in the shape of heart lying in the centre.

All of my memories, lying in front of me to claim.

A throat cleared behind me, and I paused, just as my fingers were about to brush the locket.

I spun around, expecting to see Helion. But Edgar sat against the stone with his knees bent and his arms wrapped around them.

The heat had drunk the power from me, bead by bead. It shone on me in the sweat that shimmered over my skin, sticking my tunic to my body with every exhausted breath.

I lunged into a fighting stance, one that Solas would be proud of and raised my fists.

“I am not going to fight you, Lyra,” he said casually, standing to his full height and running a hand through his pale blonde hair.

He had looked dishevelled last night, but the bruises under his eyes and the stubble shadowing his sharp jawline made him look far from the divine priest mothers had prayed for their daughters to marry.

“Why?” I asked, back stepping to keep distance between us, fists still raised.

“You know I had to, right?” His voice cracked a little, as if he were capable of true emotion. “The bloodletting… The rape…” He trailed off, looking down at hands. “I had to do it, to protect you. To keep you hidden. To save everyone.”

The words struck like a slap. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear his throat open with my teeth and make him choke on every excuse he had ever used to survive himself.

Instead, I stood there, shaking.

He fell to knees in front of me, shoulders sagging under the weight of his confession. “I was following Helion’s orders, playing out his carefully put together plan. See, draining your blood not only helped Riven gain back some strength, but it also kept you hidden from the Commander. Then I’d have to feed your power with sexual energy to keep you from burning out.”

I lowered my fists slowly.

Not because I forgave him, but because suddenly I couldn’t feel my hands.

A strange numbness crept through my fingers, up my arms, until they hung uselessly at my sides. His words kept coming, but they sounded distant now, muffled beneath the rush of blood in my ears.

Draining your blood. Sexual energy. Keep you from burning out.

For one sickening moment, I wasn’t standing in front of him anymore.

I was back in the dungeons of Stonebriar.

Weak and dizzy. Helpless beneath hands I couldn’t escape. Skin split open. Blood running warm down my body. That hollow place inside me where I had stopped caring whether I survived.

“Does it make you feel better?” I whispered. “Telling me you had a reason to break me. To abuse me. To steal my blood?”

A tear trailed down his pale cheek as he looked up at me.

“No,” he mumbled.

But as feeling came back into my body, his words suddenly took meaning.