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“Do you love him?”
She looked back at me. “What?”
“Do you love Cyn?”
“I can’t be the reason he stops trusting people again. He told me what happened to him.” She set her jaw, and I saw that stubbornness flare in her eyes, bringing life back to them. “I won’t do that to him again. It’d destroy him.”
“What makes you believe you would?”
“If it turns out I’m something different from a Shyrlivi, then he won’t be able to trust me, and I think he’s started to.”
“We already know you could be something different.”
She recoiled, looking up at me with confusion painted all over her face.
“We know it and accept it. You’re still you, Rae. Whatever happens, we’ll face it when it happens. All we need from you is to be the beautiful woman you’ve been since the night we met.”
A loud crack drew our attention to the path, where the frozen Patricia was breaking in half, decaying vines erupting from her body and consuming both her and the chair beneath her.
It seemed the curse was growing stronger, but it wasn’t able to use her past to warp her mind any longer.
She believed me.
“Zeke,” she whispered. “I don’t feel so good.”
I looked back at her just in time to see her collapse to the ground as the path disappeared beneath me.
53
ADRENALINE
RAE
After enduring the nightmare with Zeke close beside me, I felt a slight improvement in my condition. I suspected being around him—even in a dream—gave me a second wind. My voice returned; I could go to the bathroom on my own and feed myself. The nightmares stopped.
Though, after another two days, I felt the weight of Bondrot pressing against me again.
Frantic footsteps pulled my attention from the bowl of mixed fruit I tried to eat.
Rinlora’s mother rushed into the room, set an ornate box on the foot of the bed, and removed the lid. Several empty syringes, vials of colorful liquids, and small bottles with what looked like crushed herbs filled it.
“What’s going on?”
“We need to get you out of here.”
Surely I heard her wrong.
She filled an empty vial with a pink liquid, crushed red flakes, and an orange, cloudy liquid. She shook the vial vigorously, then looked at me and said, “I won’t be a part of what the Sephra clan has planned for you. They’ve gone too far.”
“What happened?”
As far as I understood it, while she didn’t agree with the idea of trading me off to be Kairian’s mate, she planned to do it to save Roandra’s life. What changed?
“Dugorigi isn’t planning for you to marry his son after Cornaith’s vallants sever your tether to the princes, as I thought.” She filled a syringe with the bright mixture. “They want to go against Fate.”
“I don’t understand.”
She looked at me, her face set with hard-lined determination. “Dugorigi plans to force a Nyrith bond between his son and you. I don’t even know how or if it’s possible, but he plans to use vallants from northeast Elyrdin, where his clan comes from, to do it.” She shook her head. “Those vallants have less regard for tradition.”
