Mia blinked. The words like a knife in her chest. “You’re … not coming with me?”
Tric shook his head. “YOU’D NOT HAVE ME ANYWAY, EVEN IF I OFFERED. IN YOUR HEART, YOU KNOW WHAT WAITS FOR YOU ACROSS THAT DESERT IS FOR YOU ALONE. MUCH AS I WISH TO, I CAN’T HELP YOU FACE WHAT’S TO COME. BUT I KNOW IN THE END, YOU’LL BE THE ONE LEFT STANDING.”
“That chronicle seemed quite clear that I end horizontal, Tric. Not vertical.”
Tric only shrugged. “NOTHING IN THIS LIFE IS CERTAIN. ESPECIALLY WHERE AND WHEN IT FINISHES. NO BOOK, NO CHRONICLER, NOT EVEN THE GODDESS HERSELF CAN SEE ALL ENDS. THIS NEEDN’T BE YOURS.”
“Go on without her, is that what you mean?”
“I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU LOVED HER, MIA. I’M SORRY.”
She looked at him then. This beautiful boy who’d dragged himself through the walls of the Abyss for her. The boy who loved her so much, he’d defied death to return to her side. Most would have hated the girl who’d killed them, stolen what was theirs. Most would’ve celebrated, not mourned her death. Seen it as a chance to worm back into Mia’s affections. To plant red roses atop her lover’s grave.
But not this boy.
“I know,” Mia said, heart aching.
“I MEANT WHAT I TOLD YOU IN AMAI. YOU ARE MY HEART, MIA. YOU ARE MY QUEEN. I’D DO ANYTHING YOU ASKED ME, AND EVERYTHING YOU WON’T. I DON’T CARE IF IT HURTS ME. I ONLY CARE IF IT HURTS YOU. AND I’LL LOVE YOU FOREVER.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
“BUT NOT THE WAY YOU LOVED HER.”
“Tric—”
“IT’S ALL RIGHT.” He reached out, touched her face, gentle as first snows. “IT’S NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH. BUT IT’LL STILL KEEP ME WARM.”
“I wish…” Mia shook her head, pressing his hand to her cheek. Wondering how many more times her heart could splinter inside her chest. “I wish there was two of me.”
“THERE ARE, REMEMBER?” The boy smiled, grim and beautiful. “TWO HALVES, WARRING WITHIN YOU. AND THE ONE THAT WILL WIN…”
“… Is the one that I feed.”
“DON’T GIVE YOURSELF TO SORROW, MIA. DON’T LOSE THE HOPE INSIDE. MORE THAN ANYTHING YOU ARE, MORE THAN THE COURAGE, THE CUNNING, THE RAGE, YOU’RE THE GIRL WHO BELIEVED. SO LET ME KISS YOU GOODBYE. THEN WALK ON. AND DON’T EVER LOOK BACK.”
Mia breathed deep, looking up into his eyes.
“Kiss me, then.”
He took her hand in his. His eyes were fathomless pools, deep as forever. He ran his thumb across her skin, scabbed and scarred, making her shiver. And eyes locked with hers, he lifted her knuckles to his lips. And he kissed them. Soft as clouds.
“GOODBYE, MIA CORVERE,” he said, releasing her hand.
“… That’s it?” she asked.
“THAT’S IT,” he nodded.
The wind whispered between them, lonely and longing.
“Fuck that,” she breathed.
Mia grabbed his shirt in her fists. And standing up on tiptoes, she dragged him in and kissed his perfect lips. He caught her up in his arms, his body surging against her, mouth open to hers. Squeezing so hard she thought she might break. A dizzying kiss. An endless kiss. A kiss full of sorrow and regret for all the things they might have been, a kiss of love and longing for all the things they’d had, a kiss of joy for all they were, right at that moment. Forever bound in blood and ink, a part of each other’s tale in a story as old as time itself.
She didn’t want it to end. She didn’t want it to be real. She didn’t want any of this. But Mia Corvere knew, better than any, that sometimes we just don’t get what we want. And so, she pulled away. Resting her forehead against his a moment longer. Cheeks wet with tears. Cupping his face and dragging an unruly lock away from those bottomless eyes and staring deep into the dark between her stars as she whispered.
“Farewell, Don Tric.”
“GOODBYE, PALE DAUGHTER.”
“Remember me.”
“FOREVER.”
She climbed onto the back of her beast, eyes on the eastern horizon.
Wiping the tears from her eyes, she rode on.
And she didn’t look back.
CHAPTER 38
MOMENTUM
The whispers were growing louder.
She was seven turns into the Ashkahi wastes, a long and lonely trail of dust stretching westward in her wake. The sands were the red of rust, or old drying blood. The heavens were a melancholy indigo. Saan was only a few hours from disappearing below the worldedge now; just a sliver lightening the horizon with murderous scarlet. Saai would slink after its swollen twin soon, but for