myself that if I was ever privileged enough to be in your grace again, I would hold you closer to all that I am, more than I have ever held anyone or anything before—that I would never lose you again.”
“What do you want from me?” She already knew, and she had long since given it to him.
“I need to know what you still feel for me.” He swallowed, his words becoming thick and heavy. “Tell me truthfully, what is your heart’s design? Do you still see me as the man who is wandering lost in his own darkness?” His breath quivered. “Or . . . could we, could you, see me as the man that I want to be and try to be every morning?”
Vhalla stared into the darkness of his eyes. Absorbing them, falling into them, into him. They’d been ensnared in a labyrinth of eternal night. Finding each other again didn’t mean absolution; if anything, it likely meant they may be trapped forever.
But it would mean they were together.
It would mean the long hands that slowly lowered the golden circlet atop her hair would seek her out. It would mean that the blazing sun that burned away their fantasies of the night would be a little more bearable. It would be torture. But it would be the most beautiful torture they had ever known.
“I love you, Aldrik, and I always will.” He leaned forward, and Vhalla stopped his progress with two palms, flat on his chest. “I love you, I respect you . . . and I respect myself. And, because of that, I will not become the other woman. I will not let you take me when you are engaged to another.”
Aldrik stared at her, stunned as though he didn’t understand what she was saying.
“If you find a way, Aldrik. Yes.” Vhalla enjoyed the feeling of his chest, his heartbeat, his breathing, underneath her palms once more. “But before then, we are no more or less than we are now.”
VHALLA NEVER DID talk to Aldrik about the crystals. He’d returned her to the Tower hallway after a somewhat begrudging acceptance of her condition. Their conversation put everything else far from her mind.
Vhalla groaned softly at herself, rubbing her now barren forehead. What were they doing?
“Vhal . . .” Fritz nudged her shoulder for the second time. Vhalla blinked and looked at him. “What’s the matter?”
She shook her head. “Sorry, it’s nothing.”
“You’ve been wandering away from the world today.”
“I haven’t moved from this spot all morning.” She motioned to the table they worked at in the library.
“Exactly, you’re like a statue. You’ve been on that page for over an hour.” Fritz flipped the book closed and glanced around the mostly empty library. “Talk to me.”
“Fritz,” she groaned, sitting back in her chair and burying her face in her hands.
Her friend grabbed her wrists, pulling her palms from her eyes and replacing them with his gaze. Worry marred the usual laughter that lit Fritz’s eyes. Vhalla relaxed, and he shifted her hands into his, holding them tightly.
“Vhal, I’m not Larel, I don’t magically know the depths of the human heart with a glance at someone’s eyes. So talk to me.”
She opened her mouth and choked on the truth. Fritz let her work through the lump of confessions that had been building for months. “I’ve been working on crystals.”
“What?” His grip went slack, but he didn’t let go of her.
“Victor and I are working to put an end to the caverns, once and for all.”
Fritz blinked as his mind struggled to process what she was saying. “That’s . . . not possible.”
“It is. It has a heart, and we know how to get to it and destroy it.”
“No . . . Vhal, no. This, this is dangerous.”
“My existence is dangerous,” she countered hastily. “As long as I, a known Windwalker, and the caverns exist, there is danger. Either I need to be removed or the caverns do.”
“Well, I’m glad you picked the caverns.” Fritz grinned weakly. “I can’t believe Victor is letting you do this . . .”
“He has years of research. He’s been working toward this for a long time in secret, he’s just needed someone like me.”
Fritz frowned. “Doesn’t it seem a little weird that he was developing a plan for someone that might not have ever come to be? I’ve heard some of the teachers speak on his theories and opinions of sorcerers in society. They make him sound like he can be a bit radical. Plus,