to do. I wouldn’t break a promise to you unless the alternative was worse. So when I did it, I was sure it was.”
I rested my forehead to the wall above the hole, taking in a breath. “I know,” I admitted.
At some point during our time together these past few months, I’d come to see the truth in how he saw things. It didn’t make it right, or better. But the bitterness over him abandoning me had become less sharp. Now we were sitting in the Dragon King’s dungeon awaiting an inevitably terrible fate and there was so much left to say.
Why we weren’t dead yet was a mystery, but maybe Lionel planned on torturing us first. If he had any inkling that we knew the location of the Imperial Star then maybe that was what he was after. But why weren’t we strapped to some torture device right now if that was the case?
I traced my finger over my necklace and Orion shifted closer, sharing an intent look with me.
“I wish you could use it,” he sighed.
“I’d have to be a queen,” I said sadly.
“You are,” he growled and the ferocity in his voice made me wrap my hand around the Imperial Star. There was a faraway echo of power thrumming within it, but there was no way it could answer my call.
“You always had so much faith in me,” I said sadly. “I’m so grateful for that.”
“I would have been horrified at myself once if I’d seen what a royalist I’d become,” he laughed humourlessly. “Master of the Zodiac Guild,” he scoffed at himself. “No regrets when it comes to that though, beautiful.”
“Do you still have the diary?” I asked him and he nodded, patting his pocket. As it was concealed to look like a coin, I guessed Lionel hadn’t bothered to take it from him. I quickly pushed my hand into my pocket, finding Diego’s hat there and a sigh of relief left me.
“Darcy, I…” He shifted closer to the wall, reaching through it once more and I laced my fingers between his as my heart ached. “If this is my last promise, please know I won’t break it. I swear that no matter what happens, I will fight to save you.”
Tears burned my eyes as I gripped his hand tighter. “I’ll fight for you too,” I swore. Just like we had all those months ago. Before I’d lost everything.
“I know this means nothing now, but if I don’t say it I’ll hate myself,” he said, his voice dark and rough. Silence stretched for a long moment as I waited for him to continue. “I love you, Blue. I loved you then, I love you now, I’ll love you tomorrow even if I’m no longer on this earth. No time exists where I won’t love you.”
“Lance, please don’t say goodbye,” my words caught in my throat as pain burrowed into my core.
“I have to,” he rasped. “Just in case. I’m so fucking sorry for everything I did to you. To us. I ruined everything. And I know it can’t be fixed. That I made it nearly impossible for you to trust me when we first met, and when you finally did and I earned your heart, I broke that trust irreversibly.”
“Maybe it was always meant to be this way,” I said heavily, my chest tight. “You wouldn’t have accessed the diary if you hadn’t gone to prison. Your father knew that. It was where you had to end up for us to get the Imperial Star.”
“But it cost me you,” he said, his tone full of loss and regret.
I clutched his hand harder as tears spilled down my cheeks, accepting that I had to open my heart one last time, because I may never get a chance to do it again.
“Lance,” I said, my voice breaking, shattering. His words were the sweetest poison, tailor made to kill me. I wiped my tears away and summoned the courage to tell him what needed to be said, but then the sound of a door opening reached us and heavy footsteps pounded this way.
Orion’s grip on my hand tightened painfully and I peered through the hole as a Faelight illuminated his cell and fear yanked on my heart.
A clunk sounded as his cell door unlocked and two large men strode in wearing the uniforms of the King’s Taskforce.
“Hey look, it’s the princess fucker,” one of them sneered and a growl built in my throat. “You’re on trial again, you power