Vows & Ruins (The Legends of Thezmarr, #2)

by Helen Scheuerer

But he refused to be the one to teach her to fear it, to fear her own power.

She had faced so much to obtain her Guardian totem; she would face far more still to acquire the Warsword symbol. Why did she have to choose between what she had fought so hard for and who she apparently was?

For beyond everything he knew about Thea – her beauty, her sharp tongue, her determination – he thoroughly enjoyed her company. She made him laugh, made him want to participate in the world around him, not just carve out wraith hearts alone in the dark.

He was fucked. Well and truly fucked. Because the way he burned for her… No vows, no notion of duty – nothing – could stop it.

‘You and I are a team now. What hurts you, hurts me. And we’ll take it on together. Do you understand?’

Wilder’s gaze travelled from the soap in her hair to her injured arm elevated on the edge of the tub. Of course it hurt to wash her hair. ‘Let me,’ he said. Wilder knelt at the head of the tub and threaded his fingers through her hair, massaging the soap into her scalp.

He’d follow her anywhere.

But this time she hesitated. ‘You’re not going to correct me?’ ‘About what?’ ‘About how I might change my mind. About how I might —’ Wilder’s brows furrowed as he drew back to peer at her face. ‘Why in the realms would I do that? You know your own mind, Thea. I sure as fuck have learnt by now to respect that about you.’

‘If there’s one thing that transcends time and distance and all else, it’s love.’

‘You spoke of duty… What of a ruler’s true duty?’ ‘And what’s that?’ ‘To provide an heir.’ Wilder flinched. ‘That’s not something I want,’ she told him. ‘Not ever.’ Again, she waited for him to tell her that she’d change her mind, that all women did when they got older. She’d heard the same patronising notion plenty of times in the fortress. But no such words slipped from his mouth. ‘Does that make me —’ ‘It makes you, you. And you are perfect,’ he said.

‘Life’s too short,’ she said, echoing Wilder’s words. ‘Too short to hold grudges against the people you love.’

‘When I was younger I didn’t know what it was to look at a woman and want to fall to my knees,’ he told her. ‘When I was younger I didn’t know a woman could make me feel powerful and powerless in the same breath. When I was younger, I didn’t know a woman could bring me back from the darkness.’ Thea exhaled shakily. ‘A woman can do all of that?’ ‘Not any woman. There is only one. There has only ever been one.’

This woman… My woman… He had fallen for her long ago, but what he’d failed to realise was that when it came to love, it wasn’t a single fall, but many, over and over.

Only someone who had burrowed deeply inside a heart could shatter it from within.