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“You’re mad if you believe I intend to fight for your forgiveness.”
He had one chance to free Zarrah, one chance to get this right, and that meant logic needed to take precedence over his emotions. No mean feat, given that there were moments fear and guilt clamped like a vise around his chest, denying him breath. Moments that made his heart beat so rapidly the world spun and he could scarcely stand, much less think. Just as he couldn’t blink, much less sleep, because every time his lids shut, he saw Zarrah’s face. Heard her voice.
He wasn’t running from anything. It was only that, above all things, he desired to run toward a woman, and a life, that required him to abandon everything else.
I am sorry for what happened to Zarrah, but she made the choice to involve herself with you and must face the consequences. It’s your fault she’s damned, Keris. Own that.” He owned it every minute of every hour of every day.
“Some women desire a man who will burn the world to be with her. Some desire a man who will save the world at the cost of her. Which sort of man he is may be beyond your control, but you can choose which woman you wish to be.”
“Kiss my ass, Your Grace.” She glanced at the letters. “I hope the cut on your back goes foul and that you slowly rot to death, but I doubt I’ll be so lucky.” Keris shrugged. “Dare to dream, Princess.”
like the bridge, Devil’s Island had been made. Whether by the hands of God or some advanced society lost to time, this place had been created to be the perfect prison,
“I don’t expect gratitude. I…” Keris scrubbed a hand over his hair. “I…I just don’t want her to be punished for making the mistake of choosing me.”
“You are an irritating, egotistical prick.” Her breath caught. “But the only flaw in Zarrah’s choice in you was that all the world was against it. They never gave you a chance.”
“You deserve to be happy, Lara. If this is what you want, please don’t allow the joy of it to be destroyed by individuals who don’t care about you.”
“My only path leads to her.”
“My name is Daria Retta, and I’m a captain in the true empress’s army. Devil’s Island might have once been a prison for convicts, but now it’s a place the Usurper sends her prisoners of the Silent War, the rebellion against Petra Anaphora’s unlawful rule.”
This was such a twist I didn't see coming...rebels sent to an island because they know the truth?! Wow.
Keris rubbed at his temples, trying to think, trying to come up with a strategy, but he felt sick with fear. Not for himself. But for Zarrah. For Aren. For all of those he’d dragged into this mess with no clear plan to get them out of it.
“I don’t like this,” Aren muttered. “It doesn’t feel right.” “You’re just jealous that I get to be the hero and you’re once again relegated to helping people cross a bridge.”
HA! Keris is so good with evil reply's that are filled with truth, but really annoying to "his prey". :D lol
You are not heartless, Keris Veliant, no, no…You are a man whose heart decides all, even when it risks costing him everything.”
Motion on the cliff caught his eye, and Keris smiled because, of course, she hadn’t listened. He’d been an idiot to believe that she would.
“There is no one but you. How could there be when you hold my heart?”
“Earn the crown,” Aren said. “Then we’ll talk. But for now, get some sleep. Tomorrow, we’ll sail for Arakis.” Keris muttered again, but this time what he said was clear. “Fight, Valcotta.”
“I love you, Zarrah. You say that I don’t know what love is, and maybe that’s true. Maybe there is some part of me missing or broken that ensures I don’t feel things like a better man would, but I know the way I feel about you consumes me. That it gives me breath even as it steals the air from my lungs. Makes my heart beat even as it cuts it from my chest. What word I give it matters little. What matters is that even after my bones are dust and my name lost to history and history lost to time, I will feel this way for you.”
“Do you even know where you are going?” He took a mouthful of wine, then said, “All paths lead to a road.” “That’s not even the slightest bit true.”
Rebel territory or not, this is still Valcotta, and you look like…like…you.” “Your eloquence is inspiring,” he answered. “I look forward to the speeches you give from the throne.”
“Blond hair and blue eyes are hardly unique attributes and are most certainly not limited to Maridrinian nationals. As to my particularly striking good looks, that’s just a risk of recognition we’ll have to take.” She cast her eyes skyward. “It’s the ego that will give you away.”
Their connection was endless. Timeless. And though it had been battered and brutalized, the tension between them remained undiminished. As hard to resist as it had ever been.
“For my part, it is the absence from you that cuts deepest, the wound growing crueler with every hour, day, week that I cannot see your face or hear your voice. The hope that our separation will end, even briefly, allows me to endure the pain, but if I were to lose that hope, I think the wound would fester until it consumed me entirely.”
When it came to her, his heart was always certain. Always stalwart in its need to choose her and only her, no matter the cost.
Suspected that she wasn’t looking for a solution at all, but rather for confidence in the one she’d already come up with. “I once heard a wise woman say to a little girl that not all battles are won with fists and swords. Some are won with words and a clever head.” Zarrah smiled, and it was like seeing the woman he’d fallen in love with rising from the ashes, scarred but stronger for it. “I have a plan.”
What Keris had really done was remind Zarrah not just of who she was, but of who she wanted to be.
