Of Empires and Dust (The Bound and The Broken, #4)

by Ryan Cahill

“When I said ‘who are we killing now’ and you said ‘all of them’, I didn’t know you actually meant all of them.” “This is it. This is where the future of Valtara is decided. I want Loren and every soul under his command to see me in their nightmares. I want them to fear us like they feared the night as children. I am ready to be their demon.”

These are dying heartbeats of worthy souls. The least I can do is listen to them as they fade.

There are many who might feel they deserve what you have, who feel they have a right to it, who feel they are your better. But none of them would be half of what you are if they stood in your place. There is a difference between you and Aeson Virandr. He would watch the world burn if it meant the empire lay in the ashes. He cares about tearing down what stands, but you care about what will be left when it’s all done.”

“I will never deserve your heart, but I vow to do everything I can to earn your love from this day until my last day. Would you please make the mistake of taking me as your husband?”

His child. Such a strange notion. In his arrogance, he had thought he’d understood the grief Alina had gone through when her son was taken from her. But as soon as Mera had told him of the child growing in her womb, he knew how wrong he’d been. That child was barely formed, a shell not yet ready to protect the soul within, and yet he would die for it. He would crawl across a field of shattered glass, let the flesh be burned from his bones, blacken his soul to the point that even the void would turn him away – all this he would do to protect that child. A child who had not yet taken a breath, a child who, if taken, he would bathe himself in blood to find.

“That my father is a man and not some godlike hero of legend to be followed without question. He is a man with many flaws, who has made a thousand mistakes and will make a thousand more. And that still, to me, he is the greatest man who has ever lived. He has fought and lost and sacrificed for four hundred years, and he has never stopped. No matter what this world did to him or the people he loved, he always stood back up. I have seen twenty-four summers, and already I am tired and weary. I could not do what he has done, nor would I want to.”

“Ayar Elwyn.” A slight tremble ran through Lyrei’s lips as she spoke the words. “I don’t speak elf,” Dann whispered, wiping tears away, smiling. “One Heart,” she said, slapping his hand. “It is a word for when you realise you have found a soul whose heart is cracked in all the right ways that fit yours. They fill the gaps in you and you in them. They are the light that stops the world from going dark. Simply by being, they make you whole. It’s not a thing that is earned, it’s just something that is.