Page 120 of Ice Like Fire

That undoes him. Whatever strength he’d been clinging to shatters, his eyes shaded with the glaze that broke me weeks ago when he stood in my room in the Jannuari Palace and cut the bonds that kept us together; when he left, shedding tears that hollowed every part of who I had once been.

But I’m the one leaving this time.

That difference doesn’t make this any easier. I stumble forward, my arms going around his neck, a remnant of the hug when I first saw him on the rooftop. Touching him—it had been like coming home. Even now, holding him for this one short moment . . .

He’ll keep my kingdom safe. He’ll keepourkingdom safe, and knowing that, feeling that, makes me cling to him all the tighter.

He was a choice I should have made too.

Mather’s fingers dig into my back, gripping me just as fervently, and for this one moment, we’re us again. Meira and Mather, uncomplicated.

Determination chases away my sorrow, leaving nothing but pure, unmarred resolve. Rares rushes up the stairs without another word and I pull away as Mather works to open the cells again and Theron still screams for someone to free him. Chaos, just chaos, and I’m running away from it all.

No—I’m not running away. I’m runningtowardsomething, toward help.

I will fix this,I promise them.Whatever it takes. Whoever I have to be.

I will not let this world fall.