Page 127 of Labyrinthine
“I don’t lie under vow,” he says quietly.
“Then don’t make one you can’t keep.”
He closes his eyes for a moment, as if listening to some voice far away. Then he says, clear and even: “I swear on the Sundered Flame and the blood that binds it. I will keep his secret.”
I breathe out. The tightness in my chest begins to ease, but only just.
“You’ll need to tell your men something,” I say. “They’ll want a reason why you left without me.”
He nods once. “It has to look like my choice.”
“They already assume you’ve claimed me. Let them believe it. Let them think you brought me here to seduce me, and once you had what you wanted, you left.”
His mouth tightens. “You’d let them believe that about you?”
I lift a brow. “They already do. Why not use it?”
He doesn’t answer right away.
“I’m giving you a story,” I say. “One your men will believe. One that keeps your pride intact. And in return, you give me what I want.”
He hesitates. “This seems an unfair bargain.”
“Perhaps,” I say. “But it’s true.”
He nods once, sharply. Agreement, but not acceptance.
“You’ll sleep on the chaise and leave before dawn,” I say. “Take your men. They’ll think you abandoned me.”
He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t offer to help. Doesn’t beg me to stay. He just watches as I move past him, heading for the door. If the gods weren’t holding him, would he choose differently?
His voice comes out soft and hoarse. “You’ll go to him?”
“Yes.”
“You think he’ll forgive you?”
“I don’t need forgiveness.”
“You think it’s love, what you’re choosing?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “It’s the only thing that still feels real.”
He nods again. A final, quiet surrender.
“I never meant to hurt you,” he says.
I pause in the doorway. “You didn’t.”
I look back at him.
“You just didn’t help me the way I needed.”
And then I leave.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Darian asks againif I’ll be safe.
