Page 165 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
His attention drifted towards the looming silhouette of the keep. ‘Are you going to hide here for the remainder of your days?’
Ash shook his head. ‘I will return to the wy-wyverian castle.’
‘Why?’
A faint smile ghosted across Ash’s lips. ‘I am to wait f-for afew vi-visitors.’
Thanatos frowned, suspicion flashing in his eyes, but he did not press further. It would not have mattered. Ash had no desire to explain himself.
He only wanted to leave this place.
To close his eyes and sink back into that other world, the one where his daughter laughed beneath a restored sky, where the castle stood whole, where time had already softened every wound.
He wanted to sleep for days.
To live in the future.
To exist somewhere that did not ache.
‘Are you sure?’ Thanatos asked suddenly, his voice cutting through the hush like a blade through silk.
‘Of what?’
‘Of everything,’ Thanatos replied, the words heavy. ‘Of the path we have taken.’
Ash let out a breath that tasted of salt and regret. ‘No. Not really.’
Weariness seemed to settle into Thanatos’ bones. He turned as if to leave, but halted when Ash called after him. They faced one another in the dim light, the sea up ahead roaring against the cliffs, neither willing to break first.
For a long moment they simply stood there, two men bound by secrets and the ruin of the woman they loved.
At last, Ash spoke. ‘She will learn to f-forgive you.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘She will. She will ha-have years to do so.’
Thanatos shook his head slowly. ‘Not even a thousand years would be enough to forgive what I did.’ His voice thinned. ‘Even I have not yet learnt to forgive myself.’
Ash ran his tongue over his lips and turned back to thestorm-lashed sea, watching the waves devour themselves upon the rocks further up ahead.
‘Why did you do it?’ he asked quietly.
Silence answered him.
It lengthened, stretched taut as a wire ready to snap. The wind howled between them, dragging at coats and hair alike. For a moment, Ash wondered whether Thanatos would refuse him even this.
But when he looked back and saw the naked anguish etched across Death’s face, the kind that did not fade with centuries, he knew the question had not gone unheard. And that whatever answer came would not mend what had already been broken.
‘Because I thought I had lost her,’ Thanatos said at last, his voice hollowed by memory. ‘I thought everything could be redone.’
‘By ma-making her forget?’ Ash felt the anger rise slow and venomous along his spine.
‘She was going mad,’ Thanatos snapped, something wild flaring beneath the surface of his restraint. ‘Hades and her would have ended the world in their thirst for revenge against Hecate. There was no stopping them. She was no longer the woman I had married. The woman I loved. She had lost herself.’
Ash’s hands curled into fists, nails biting into his palms. ‘So you helped them put her in Hell.’ His tone was steady, cold as winter iron.
Thanatos swallowed, the movement sharp in his throat. Shame stiffened his shoulders. ‘They meant to imprison her there. I agreed… or at least, I made them believe I had. But—’
