Page 306 of Seasons of War
“Please ignore the texts I sent you. I didn't know what happened. I'm a monster. I was so upset that you didn't show up at the mountains. I…” Her eyes fell to his bandage. “I'm the worst wife in the world.”
Whatever Mellie thought happened, she didn't read the letter informing her that he was leaving her, and the Phaedra didn't tell her about his betrayal.
Carefully, she crawled into bed beside him, the movement clawing at his wound. His vision flickered black, the pain overwhelming him again, shutting him down.
“Am I hurting you?” Mellie cradled his head against her neck and chest. “I didn't mean to. I'll take care of you. It'll be okay.”
“This is what happens when you spare vermin.” The Phaedra glowered at Zayne. “The boy he saved at the shopping center returned to his terrorist cell, and their attack nearly killed both the Riven brothers.”
Mellie sobbed quietly. “Look at all we almost lost. I won't leave you for a second.” Her fingers in his hair sickened him when he wanted it to be Kira's again. “Phaedra, can't the doctors do anything else? He's in such pain.”
“I'm sure we can give him more medicine.”
His reward for keeping his mouth shut, considering Zayne didn't think the Phaedra gave him any pain medicine. Or if he did, only enough to keep him alive.
The wife he tried to abandon whispered in his ear and stroked his face. Kissed his lips.
The Phaedra knew exactly how to torment Zayne, but no matter how terrible this was, he kept thinking of one thing only.
Kira was free.
Images flashed in his mind.
This time, he didn’t see the girl with no teeth or the shifting in the shadows. Instead, he saw the rebel woman in the territories and the life that awaited her. A hint of stillness sparked within him, and he reached for the silence. The steadiness in his core. A point where death and terror and peace all lived, depending on the season.
Kira was free.
After all that he’d done, let it be the closest he could come to atonement.
Let Kira’s life stretch on long for the others.
Whatever came next, Zayne found peace for the first time in his life, in the freedom of the only person he trusted to fight this revolution the right way. And as the dead fought to wrestle him into the shadows, as he begged for Nadia to stay safe, that peace whispered a truth to him.
Kira Stiles mattered more to him than anyone in the empire, and she'd never stop drawing life out of the desolation.
Revolution was won in the spirit.
And Zayne was finally free.
Now he needed to survive to learn what freedom meant.
