Page 61 of From the Myths of Kings

“Yes,” he rasped. He pulled out the vial Sloane had given him. The moss-green liquid sloshed as he held it up to the light. “How long do you think this will last?”

“I’m not sure. Sloane didn’t share how long a single dose would allow you to hold your breath for. We’d better save it until the situation is dire enough.”

“I?what are you doing?”

Much to Rook’s utter bafflement, Saoirse had begun peeling off her soaked clothing. She tore her tunic over her head and let it fall in a sodden heap on the stone floor. Her arms were completely bare, a dusting of translucent scales shimmering on her shoulders and down her arms. She wore a thin shift underneath her tunic, but the soaked fabric left little to the imagination. His cheeks flushed and he averted his eyes respectfully.

“I know we’ve just reunited and reconciled, but I really don’t think now is the time, Princess.”

He could feel a self-satisfied smile tug at his lips when she laughed. That delightful sound sent a thrill down his spine. He’d missed that sound terribly. Despite everything?despite the sheer madness of their situation?he felt that old intoxicating spark between them. It had been a long time since he’d let himself make a joke, but with her, he felt lighter. More like himself.

“That’s not what I’m doing. You felt how difficult it is to swim with all these layers. They’ll weigh us down.” She began unlacing her boots. “We’re temporarily dry now, but I don’t doubt we’ll encounter more flooded chambers along the way. You should take some things off as well. Your wings will already burden you enough.”

She was right. His wings were drenched, every downy feather sopping wet. The weight of his wings dragging through the water was a considerable hindrance on its own, and several layers of clothing only made it worse. He started taking off his shirt but then hesitated. “Don’t be afraid of what you see,” he warned. “The wound has progressed, but I promise it looks a lot worse than it really is. Hasana took away much of the pain yesterday.”

Saoirse nodded, bright concern gleaming in her eyes as he slid the soaking tunic over his head. She tried to hide her horror, but he caught her expression before she could conceal it. Her eyes passed over the darkened veins that splintered across his chest and a muscle in her jaw ticked.

“I’ll kill Selussa for what she’s done to you,” she gritted out, bright anger burning away the concern in her eyes.

“I’ll be all right.”

“As long as you’re not in too much pain,” she finally said. “We’ll find a way to heal you, Rook. I swear it.”

Rook grasped her hand. “I know.”

Suddenly, all the words that they hadn’t been able to share welled up between them like a fog, a vapor clinging to every inch of their hearts. Every single moment they wasted here counted against their allotted three hours, but Rook couldn’t continue without confessing everything he felt.

“Saoirse, I’m so sorry for the way I treated you in Bezhad. I blamed you for what happened and it wasn’t fair. It was easier to direct my anger and hurt at you than at my sister and friends. And that was so, so cowardly of me. You didn’t deserve that.”

His fingers found her face. Droplets of water clung to her damp skin. The blue-tinged scales on her cheeks shimmered like stardust under the bioluminescent algae. She stared back at him wordlessly, her luminous eyes swimming with unnamed emotion.

Once he’d begun confessing the truth to her, the words tumbled out of him like stones along the mountainside; he couldn’t stop them even if he wanted to. “Even more than that, I was terrified of trusting my heart to another after Eros, Veila, and Raven betrayed me.” Tears pricked at his eyes as a wave of fresh hurt washed over him at the thought of their lies. “And?” he faltered momentarily, thinking of the panic attacks and the unrelenting dreams that wore him down day after day. “I’m broken. I’m so broken, Saoirse.” His voice cracked under the weight of thick emotion. “I’m so scared of letting myself love you. I don’t want to lose you the way I’ve lost everyone I’ve ever loved. Something happened to me after everything in Coarinth. A dam collapsed in my heart and unleashed something within me. I’m sometimes seized with fear that takes hold of my body and doesn’t let go.” His palms tightened gently on her face, as though she might disappear if he wasn’t careful. “It feels like I can’t breathe sometimes. I think the pain that I’ve been running from?the trauma of my parent’s deaths, Raven’s coldness, your bargain with Selussa?it all caught up with me when I was healing in Bezhad. Something shattered in me when the world came crashing down.

“But…I think it was needed. It was the push I required to confront the emotions I’ve kept banished in the depths of my soul. I think a piece of me died when my sister turned her back on me. She was the last brick in the dam that held back all the things I’d locked away. I relied on her for everything. She taught me how to be strong to a fault. I leaned on her to tell me what to think and believe instead of processing my pain and becoming my own person.” Tears burned down his cheeks, scorching trails across his face. Saoirse wrapped her hands around his wrists and squeezed reassuringly.

“None of this excuses my actions. It doesn’t justify how I treated you. But I want you to know why I said the things I did, why I held you at arm’s length. Because you deserve to know. And?” he trailed off. His heart was beating even faster than it had when they’d been led into the grotto. “And I want you to know so that we can build back trust. A piece of me died with Raven’s betrayal, but a different piece was added to my heart when I met you. If you want to…perhaps we can heal together?”

His words echoed through the chamber. He’d just laid his soul bare for her, peeled back the layers of his heart just like he’d peeled off the sodden clothes that lay next to them in a puddle. He shivered at her feet, nearly naked and vulnerable as a spring foal. He’d never been good at admitting when he was wrong. History told him Aurans were incapable of taking ownership of their mistakes at all. It felt like he’d been reborn in a blaze of fire after admitting he’d been wrong. He didn’t want Saoirse’s pity. He didn’t disclose his pain because he wanted to make her feel sorry for him. No, his honesty was needed so they could repair the bridges that had been burned between them, bridges he had selfishly torn down in a twisted sense of self-preservation. The need to be truthful with her felt as necessary as breathing.

For a moment, it seemed like Saoirse might say nothing and his heart skipped a beat. He wouldn’t blame her if she closed the door of their budding relationship and moved on. He’d been stubborn, selfish, and cruel. She’d have every right to turn him down. Instead, she pressed her lips to his. They both shivered now, their mouths cold and wet against each other. But somehow, her kiss warmed every inch of his body and seared away any lingering doubt.

She pulled back, tears glistening in her own eyes. “Yes. I would like that. We’ve both done things we’re not proud of. Hel, the whole reason we’re here in the Under Kingdom is because of my mistake. If it wasn’t for my senseless bargain with Selussa, we wouldn’t be in this mess to start with. I would never judge you for your pain nor your broken pieces, Rook. They don’t frighten me.”

She swiped a damp strand of hair from his forehead. Her fingers arced down his cheek, slipping over his damp skin to settle along his jaw. “But you’re not broken. Shards of fear may cut you, and facing your pain might be more terrifying than anything we faced in the Stone Circle, but these things don’t make you weak. Just because your heart is hurting doesn’t mean you’re broken. It just means you’re alive. We can face whatever comes next. Together.”

Rook’s heart fluttered in his chest as she wrapped her arms around his neck, tucking her head in the crook of his shoulder. Her hair was soaked under his chin, but he didn’t mind. His tears ceased, leaving the taste of salt on his lips. Rook wanted to stay like this forever, trembling in this strange cavern miles below the earth with her, bare skin touching without any secrets between them.

“I don’t think I was ever truly alive until I met you,” he whispered against her hair. She could’ve told him to dive back into the submerged tunnel and he’d have done it. He would do anything she asked, he realized. From now until eternity. She held his shattered heart in her hands and he wouldn’t want it any other way. Saoirse Kellamheart was the best thing to ever happen to him, even if he’d been too foolish to see it until now.

“Hel’s teeth,” Saoirse broke their embrace and jumped to her feet. Rook looked down, noticing for the first time that the water from the vertical shaft had risen over the edge and spilled into the chamber. The bottom of his leathers was already soaked through. The water was rising fast, rushing into the cavern with unnatural speed. Grivur and Larken must’ve been manipulating the water flow somehow.

“We need to get out of here,” Saoirse said, scanning the cave walls for an exit. “This will be flooded in a matter of minutes.” Already, the murky water was seeping up their calves.

Any fledgling elation at having kissed Saoirse vanished as the water rose to their knees. Rook’s chest constricted with sudden panic, and he cast his gaze about the room frantically. There weren’t any easily accessible exits aside from a few shoulder-width crawl spaces. He grew nauseous at the mere thought of cramming himself within one of those tight channels, crawling on his stomach like a Wyrm.

“Over there!” Saoirse grabbed his hand and pulled him through the small cave, splashing through the waves that now swelled up to their waists. The sloshing water was cold, making Rook’s already-clammy skin feel like ice as it lapped up his stomach. Saoirse led them to a submerged hole gouged into the cavern wall.

“I’ll see if it exits out somewhere. Drink your potion now. I’m not sure when we’ll have access to more air. You’re going to need to hold your breath.”

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