Page 152 of The Throne's Undoing

Her eyes widened. "No?"

"I wasn't going anywhere."

"Then why did you open the door?"

"I..." Graeson began but quickly stopped, his gaze roving over her features. His hand dropped from the door frame, then he stepped back and gestured for her to enter. "Please, come in."

With a tight smile and a knot in her stomach, Kallie headed inside before she could sprint down the hall.

As the door clicked shut behind them, Kallie scanned his guest room. While she knew it wasn't truly his, she could see his presence everywhere she looked.

His jacket was thrown over the back of the chair in a corner. The blankets on the bed were tossed across the bed, and there was an indent on the right side where he must have been laying moments before. A blush began to creep across her cheeks as she imagined him lying in bed, staring at the ceiling.

She quickly averted her gaze and stepped toward the desk where his scimitars lay across the table, unsheathed and gleaming in the moonlight. A whetstone sat beside them.

As she ran a finger across the freshly sharpened blade, she whispered, "They're beautiful weapons."

"Thank you. Dani's brother, Xander, made them for me years ago."

"He is very talented. They almost remind me of my own dagger," Kallie said as she inspected the intricate design carved within the metal. Her brows twisted together. "Do you know where--"

Kallie didn't have to finish the question, however, because when she turned, Graeson was already holding her dagger out, hilt toward her.

"You've had it this entire time?" she breathed in surprise.

Graeson shrugged. "I knew you'd come looking for it at some point."

Kallie took the ornate dagger from him and flipped it in her hands. The ancient script on the blade stared back at her. "It's ironic," Kallie mused as she read the words scrawled on the metal.

"What is?" he asked, leaning closer to look at the dagger.

"It says, 'You are the holder of your own fate.' Myra had worked with the blacksmith back in Ardentol to craft this. She had him write these words on the blade for me, yet she was the one who was controlling my fate the entire time."

He frowned slightly. "She may have played a role, but she was never in control of it. You broke free, did you not?"

Fynn had said something similar when she visited him. While she still found herself to be in a cage, perhaps she didn't have to exist in one forever if she didn't wish to.

Kallie ran her finger across the words, the grooves rough beneath her skin. She grabbed the blade by the hilt. The wrapping was perfectly formed for her hand.

"I suppose," she said at last.

"Did you come here only on the off chance I had your dagger?" Graeson asked, pulling her attention back to him.

She adjusted her grip on the hilt, her fingers flexing over it. When his gaze flicked to it, she set it down on the table beside his scimitars. "No, I did not."

Graeson cocked his head. "Then why did you come here, Kalisandre?"

"I am still trying to figure that out," Kallie said as she leaned her hip against the table, placing her palms flat atop it. "All I know is that when I'm with you, things are less loud. For once, it feels like I can breathe. I do not know if that is because we are soul bonds or not."

Kallie quickly held up a hand the moment a flicker of hope coated his gray eyes.

"I do not know if I even want to be soul bonds," she hurried to say.

"Then what do you wish to speak about?" Graeson asked, his expression falling once more.

Kallie took a step closer to him. "I do not want to speak at all."

"Then what do you want?"

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