Page 19 of An Honored Vow

The in-between was a cold cave, much too close to the hole Maerhal had spent the better part of her life in. She deserved a burial, to have her body turned to ash so it could grow again under thewarmth of the sun and the cool of the rain. It was wrong to keep her underground another day.

My fingers turned to a fist along the stone. “Who will save the Elverin if their leaders are caught between grief and hope?”

Syrra scoffed. “I am not certain there is any hope left.”

I tapped my fingers again. What good would it do to admit to her that I struggled with the same fear, that each day I woke with a mountain on my chest, burying me under the weight of everything we had to lose, and I was nothing but fractured pieces waiting to fall, praying that the war ended before I did.

I took a deep breath. The damp air smelled of earth and spring water. “If we don’t continue the fight, then Maerhal and Lash died for nothing.”

Syrra’s dark eyes cut to me.

“They died believing that Elverath would be ours again.” I lifted my chin to keep my voice from breaking. “They died with the same dream we all had. Of our freedom and our magic, returned to us.”

A tear welled along Syrra’s bottom lash. I watched it swell and fall onto her cheek, leaving a river of grief along her skin.

She lifted her chin and the tear fell to the ground. “I no longer believe that dream is worth all this suffering.”

My heart tore as I reached for her hand. Her skin was cold like stone.

I opened my mouth, but no words came. I had been so sure that breaking that last seal would solve all our problems. I was not thinking of the army that waited for us in every major city. The battles still left to fight, the losses still to come. I had moved forward, focused on one singular goal, but now that the seals were broken and there was still so much left to do, I couldn’t help but wonder if Syrra was right.

Had this fight been worth it at all?

CHAPTEREIGHT

RIVEN WAITED FOR MEat the end of the long tunnel that led to the crypt. A small faelight danced around his shoulder and I stilled. He stood in the shadows of the tunnel, and for a moment I thought his powers had returned. His face was that of the Fae I had come to know, come to love, everything exactly the same except for the violet eyes that were now an unmistakable royal green, the only thing left of Killian, his other self. The part of him that had been a lie.

This was the first time I had allowed myself to just look at him.

The new Riven.

The true Riven.

The Halfling with no secrets left to hide behind.

I cast a ball of wind and pushed him into the wall. “I’m not in the mood for conversation.”

“There are a thousand different problems raining down on your head, Keera.” Riven kept his back against the root-packed earth, but his shoulders curved toward me like a bow around its arrow. “The right mood will never find you. You keep yourself too busy for it to catch up.”

“And why is that, Riven?” My words were so hot they stung the dry patches of my lips. “It couldn’t be that this rebellion was once led by a council yet I am theonlyone at my post. Nikolai is captured, Vrail and Syrra are too sick with grief to be useful in meetings let alone do their duties, there was a prince who was handling his fair share for a time, but it seems he never truly existed and his real identityfled.” I’d stalked so close to Riven that I could hear his pulse quicken in his throat. “Perhaps I am busy because everything has fallen tome.”

Riven’s jaw pulsed. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t know that I was leaving you with so little support.”

I scoffed. “Of course you didn’t. You abandoned us. You abandoned me.”

There was a surprised gasp at the turn of the tunnel. The outline of three Halflings was visible by their shared faelight. They scurried backward to give us our privacy, but I just started walking down the tunnel.

Riven matched my pace. He grabbed my hand and pulled me right along a fork. We walked in silence until we reached Killian’s—Riven’s—bedroom door. He yanked open the stone without hesitation and held up an arm for me to go inside.

I looked at it for a long minute. I had a dozen other things I should have been doing, but being distracted by Riven would keep me from doing them well.

Better to get the conversation over with.

I hadn’t stepped foot into the bedroom since knowing the truth. There was a coldness to the bed and stacks of books along the floor. Did Riven ever sleep here during his ruse? Or was this just another place for Vrail to spend her nights, glamoured and reading until dawn?

Riven bit his lip. He leaned against the tall bedpost. “The books are mine. I do like to read. I did a lot as a boy, and I still try now.”

I swallowed. “Glad to know at least that wasn’t part of the lie.” There was an edge to the words I couldn’t dull. I wasn’t sure why I cared. Riven had never presented himself as the bookish one, that was reserved only for Killian.

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