Page 50 of Elven Lies

He rolled his eyes. “All that aside, you know I’m right. This is what we’ve been waiting for,Kilda’ari. All the signs are right in front of us. Movement on the Qriisri Plains. The Gateway’s been open for the better part of a year now. There’s nothing to stop the Bloodshadow Court’s enemies anymore, except us.”

The heat blazing in her cheeks could have been from the late-afternoon sun as they crossed the city on foot. More likely, though, it came from her rekindled anger that he would use this opportunity to try manipulating her into returning home with him again.

She should have expected it.

“I don’t see why that has any relevance to my life now,” she said, her jaw already stiff with the effort of not yelling at him.

“You don’t mean that,” he said gently. “I know you don’t mean that. But you have to admit, nothing else has ever looked like this before. The Bloodshadow Court’s enemies have already begun to gather their forces again. We’ve seen movement in every one of their territories, and it’s all beenrecent. Movement all across Xahar-áhsh. It’s happeningnow.Agn’a Tha’ros needs you. You have to come home.”

Rebecca stared straight ahead, masking her reaction despite already teetering on the edge of ditching him to go look for this damn key-maker on her own.

“That’s how we stop it,Kilda’ari,” he added softly. “When you and I finally bond, then we’ll—”

“No!” She stopped short on the sidewalk and whirled on him. “Wearen’t doing anything, Rowan. Definitely notbonding.”

“But the prophecy—”

“Theprophecy?” she spat, then gazed around to eye the random human vehicles, some possibly even filled with magicals, zipping back and forth along the road beside them.

She couldn’t make a scene here, but she wanted to.

“Don’t talk to me about prophecies,” she hissed. “They don’t change a damn thing.”

“Really?” The amusement had returned to his eyes, though fortunately for him, he didn’t smile, or she might have tried to smack it off his face. “You’re telling methisdoesn’t mean anything? ‘When the Bloodshadow Heir bonds with her heart and the fate of two worlds settles in her hands…’Thatdoesn’t apply to you?”

“I already told you I refuse.” She spun away from him and continued down the sidewalk.

Who cared if she didn’t know where they were going or how to get there? She didn’t want to stand out in the open with Rowan, listening to him spouting off all the same bullshit others had forced down her throat over an entire lifetime back home.

She didn’t want to stand anywhere with him, discussing any of this.

“Rebecca, wait,” he called, hurrying after her. “Youhaveto come with me. You know that. We have to go back to Court to finish this the way we were meant to. It’s already been set in motion. Things you can’t control—”

“See, that’s just more bullshit,” she said. “Icancontrol my decisions now, which you seem to have completely overlooked in your grand plan to come find me, sweep me off my feet, and take me back home so they can just put me in more of their chains. Again.”

With a snort, Rowan kicked at a patch of stray pebbles someone else had kicked onto the sidewalk, muttering, “As far as damsels and distress go, you make it really damn hard for me to do my part. With this one, it’s the other way around. Damsels givingmedistress.”

“Another part of your master plan you didn’t account for,” she snapped. “I’ve made a new life here, Rowan. You keep telling me it’s time to come home, but you’re still not listening when I tell you Iamhome, and I’m not leaving it. I’m not going back with you. Not through the Gateway. Not through another spell. It’s just not happening.”

Rebecca tried to keep her emotions in check, but his refusal to see what she’d been telling him this whole time made it more than difficult not to lash out at him. She didn’t want to lash out, but the Blackmoon Elf knew exactly how to push her buttons.

“Maybe if you explain it to me again,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“This is as simple as I can spell it out for you. I refuseallof it, okay? I refuse stepping foot back in my parent’s Court. I refuse the vows and the bone tile and everything that comes along with it. I refuse the stupid prophecy. I refuse to let my destiny be dictated by some old fool’s ramblings the elders decided was more important than who I am or what I want. And they call it a prophecy? It doesn’t predict shit.”

“It predicted your magic.”

“Chalk it up to simple genetics,” she retorted. “Centuries of the Bloodshadow Clan diligently pruning their bloodlines so someone like me would finally be born again. That’s simple science, not seeing the future.”

“With the opening of the Gateway, though? You can’t tell me those two things just coincidentally happened at the same time.”

“They didn’t. I’m over a thousand years old. The Gateway’s been open for almost a year. Where does divine timing come into that, huh?”

“Well then, what aboutus?” Rowan asked, shooting her a cheeky smile that made her want to punch him. “The Bloodshadow Heir and her heart, right? Go ahead and tell me there was anyone else for even thousands of miles around Agn’a Tha’ros who could have qualified.”

Rebecca inhaled deeply, then let it out again in a steady sigh. “Are you really calling yourself myheartright now?”

“The elders certainly did. They believed it so much, they swore our oathsforus.”

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