Page 75 of Ties of Starlight

Idonea had to take her laugh and smother it into a breathy, “What? If anything, all I’ve done is make his life more complicated.”

Frode sighed and then gave them both a stern look. “You can tell no one, especially His Majesty, I said any of this.”

“My lips are sealed,” Asa said. Idonea nodded as well.

“Has Nyrunn told you why he was always in the library, Idonea?”

She shook her head. “I assume it was because he wasthe crown prince and had many duties that required the materials there.”

“If that were the only reason, why would he have stopped when he became king and those duties only increased?”

He had Idonea there.

“Fine. Why did he start coming to the library?”

“To get away from his father, the court, and, well, everyone really. But mostly his father. It was quiet. When he needed to work, he could in peace, hiding in between the shelves. It was something of a sanctuary for him.”

“His father…” Idonea had spent so long fearing Nyrunn because of how much she’d feared both his uncle and father in her previous life, she’d never stopped to wonder if she wasn’t the only one. “Working in the library, I never met him.”

Not in this life. On purpose. Even if the risk was minimal, once Idonea knew about her past lives, she couldn’t risk any interaction with Hrorr that could give her away.

“Be grateful,” Asa whispered, clasping her hands together. “I was always terrified anytime he was in the room.”

Idonea remembered Hrorr as a young elf, like Nyrunn; he’d only just taken the throne after his and Bror’s parents were killed by Moon Elves. Poisoned. Everyone knew it was them, but there wasn’t proof, and she’d known Hrorr was waiting for her and Olaug to finish the ceremony and strengthen their people before declaring war so he could avenge them.

She was certain he was more upset by her failure in her last life than she was.

When she’d died, he’d been young. When she woke up, he was old with a young heir from his second wife.

“He put a lot of pressure on Nyrunn from the momenthe was born. He was angry. Anytime I saw him, it was almost palpable in the air. Almost suffocating. Anyone would rather hide away in a dusty library than be around a man like him.”

Idonea stared at her hands and whispered, “Why are you telling me this?”

How did Nyrunn seeing the library as his escape have anything to do with her? Or make her a good wife for him?

“I just… think you should know how much the library meant to him. You—”

The sound of breathing reached them. Idonea leapt to her feet with Asa and Frode on her heels. A hand appeared, gripping the edge of the cliff, and then another. Within a second, Nyrunn was hauling himself up and onto the peak.

He pushed himself to his feet, huffing for breath as he brushed off his clothes. “I believe this is the part where I say give me back my wife.”

Frode held his hands up and backed away, and Asa did the same. Idonea took a step toward him as he caught his breath. She said, “I don’t think they’ll be putting up much of a fight.”

“All the better,” Nyrunn said, closing the distance between them and pulling her into his arms.

She wrapped her arms around him and she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he continued taking deep, full breaths. She felt him gently brush a hand over her lily crown. “You look beautiful.”

She stiffened in his arms before she forced a slow breath out.

He was not Bror. He was not his father.

He was not just their extension.

Idonea needed to bury those ghosts if she was going to make the most of her time in this life. She couldn’t wastethe time she did have with Nyrunn before her next, final, perfect life, constantly being haunted by his ancestors’ ghosts.

Chapter 27

Once he’d caught his breath, Nyrunn let go of Idonea and stepped back, still holding her arms. Idonea reached forward and brushed her fingers over the lines on his arm and with her other hand, she touched the lily crown, and his breath caught in his throat as the bond flared.

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