Page 88 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

Anything else would be betrayal.

“It’s his choice, Kyrith. And maybe he’s tired already. He’s so old. Only the ancient gods know how long he served Gatilla and what he did before.”

“I know that,” Kyrith confirms bitterly.

“Maybe this is what Caryan wants. What if she’s the only way he can die? Can you imagine that burden—to have to live forever? Maybe this is why he brought Melody along. Why he keeps her around.”

“He can’t die.” Kyrith’s head jerks up. He glowers at Riven, eyes full of loss and despair. “We can’t allow that!”

“You can’t stop the inevitable, Kyrith,” Riven finds himself saying, realizing he’s repeating the very same words Caryan told him. The very same words he hates so much that just saying them burns a hole in his soul. Seeing his own demons reflected and thrown back at him, laughing in his face. “The wheels of fate are already in motion, and they have been for a long while.”

Riven stands, putting a hand on Kyrith’s broad, strong shoulder.

“It already started that day when Lara almost killed him. When the healer, the elf Meanara at the temple in Avandal, decided to help him instead of letting him die,” Riven explains, and understanding enters Kyrith’s green eyes. “When Lara escaped into the human world and met that human and shortly after bore Melody. A new era dawned then, along with it a new prophecy.”

“We took the first step when we started looking for Lara’s daughter in the human world twenty years ago,” Kyrith says breathlessly, his eyes wide in shock and realization.

Riven nods slowly. “Yes.”

“Caryan always planned to bring the girl here. All those years.”

Riven nods again.

Kyrith stays quiet for once. Then he shakes his head, rubbing his eyes again, head low. “So it’s not just me who thinks he’s always behaved strangely about that girl. That feverish searching, us turning every damn stone in the human world. As if she was an obsession.”

It’s Riven’s turn to say nothing.

Kyrith’s eyes are bloodshot as he mutters, “All ofthat so he can die?”

“Maybe.”

But Kyrith shakes his head. “Nuh. I don’t believe that’s all. Come on, you saw it too. He wants to fuck her, wanted her at that party. Badly. For a fact, I’ve never seen Caryan like this. And she’s a slave. Why not just take her?”

“We don’t know—”

“I know what I saw, and you know it too. I knew for sure when he broke my nose for mentioning it.”

“She was shaking all over, Kyrith. You smelled her fear, it was everywhere. I’m glad he let her go,” Riven points out, his teeth clenched at the last words.

“Oh, come on. We both know that’s not what I’m talking about. It was fucking crazy what went down between them, with Caryan’s eyes turning that gold. I’ve never seen him like that. And yeah, the girl was afraid, but there was more on her side too. There was some weird shit going on, as if—as if they had some sort of connection beyond my understanding.”

Yes, I saw it too. Felt it. Witnessed it.

He says, “I don’t know what it is exactly that we saw. Felt. Maybe it was indeed that she is his destiny. That she’s the one who will kill him in the end and he knows it. Even you have to admit that this makes a weird relationship.”

Kyrith looks at him for a long moment, that relentless flame dancing in his green eyes; the flame that makes him such a dangerous enemy. Made him a legend on the battlefield, when Kyrith still served the King of Elves. Maybe it’s that Kyrith is too much—too much power, too much loyalty—maybe the truth is Kyrith doesn’t know how to handle himself sometimes.

But Riven sees a kind of gratitude in the warrior’s eyes—gratitude that Riven’s shared a part of that knowledge with him, even if Kyrith would never say so.

“You’ve known all this for a very long while, huh?” Kyrith eventually says with a heavy sigh.

“I have. For twenty-two years, to be precise, when Caryan started searching for her. And believe me, I’d have done anything to change it, but it wasn’t my decision. I couldn’t have stopped him,no matter how much I tried. And ultimately, I deemed it wasn’t my place to step between Caryan and her. It was his decision, to kill her or let her live.”

Kyrith’s whole expression changes into a mask of pain, worse than before as he gets up and gently places his two large hands on Riven’s shoulders. “You could have shared, you know? You could have told us. You didn’t need to carry this burden alone all these years.” His voice is grave, his eyes as clear as a forest in the morning of a summer’s day.

“I made a promise, Kyrith. A promise to Caryan. I gave him my word of honor to serve him to whatever end.”

Kyrith nods. If there’s something Kyrith understands, it’s loyalty. It’s the only currency Kyrith’s ever traded in.

---