Page 120 of A World of Ruins

Sarilyn blows out a breath and spears me with curious eyes. ‘I heard you have allied with the Dark Elves.’

My shoulders tense, and as I move closer, I lift the skirt of my gown so it doesn’t collect dirt. ‘Where did you get that from?’

‘Your little friend who follows you around like a lost pet.’ She cocks her head from side to side. ‘The Elf.’

I sigh.Ruvyn.

‘He’s quite the chatterbox once you rile him up.’

I should have never brought Ruvyn into all of this. He is the only other companion who knows about my visits with Sarilyn. He is the one who takes care of her necessities. It was only a matter of time before she began to get inside his head.

‘King Hedris wants to dethrone Darius,’ I tell her. There is no point in evading the situation any longer. ‘We are simply preparing ourselves.’

She hums vaguely. ‘I thought you never wanted a fight?’

‘I don’t,’ I huff. ‘All I have ever wanted is to prevent us from going to war, yet it seems all odds are against me.’ My mind circles back to Freya’s words.

From decay and ruin, they reclaim their vengeance . . .

My hands feel clammy and nausea tickles my throat as I grimace, turning my head to the side. I don’t want to think about what that means, or even think about it at all, but I can’t get it out of my mind. Freya felt something – something that happened just to her.

‘When I first met with the seers,’ Sarilyn says quietly, and my gaze drifts to hers only to find her staring far off at the walls, ‘they used to live deep in the woods. I still remember the one I visited. She was living with witches at the time.’ Under her breath, a disdainful laugh bubbles up her throat. ‘Twin witches.’

I stay rooted to the spot, not knowing whether to speak or even breathe.

‘When the seer told me of what could happen, I retaliated by—’

Knowing where she is going with this, I cut her off, gritting my teeth. ‘You killed them.’

Her eyes snap my way. ‘I madeErionkill them,’ she says, as if it were any better. ‘The twins, but not the seer. I wanted her to know that I could change the future however I wanted. That nothing would stop me, not a fight, not a dragon, and much less a reincarnation of the so-called Solaris.’ Contempt colours her expression in a way that reminds me of the old Sarilyn, the one who did everything she could to win.

Yet a moment later, that old loathing cracks and she drops her shoulders with a sigh. ‘I suppose, though, that there are times when, no matter what you do, you cannot change the spoken future.’

‘That’s not true.’ I say it in a whisper, as if I’m afraid to admit something I am unsure about myself. ‘Maybe . . . you wentabout it the wrong way. Chose paths that resulted in the opposite outcome to what you wanted.’

Sarilyn’s eyes are on me as she considers it. Then she backs away further into her cell and sits down on the grimy floor. She is so used to the dungeons now that the dirt and bones of previous prisoners no longer disgust her.

‘Well.’ She takes a breath. ‘Time is ticking, Naralía. I feel I have kept you down here long enough. I doubt you want to be late to your own wedding, do you?’

No. No, I do not.

Still, something tells me that Sarilyn found an excuse to bring me down here. She might not say it to my face, nor do I think she will ever have the courage to do so, but I know that in some depth of her heart, she enjoys my company.

I don’t bid her goodbye. I decide that a simple nod will suffice as I turn my back to her.

‘Naralía?’ she says. I whirl to her, dragging the light layers of my gown with me in my hands. ‘Good luck in your new life.’ She surprises me with a genuine smile, despite a certain sadness lingering in her dark eyes. ‘I expect you to thrive more than I ever could have.’

The raw and earnest tone in her voice wraps around me, affecting my heart more than I care to admit to myself.

I want to think it is her just manipulating me to feel this way.

I want to believe it is just her way of toying with me.

Perhaps then, it wouldn’t make me feel such guilt for someone who caused me so much pain in the first place.

I scold myself as I spare a quick glance at Ruvyn as he comes to fetch me through the flickering, sconced corridor and faces Sarilyn’s curious stare.

There will be no going back after this . . .

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