Page 99 of A World of Ruins

‘The one who does love,’ Sarilyn says. ‘The one who would sacrifice his life just to see you smile.’

Darius’s eyes never leave mine. I can see in his gaze the silent promise to Sarilyn’s words. And Sarilyn herself, of course, knows this because she saw it. She saw how Darius was, even when Aurum tried to make him forget me, saw how he acted when we were together inside the throne room on the night of Noctura. She’s known from the start.

Always.

My heart softens until it’s malleable enough to mould in my hands.

‘Everything I did to you was out of spite, Naralía.’

I glance at Sarilyn, her throat wobbling as she speaks.

‘I wanted tobreakyou like I was broken all those years ago,’ she says between gritted teeth before stepping back and raising her chin. ‘And I will never apologise for that.’

For the first time against Sarilyn, I don’t fight off the smile that peels back my lips. It’s strange. For someone that I despised with my whole being, I now understand her – maybe even admire her.

I believed for so long that Sarilyn broke me. That day in Melwraith, I cried my soul out to Darius and lost all my confidence. And to this day, I fight with myself. I fight to have hope, not just for me, but for everyone else.

‘Thank you,’ I whisper, a weight lifting off me.

Her eyes narrow, confusion likely muddling her thoughts. ‘For what?’

‘For making me see that you’re just like everyone else,’ I tell her. ‘Normal.’

Her lips – no longer carrying the gold gloss she used to wear on them – curl into a slow smile, and something mutual forms between us.

I turn my back to her, now facing Darius. His smirk reassures me that he’s proud of how I handled myself. I walk over to him, ready to get out of this place.

‘Oh, Golden Thief?’ Sarilyn calls out.

We both snap our heads to her, my eyes going round when I see her pull out an object from the skirt of her gown. A hint of gold glints as soon as the firelight from the sconce hits it, and Darius turns to stone.

The Rivernorth pendant.

She passes it through the cell bars, the chain dangling from her fingertips. ‘Aurum almost destroyed it when he pried it from that man’s hands – Ivarron.’

My mind snaps to the very moment Aurum told me he killed Ivarron. I suck back a sharp breath, shooting Darius a look as he heads towards Sarilyn. He knows how complicated my relationship with Ivarron was, yet that never stopped him from comforting me over his death on the first night in the castle. It must have hit me harder than I thought, considering I was silent for most of the night, but I was also mourning Gus, and Darius cared more about how I felt than how he did.

‘Why are you giving it to me?’ Darius takes the pendant from Sarilyn, staring at it as if it might disappear soon from his grasp.

‘I’m defeated,’ Sarilyn says plainly, and her voice has a certain numbness.

My brows pinch, never having thought in a lifetime that Sarilyn Orcharian herself would admit to being defeated.

Darius must feel the same as he says, ‘You never give up. So why are you giving this to me?’

‘Eventually, we all give up.’ Sarilyn’s gaze flickers past Darius’s shoulder to look at me. ‘It just took me three centuries for that to finally happen.’ She turns away from us. ‘I suggest you make your way back to your friends. They won’t want to be alone once this world collapses.’

I don’t say what she would expect me to or what I truly wish to answer with. ‘Goodbye, Sarilyn,’ I tell her instead, already knowing I will be coming back here. And it will be to tell her that the world still lives on.

CHAPTERFORTY-TWO

Illias is running towards me as Darius and I return to the castle fields. He wraps me up in his embrace and my arms are stuck to my sides as he tightens his hold, practically breaking my ribcage.

‘Let her breathe, brother.’ Iker taps his shoulder, laughing when Illias releases me and slaps Iker’s hand away.

‘Why on earth would you leave?’ Illias ignores Iker, his usual worried eyes scanning me from top to bottom.

‘I went to see Sarilyn.’

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