Page 102 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
‘And you would betray me?’ It came out a half-sob this time, but her attack was none the weaker. ‘After I have accepted every part of you?Lovedevery part of you? After all that, you would kill my people —’
The word she emphasised cut deeper than any blade.
Everything around them faded.
‘They are not your people anymore.’ He blocked a vicious slash to his leg.
‘They will always be my people.’
Steel met steel again, and this time, Talemir forced them closer, locked her weapon to his.
Her breath brushed his face, and he peered into her eyes, so full of pain and confusion, so beautiful.
That blue gaze dropped to his mouth. She was going to kiss him, and amid all the violence and rage, he would let her, he would close his mouth over hers and tell her he loved her too —
The cold press of steel kissed his skin instead, digging into his chest.
Talemir looked down to see her blade poised at his heart.
‘If you try to kill a single one of them again, I will end you,’ Drue whispered, her lower lip trembling.
Talemir didn’t take his eyes off that sword. Throughout their travels he had sensed something about it was different, but the strange colour of the alloy had tricked him.
But as the metal pressed against his flesh, he recognised it for what it was.
Naarvian steel.
A weapon forbidden to all those except Warswords.
A blade that could very well kill the warrior and the wraith within.
His eyes went wide as she applied more pressure. ‘You are breaking the laws of Thezmarr, the laws of all the kingdoms, by wielding that blade.’
‘Haven’t you seen? Naarva is no kingdom. Naarva has no laws.’
Talemir’s grasp on his own sword weakened, his limbs going numb.
‘Did you hear me?’ Drue hissed, before repeating her words. ‘If you kill a single one of them again, I will end you.’
‘Do it,’ Talemir told her. ‘There is no hope for me, just as there is no hope for these creatures…’ A single tear tracked down his cheek. ‘I told you when we first met that you could carve out my heart before the end.’
His skin broke beneath the pressure and a trickle of blood ran down his chest, down Drue’s blade.
She flinched at the sight, the violence in her eyes guttering.
Drue hesitated.
For a second, the truth lay stark between them.
She couldn’t kill him, and he couldn’t force that upon her.
There was only one thing he could do.
And so Talemir did what he had to.
He gave in to the darkness.
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