Page 165 of A Reign of Roses
The next moment the entire night sky lit as if it were a robust, crackling flame. Every corner of the world above us, where stars andmoonlight and serene darkness lived, replaced by blinding white and gold and shocking red. A sunset in the dead of night.
I squinted, bringing my hand up to shield my eyes as I ran. I knew I wasn’t the only one—I could hear it in the absence of metal on metal, the hush of war cries, the lack of sure footing as men halted their plunder.
Silence across the woods. Silence save for the twin deaths above us and my feet pounding on the ground.
Silence in my mind as well.
I slowed. Could not suck in a single inhale around the agony. My fists funneling wicked black lighte through the ground until trees toppled to the snowy earth.
Fury and utterdespairstraining until I could taste the pain in my throat and across my tongue. More heart-wrenching, more crippling, moreexcruciatingthan anything. Beyond anything. Somehow worse than when I’d lost her in Hemlock Isle. Because I’d found her again. I’d fallenmorein love with the woman. I’d married her.
And because I’d had a single stupid glimmer of hope. A single shot at taking on the burden on her behalf. And I’d wasted it.
I roared at the injustice.
We had not exchanged enough words. Had not laughed enough. Hadn’t kissed or fought or slept in too late or memorized each other enough.
We hadn’t lived. We’d only ever just survived.
I hadn’t realized I was weeping until salt froze upon my cheeks.
She wanted this. She wanted this—
It was no consolation. I was too selfish. Too broken. I didn’t care.
My grief bent from me in wide, gruesome arcs.
Her life, her beautiful, vibrant life—extinguished.
And my soul, collapsing on itself.
And when I was spent, on my knees, hacking against the frozen, bald earth, the sky was pitch-black once more. Starless and desolate. The thunder above already faded into howling wind. Snow fell from the sky and landed across my head and nose. Smoke scented the air.
No—
Not snow. Ash.
Ashwas raining from the sky.
The ashes of my father. And of the woman I loved.
Come back to me, I begged.I’m nothing without you.
A single ragged inhale sounded behind me. It was Griffin. His pained face, when I craned my neck back, eyes wet and churning. His mouth that mutteredI’m sorry.
I almost told him to go back to the keep. That I’d stay out here for the next few hours. The next few months. That they could all return to the world Arwen had left for them—
But I couldn’t disappear inside my grief. I owed myself to my people. Knew I had to shake the hands of the men who lived, and mourn the ones we’d lost. Lay planks of wood and plant new saplings and spread the news across the continent, on behalf of Onyx, that we’d won.
As the man they’d knelt for. Their king and their victor.
Though what victor allowed the woman he loved to deliver the dying blow and lose her life because of it, I didn’t know.
All I knew was a single, ferocious desire to end my life and find her in whatever awaited us next. I’d lived too damn long.
From far behind us, a single high-pitched voice cut through my sorrow. “How…” Mari uttered. “I don’t understand…”
And then Griffin, drawing closer behind me. “Kane—”
