Page 121 of Her Soul for a Crown
“What are you doing?” Calu asked. Sohon and Kama exchanged a look.
“Please, I cannot do this. I cannot mar another soul. Not hers. I beg you, not her.”
Calu blanched. “But she offered her soul.”
“And I have fallen in love with it.”
A sharp breath echoed.
“Take mine, sacrifice mine. Mayhap it will be enough.” Reeri bowed his head. “It is all I can offer. My life should have been the only one forfeit from the start. It should be mine now, to bring our brethren back.”
“Reeri.”
It was her voice, thick and broken on the end. Yet he dared not turn. Dared not look into those fierce eyes and face what he had been about to do, the selfishness that had nearly taken her from him. He could not bear it.
“Take my soul,” he repeated. “It is the least of what I deserve.”
Silence stretched.
Then came a sneer. “You imbecile.”
Reeri blinked up.
Calu bent at the knee, leveling a furious gaze. “Do you not see? We have never blamed you.”
“But—”
“No. Listen to me for once in two hundred years,” he snapped. “Mighty Heavens, how do you not see? I lost my brethren that day, but I lost my closest friend, too. You shut me out, Reeri. You shut us all out. Were there unintended consequences to what we did? Yes. Were they deserved? No. Were any of us to blame? No. We have missed you, as wholly as we miss Ratti and the others.Imiss you, Reeri. I love you, brother. Come back to us. Come back to me. Come back.”
The words clawed at Reeri’s chest, trying to catch and sink in. With wet lashes, Reeri looked at his family. Tears streaked Kama’s cheeks, and a sniffle ripped from Sohon’s nose.
They missed him.
They loved him.
They had never not.
Regardless of what had happened, of what he had done, he was loved. And he had always deserved it. His heart split open, and he vaulted into Calu’s arms.
“I love you.” His voice broke. He squeezed tight, tighter than even Ratti had ever done. A promise to never let go, to never forget again. “I love you.”
Two pairs of arms fell on them. Hot tears dropped on his cheeks. Reeri had found his way home. It had always been there, in plain sight. He had only needed to listen and see.
“Reeri.” Anula’s whisper tingled down his back.
This time, he turned. Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears and an unspoken question—but he was already pressing her close, one hand tucking the hair behind her ear, the other caressing her cheek. He pushed his thoughts into her mind, where he was not mere shadow, but had a body and a life, and she was just as she was now, a beautiful soul, stubborn and burning bright. The one who lit up his shadow, who gave life to his existence. The one he had dreamed of finding: the one who communed with his soul.
Anula sucked in a breath. Her hand rested on his cheek. “Reeri—”
Boom.
Reeri tensed.
Boom.
“What is that?”
Boom.
