Page 72 of The Dark Mage
“Bier came back with your father’s refusal,” Esrin continued bitterly.“I panicked.I packed a bag to travel to your father’s manor myself.I was going to steal you away if I had to—but I hoped that my request in person might be enough.
“That night…” His voice wavered.“The Ashkren army came to Ishvaen.They sealed the city and marched to my home.My father’s scouts had reported that my identity as a druid had been discovered.”Esrin’s jaw clenched.“He forced me through a tunnel beneath our house.He told me to stay hidden until he came to get me.”
Esrin’s eyes met hers, hollow with grief.
“He’ll never come to get me, Ren’wyn.”
She inhaled sharply, understanding his meaning.
“My mother sent word later through my father’s head of trade.In Delmor, he told me the truth.The imperials executed my father when he refused to turn me over.My eldest sister was forced to marry the regiment’s captain.He has ruled Ishvaen as governor ever since, waiting for me to return and claim my place.”
Ren’wyn pressed a hand to her mouth.“And if you do, you’ll be arrested and executed.”Her whisper trembled with horror.The awful truth of Esrin’s loss—the reason he never came for her—was like a weight pressing on her chest.It didn’t erase the hole his absence had left in her, but it softened the sharp edge of betrayal.She ached with shared grief.
“Esrin,” she whispered.“I’m so sorry.I know it’s not enough, but I am so sorry.”
Her eyes burned with unshed tears.She thought of their mothers—his father—people who deserved better.She thought of his sister, who’d dreamed of adventure but had instead been trapped in a political prison.The empire had controlled Ishvaen for almost a yearnow.
“Your family…” Her voice broke.“Your sister.Andyou…”
She reached out instinctively when she saw the tears streaming down his face.For all his arrogance and temper, he loved his family more than anything.
But he shrank away, though her own tears were proof of the depth of her feeling.
“I’m torn between my sister’s honor and happiness and my own death,” Esrin said roughly.“It’s an impossible choice, Ren’wyn.My heart broke every day—thinking of you and her, stolen from me.Robbed of any chance for happiness.”His fists clenched, his knuckles white.“When I heard you’d disappeared from the Territories, I thought Erst had murdered you and was lying to appease your father.”
Ren’wyn felt the earth beneath her feet rumble with his rage.A rising wind tugged at her damp hair as a storm gathered.She’d forgotten what Esrin could do when his emotions were unleashed.And a part of her stirred at the memory—the wind and rain that had obeyed him when they made love in the woods.
She still loved him—but being left and forgotten had broken something elemental inside her.It had shattered what they’d been.She wasn’t in love with him anymore.
He wasn’t to blame; that was clear now.This had been out of his control.He’d wanted to come for her—but he hadn’t been able to.What could he have said to her father, who must have heard about Ishvaen?How would Esrin have kept them both safe with his powers exposed?
Yet he had protected these people, sheltered them.Why hadn’t he done the same for her?That bitter truth stung.
And Fael—Fael had been on the run too.Yet he had sheltered her with everything hehad.
Esrin’s eyes softened, his posture relaxing as he finally looked at her again.
“You’re as beautiful as I remember,” he said, a warm smile spreading across hisface.
She remembered every caress, every kiss under his appreciative gaze, and she blushed—but her heart didn’t race.Her body didn’t warm.She wasn’t the same girl he remembered.After breaking and healing, she’d rebuilt herself into someone stronger.
She saw the question in his eyes—a reminder of how he had once feared her power.
Darkness gathered at the edges of her vision.Shadows crept across the ground, swirling down from the tree branches overhead.The warm summer morning dimmed into twilight, and the birds fell silent.Small animals rustled in the brush, scurrying tohide.
Ren’wyn concentrated, breathing deeply.She swept her arms upward, palms open to the sky.The dark, shadow-filled wind lifted her hair from her neck, and she knew her eyes had gone black.
Esrin stumbled back, his breath sharp and shallow as the cold rushed into the clearing.Frost glistened on the stream’s surface.The sun vanished, swallowed by shadow, until she was the only thing he couldsee.
She shifted her hands in a slow, deliberate motion, and shades stepped forward from the darkness—wraithlike figures, little more than mist.The Void was listening, crouched like a predator waiting for her command.
Then she exhaled, releasing itall.
The magic sank into the ground and the trees.Her hair fell back to her neck, and sunlight filtered gently through the leaves.
Esrin’s eyes were wide with shock.
She had never shown him the true depth of her power before.Even the small glimpses he’d seen at the Academy had terrifiedhim.
