Page 131 of The Second Death of Locke
“You deserve to know it all,” she said. So she told him—she told him about how the sea tore them apart, and how she called for her gods. She told him about waking on the shore, and trying to force his heart to beat, and breaking his body in the process. The only reason she finished her sentences was because he grasped her in his arms and whispered,I’m here, I’m here, I’m hereinto her hair, and she felt the steady thrum of his heart under her fingertips, and the healed bones beneath her hands, the echoes of her power still singing inside of his body. She told him about Kitalma and the Ghostwood. Her mother’s face. Her father’s warning. The shape of his body on the altar.
“Three choices,” Kier repeated once she was finished. “Threedifferent sacrifices. My freedom. Your power. My life.”
“Yes,” Grey said. They were sitting up now, his back to the headboard, Grey cradled in his arms.
He sighed, pulling her closer. His lips grazed her temple as he said, “And I don’t suppose you would just… let me die. Return everything to normal.”
Icy dread pooled in her stomach, and she sent the full force of her grief down the tether. Kier drew a sharp breath, catching the brunt of it, his hands tightening on her arms. “Don’t you dare ask that of me,” she said. “Don’t go making a martyr of yourself.Thatis not a viable option.”
“We might still die tomorrow,” he reminded her.
“Then we’ll do it together,” Grey said fiercely. She levered up, turning around, moving a leg over his hip so she was facing him. She cupped his chin, forcing him to look at her. “I am not choosing an option that guarantees your death, Kier. I have already lost everyone. You cannot ask me to give you up, too. You said—” She broke off, the grief too thick. Kier wrapped her tighter in his arms, but he waited for her to finish.
Grey recovered. “You said that the only love I know is sacrifice.”
He winced. “It was not my finest moment.”
“No, maybe not. But perhaps you’re right. Everyone I’ve ever loved has died for me, or tried to. But Kiernan, I want to love you without fearing that you will die, too. I want to love you knowing that I’ll wake up in the morning and you’ll still be here. That you won’t go racing into the next battle to save me, facing the next obstacle without me, because you’re trying to protect me.
“We buried myparents. My last memory of this place was bringing it down, taking Severin’s hands in mine and detonating him to save myself. That is the kind of sacrifice love has made for me—that love has made me bear. You saw what it was like down there—what happened. What Idid. You know that they died for me, that Sev did, that this whole Isle gave up its life so I could survive. I cannot lose you, too. And if that means I will lose my power—”
“No,” Kier said. “That is not a viable option, either.”
“Kier—”
“Listen to me.” He cupped his hands around her skull, cradling her head. “YouareLocke. The nation—the whole of Idistra—is too unstable to continue without you being in control.Totallyin control. You are too valuable for that kind of sacrifice. I would never ask you to make it, and if you chose to do it on your own, you would never find the end of my fury.”
Grey turned her face away.
Softer, he continued, “Take my freedom, Grey. Everything I have is yours. Everything Iamis yours. Take my freedom, and keep your power, and keep my life. If you are here, I want to live. Even if it requires haunting this godforsaken rock for the rest of my life, never being more than an hour’s walk from you at any time—because, honestly, that’s how we would be anyway.”
“I can’t,” Grey said. “I can’t.”
“You can, and you will,” he insisted. “It’s yours, Gremaryse Locke, High Lady of the Isle and keeper of my heart, just as I am yours. Take it. Take it all.”
She couldn’t speak. She leaned down, pressing her lips to his, surrendering even as she sent her worry down the tether. “Win me my Isle,” she said against his mouth, “and it is done.”
He pulled back for just a moment, studying her face. Kier,herKier, with his uneven handsomeness, and the glimmer in his eye, and that serious line sprouting up between his brows that deepened with every passing day. What a beautiful thing it was, to watch him grow older. To watch him live.
“Then it is done,” he agreed, pulling her back down.
“Commander?”
Kier shifted behind her, his skin pressed to hers. He sighed against her hair and she felt him move, drawing the quilt up to cover her where it must’ve slipped in the night.
She opened her eyes to find pale blue magelight filling the room, deepening the shadows. As her eyes adjusted, she could make out one of Kier’s new squires, already dressed. He was not looking at her, either out of propriety or because he found the hard lines of Kier’s body far more interesting than hers.
“What is it?” Kier asked, sitting up.
“A boat has been spotted drawing near to the beach, sir. The ships are lowering more. They are shielding, so we cannot tell how many there are. We think they mean to attack before first light.”
“Very well. Thank you, Nahir. Have you told anyone else?”
“You’re the first, sir. I went to wake Locke before you…” He trailed off, not willing to point out that Locke was here. Grey bit her lip to keep her expression blank.
“Please wake Reggin and Dainridge, if they’re not already up. Scaelas, too; and Cleoc for good measure.”
“Yes, sir.”
