Page 91 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
He didn’t look away from my wings. If anything, his eyes grew sadder.
“How no one has ever given you choices…” He trailed off, the words left hanging between us. Soft though they were, they landed like stones in my chest, stealing my breath as they sank, and I heard the part he hadn’t said—least of all me.
“No,” I said after a moment. “But you haven’t been given them either.”
I watched him in the window’s dark reflection, the hard plane of his jaw, the sharp angle of his eyebrows, and the way worry always tugged them closer.
He was a male hollowed out by duty, the lines around his mouth carved by decisions that never belonged to him.
I had seen the dreams that haunted him. And the battles he’d thrown himself into until there was nothing left to give.
And I had been there the day his Visionary ordered our match, had watched the moment Fate handed him a path he hadn’t chosen.
The air stretched taut between us, delicate as spun glass and twice as easy to break.
“You asked how long I would keep you here,” he said, measured now, almost detached, but the words still cut like a blade.
All at once, the room felt too small for the two of us.
For the second time since we landed in his rooms, my breath escaped me, but this time it felt like I had the wind knocked out of my lungs. I knew. I knew where he was going with this.
I turned to face him, studying the resolute features that warred with the bitter resignation pouring out from his mana. The loss of his touch hit me like a physical blow, so much stronger than it should have been.
He met my eyes, and his jaw clenched. “After you get your mana back, you’re free to go.”
The air around us froze as we stood suspended in time, in a moment that I had been waiting for… His words should have been a relief.
It was a far cry from every other time he had told me I belonged to him, no matter what. That our bond couldn’t be broken.
My ring was silent against my finger. There was no answering buzz to tell me his words had been a lie.
He meant it. He was being sincere.
My pulse kicked against my throat.
“And if I can’t?” I managed. The question trembled on its way out.
Were my words hopeful or filled with dread? I couldn't tell, but my voice trembled all the same.
Draven’s gaze settled on my features, the barest line furrowing between his brow.
“The Archmage comes tomorrow.” He drew in a slow breath, fist clenching on the exhale. “If there is no path forward, I’ll help you find a way to break the bond.”
The chamber fell even quieter, like the walls had learned to hold their breath for us.
My lips parted, though no words followed. And my bones rippled with what I was certain should have been relief. This was what I wanted. Right?
Then why did it feel like the relentless agony of a blade along my skin, brands searing into my flesh?
Was he giving me a choice, or leading me neatly to the ending we both already knew? There was no future for the Winter King and a half-Seelie. No kingdom saved by someone who could not wield her own mana.
And no point in staying shackled to someone who could never be anything to him.
My wings folded in on themselves, vanishing back into the place I’d always kept them, as though they’d never been there at all.
Behind me, the hush of his chamber pressed in like a secret neither of us had chosen, but both of us carried all the same.
Everly
