Page 143 of The Spark that Ignites
The hurt in Vesper’s sigh was palpable.
Destonne’s eyes widened but he agreed, “Very well.” He cleared his throat and straightened his shirt. “Vesper, make your decision now or lose both. I’m growing tired of this.”
Vesper fought against the guard, wrenching his arms free. “Keep your bloody favour.”
His eyes locked with Emmery’s as he rotated his shoulder with a wince. Emmery recalled the time she’d reset it, and he gave her that tin of balm for her battered feet. It was the first time she’d thought Vesper might actually care for her.
The night he dried her tears after summoning Maela chased that memory, tumbling into a series of images. Emmery tried to push away the night he’d kept her warm at the inn as she spilled her secret shames, but it too pressed against her mind until it was all she saw as she met those pale eyes she’d grown to trust. Now they only held lies.
He’d made her think they were friends. Vesper had been herbestfriend.
But it had been a ploy.
All a manufactured lie to get her into Destonne’s hands.
Betrayal stung the back of her throat so entirely, like swallowing a handful of bees.
As if he remembered too, Vesper tore his gaze away and said hoarsely, “But I’m taking Fionn with me.”
Destonne shook his head. “Not now. I’ll send word when he’s recovered.”
Emmery’s knees wobbled. The namehadto be a coincidence, but she asked anyway, “Fionn?”
“Yes, you know Fionn. Briar’s brother.” Destonne turned to her, catching her confused expression, her brows bunched, and eyes rounded. “Ah, I see. Another thing he kept from you?”
Her head swam, too many questions surfacing to grasp only one.
Her Fionn? He wasaliveafter all this time. How was it possible?
“C-can I see him?” she asked, her voice quivering. Emmery could barely form a coherent thought around the shock.
Destonne pulled his mouth to the side and whispered to her, “He’s not in any shape for visitors. Why don’t you see him in a few days?”
“I need to.Now,” she practically cried, the desperation of all those years away from her friend crawling up her throat and bleeding into her voice.
Fionn. Her first friend. Her only friend from back in the human realm.
Destonne gave her a nod but as she turned to leave, Vesper snagged her wrist.
“Emmery,please, don’t go. I need to explain,” he pleaded.
As she looked down at his hand circling her arm her chest ached. She had so many questions for him, but the wreckage from his betrayal was still a fresh wound refusing to clot, and her mind whirred.
Vesper fumbled for words as his thumb skimmed the delicate skin on the inside of her wrist as if he could catch her pulse. “Please, I just—Emmery,” he choked out. “You—you’re my best friend too.”
The words destroyed her. Ripped her down the middle and exposed every piece of her still capable of hurt. A sob rose in her throat, but Emmery shoved it down.
You’re the only one who has held me without hurting me.Her words clanged through her—sharp and raw. What an imbecile she’d been. To think anyone could care for her.
“I know,” she started, her voice a honed blade. “I knoweverythingnow.” Her eyes lit into flames while his extinguished—that moonlit glow she’d come to love now dulled. “All the lies you told ... you manipulated me, and Itrustedyou. And you—youhurtme.” She choked on the bitter admission, the tears burning the back of her throat. But she didn’t let herself feel it as an icy calm froze her poor, beaten heart. It was the only way. “I shared things I haven’t told anyone. I let you make afoolof me. And you promised—” Vesper flinched. “I should’ve listened to you from the start. As you said, nothing is free, nothing is fair. I just ... I didn’t know the cost would be too great for you to actually give a shit about me.”
The questions crawled up her throat:Was any of it true?Were you ever really my friend?
Because it felt so ... real.
But she jerked her arm free of his grasp—not able to look at him a moment longer.
She murmured, her voice tired, “I don’t want to see you again. You’re dismissed.” Emmery didn’t wait to see his reaction. She didn’t care. She couldn’t—not for the sake of her sanity.
