Page 84 of Guardian of the Drowned Empire

“Gryphon Island,” I told her.

Rhyan walked to the door. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

On instinct, I reached for his hand. His fingers closed over mine, and our eyes met. His grip tightened in response.

“I’ll be right outside, standing guard.” Rhyan released my hand and left.

I rummaged through the overhead cabinets for extra blankets. The night was already so cold, and Meera’s skin was turning to ice. I draped them over her, rubbing her arms, asking her if she felt warm enough. But she only stared back at me with a blank expression.

“What have you done?” she asked, voice cold. “Lyr, what have you done?” Her hand snaked toward my wrist, turning my palm up, exposing my star tattoo and the oaths branded beneath them.

Rhyan knew. Rhyan knew the secret I’d spent years spilling my blood and sweat to protect. I felt like my heart was going to explode. My oath was broken. It was my own fault. It was my own weakness. I’d allowed myself to be cornered, I’d waited too long to act.

“I had no choice,” I said. “I had to get you out of there without anyone seeing, without the escorts catching us. I almost had you safe, but I wasn’t fast enough. If he hadn’t….” I shook my head, feeling the panic start to come over me. “We would have been exposed completely. We had four escorts trailing us after I carried you away from the party.” Plus Bellamy.

She squeezed her eyes shut. “I know. I know you did everything you could. But Lyr,” she said, her pale eyes flicking to my wrist.

The oath was embedded with consequences. I’d broken my oath. And I was going to pay the price.

“What does it mean?” I asked frantically. “What’s going to happen to me?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never known anyone who broke a blood oath before.” Her teeth chattered. “Just that…the magic finds a way.”

I wracked my brain for any sort of information I’d gleaned over my years of research. But I’d been so busy trying to protect the oath, I’d never read about what would happen if I broke it. I never could have imagined I would.

Meera’s thin shoulders shook as she let out a cold gasp, her breath frosting in the air. She ran her hands over her face, fingers catching in her hair, pale and disheveled. “He knows.”

My stomach twisted as I nodded.

“Lyr, what are we going to do about him?” Her eyes dipped down my leg, to the soturion dagger strapped to my thigh.

My breath came faster. I was going to be sick. I couldn’t hurt Rhyan. Unless…Fuck. Gods.

Meera drew the blankets tighter around her shoulders. “It’s too crowded in here, I need some air. I can’t. I just…can’t right now.” Her whole body shivered. Her gait was uneven as she stumbled to the door of the carriage. Holding her hand, I helped her step out. She moved silently through the sand to the shoreline, her moonlit hair blowing in the breeze, the blanket dragging behind her back, erasing her footprints in the sand.

Rhyan stood at the edge of the shoreline, gazing into the ocean. The rolling waves lapped against his boots before retreating. His dark green cloak lifted in the wind. Beneath the moon and stars, the golden sands of Gryphon Island were muted to a soft bronze. The great statue of a black onyx gryphon, the Guardian of Bamaria, loomed in the distance, a silent protector of the shores.

Heart pounding, I made my way through the sand, my boots sinking with each step. I joined Rhyan’s side, hugging my arms to my chest, painfully aware of the dagger sheathed to my thigh, of what I might have to do to protect my family. The wind blew at me, frigid with the salt of the ocean water, spraying against my arms and face. And all at once, the pain I was in from Meera’s attack, the stress of getting her to safety, and the fear of how and when the magic would strike for breaking my oath and whether or not I could trust Rhyan with what he now knew hit me. The secret I’d carried, the pain…every choice, every sacrifice including Jules… I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t believe this had happened.

Rhyan turned toward me, his right eyebrow furrowed in concern. The breeze lifted the edges of his cloak up behind him.

My chest heaved, heart pounding. My hands and feet felt numb and my chest hollow, as tears burned behind my eyes.

Rhyan took a step closer. “Is she all right?” His voice was full of concern.

Not the question I was expecting.

I was imagining Tristan. I was imagining Meera already being tied up, bound in black ropes and dragged away as his aura raged with fury and betrayal.

But this was Rhyan. Rhyan, who swore he’d never hurt me. Rhyan, whose touch could light my body on fire. Rhyan, who even in his darkest moments of the night, even barely conscious from his nightmares, still managed to protect me.

But he was also Rhyan, forsworn. Rhyan, who couldn’t afford to lose his place in Bamaria over a secret that didn’t affect him.

I shook, my body growing colder, my stomach plummeting.

“Lyr?” he asked again.

I reached for my chest, clutching it through my dress as my breathing grew more erratic. Everything tightened inside me.

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