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I wanted to reach out and hold him. I wanted to feel his arms around me once more, but the only touch we’d had in the last few weeks had been when we’d held one another’s hands at my cottage. There was a barrier we hadn’t passed yet, a line neither of us had crossed.
Would tonight be the night we would?
I hope so,I couldn’t help but wish. I’d done a lot of thinking these last few weeks. Too much. I was tired of thinking, I’d decided. Lorik had been correct about me all those weeks ago. Iwasdriven by logic, and for once, I just wanted to do what feltright.
And to me, Lorik felt right. Despite everything.
The Halo lights were beginning to flicker on in the village, making it glow in the distance. My own orb was weaving around us, casting shadows across our faces as I tucked my tableclothback into my cart, laden with the gifts I’d received today. For once, it would be nearly as heavy lugging back to my cottage as it was into the market.
“You’ve been here all this time?” I asked, suddenly shy.
He nodded.
“Are you…are you back for a little while?”
Lorik’s lips turned up. It felt strange now, looking at his glamour when I knew the truth. What had Veras said? Power was knowledge. It peeled the veil away from your eyes.
Now I understood what he’d meant. I would never see the world the way I had before.
“Yes,” he said. “My sister…she’s awake.”
My breath hitched. “Really?”
He nodded, and I saw the relief glide over his face, as if he couldn’t believe it himself. “It’s remarkable. Truly,” he said. “That’s why I was called back. That day, she just…woke up. It’s like it never happened. She’s back. Thela came back.”
I rounded the table and, without hesitation, wrapped my arms around him. I didn’t care if people were watching. I didn’t care if they would whisper or gossip about us. I only cared about Lorik and the catch I’d heard in his voice. And I thought…I want to meet his sister one day.
Would that even be possible?
Lorik’s arms went tight around me, and I pressed my face into his chest, feeling the hard thump of his heart against my cheek. Maybe this would be what he needed to help him forgive himself. His sister. Me.
We’d taken this slow, hadn’t we? We’d felt one another out, tiptoeing around the idea after Lorik’s necessary betrayal. But it had been long enough.
All I knew was that it had felt like a lifetime without him already. I didn’t know if I could go another day.
“I’m happy for you,” I said quietly, inhaling his scent deeply. His vest was luxuriously soft and supple, crafted by an expert hand. Our lives were so vastly different, but for the first time, I didn’t care. It didn’t matter. “Happy for her and your family.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. And I knew he was thanking me for more than my words.
“I told you already,” I said, “the hive heart seems small in comparison now. Don’t thank me for that.”
“I willalwaysthank you. Because it wasn’t an easy thing. You sacrificed something you cared deeply for, something that was a constant in your life for years, for people you don’t even know.”
His words ruffled my hair, and I closed my eyes against him, feeling warm and safe in his arms. Because the truth was that I would always have a scar of my own, just like the crime marking on his inner wrist. The shadevine queen’s sting would always ache, a perpetual reminder of what I’d needed to do.
“Let’s make a deal,” I suggested.
Lorik pulled back, running his eyes over my face carefully, hearing something in my tone that tightened the muscles in his body. “Oh?”
I drew in a deep breath, my heart pounding.
“I think we should put what happened behind us,” I said.
His brows drew together.
“I—I want to move forward, Lorik,” I told him, feeling the words clog up my throat, but I’d been feeling the truth of them for some time. “With you. If you still want that.”
His eyes glowed through his glamour before he could conceal their light.
