Page 161 of A Ripple of Pages and Secrets

It’s Talton. Talton must have a human form. But what matters now are the tears.

Galvanizing myself into action, I reach out and cup my hand over Roane’s face, catching some tears. Then, in a frenzy, I pull at the laces of his pants, dragging them down.

“Aline?” Ardruna growls. “What are you doing? Now is not the time to ravish him.”

“Help me!” I say impatiently. “The griffin said any bird’s tears would help.”

“Are you serious?” Ardruna sinks her teeth delicately into the fabric of Roane’s pants and together we drag them down enough to bare the wound. I smear Talton’s tears over the angry cut in a sticky coating.

“Is something happening…?” Talton hisses. “Good Gods, look!”

I am looking. Staring, in fact.Gods.It’s working. It’s working!

I didn’t expect magic, but then I don’t know why I didn’t. This is a magical world. Instantly, the wound loses that angry redness and the edges start to knit together.

Heaving a long breath, wiping again at my cheeks, I sit back. A crazed laugh escapes me. “He isn’t dying.”

“He isn’t?” Talton asks. “Are you sure?”

“You might have saved him. How are you feeling, Roane?”

He blinks at me, his gaze drowsy. “It… doesn’t hurt so much anymore.”

“Talton was the cure all this time.” I lay my head on Roane’s chest and wrap my arms around him. “You’ll be all right. You’ll live.”

His hand comes to rest on my hair. “But you’re crying, too. For me?”

That snaps me out of my exhausted relief and drags me back to reality. How dare he? How dare he lie to my face over and over and make me weep for him? Kiss him? Trust in him?

I lift my head and scowl at him. “Seeing as you aren’t dying anymore, let me tell you a little story.”

His brows go up. “Aline?”

“Thirty years ago, something happened and changed this world. The Book of Areon was opened, but you were not the one who did it. It was Ersil. But you’re not Ersil, are you?”

A pause.

A shrug of broad shoulders against the rumpled furs and other nest covers.

“What are you talking about, girl?” Ardruna’s blue eyes glow. “Ro, say something.”

Talton bobs his head. “What is she saying, Ro?”

I narrow my eyes at Roane. Won’t he even try to deny it? “Which is your book and your real name?”

“I can’t tell you that,” he says quietly.

“You’re not human or fae,” I say. “You’re a character from a book. The question is, what happened to Ersil, how did you take his place, and above all… what else have you lied about?”

“I can’t answer that,” he says softly. “You shouldn’t have cured me. Nothing has changed.”

“Meaning what?”

His dark lashes lower, hiding his eyes, and his mouth twists as if he’s in pain. “I still want you gone.”