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Just one shot. That was all it would take. Straight to his head. Quick and painless. And her curse would break.
Her heart stumbled on its too-rapid rhythm, her head going dizzy.
Images flashed before her eyes, and sensory memories prickled along her nerves. Basil’s blinding smile. The sparkle in his eyes when he looked at her. The warmth of his hand when he cupped her cheek. His lips on hers, hot, demanding, giving. His laughter, his humor, his love.
I can’t. Ye Fates, I cannot take his life.
With a sob, she lowered the bow, let the arrow relax on the string.
Basil looked up at that second, smiled at her, and scrambled to his feet. Blond hair dripping water on his face, shoulders and chest, his clothes drenched, he came up to her, his eyes holding only half the knowledge of what had just transpired.
“Well,” he said, oblivious to the raging storm inside her, “you did it, right? You saved my life.”
She nodded, her throat making it impossible to reply.
He bowed, took her hand and kissed the back of it. “You paid your debt. That means you can now leave me and go on with your life. I bet you’re glad you can finally get rid of me, hm?” The humor of his words was undermined by the hint of sadness in his smile.
Get rid of him… The pain in her chest was instantaneous, consuming, flaring out into all the parts of her heart, her soul. I could never get rid of you. She knew it then, knew she’d rather die than snuff out his light.
My life for yours, my love in death.
She closed her eyes, shook her head. “I think I’ll stick around a bit longer.”
The hope lighting his eyes speared her heart, yet poured love into her soul. “Oh, yeah?”
She nodded, swallowed. “You’ve…grown on me.”
“Hopefully not like some cancerous wart,” Basil quipped.
She choked out a laugh, wiped at her eyes. “No,” she rasped, gathered herself to struggle through the maelstrom of bittersweet pain. “More like one of those stray chin hairs that keeps coming back no matter how many times I pluck it.” She gestured at her face, her voice cracking. “Or this one abnormally long eyelash of mine. At some point I just give up and live with it, you know?”
Basil grinned from ear to ear, stepped closer to her. Putting his hands on her waist, he pulled her to him. “You’ve got a creepy long eyelash? Where? I’ve never noticed.”
“Here,” she croaked, pointing to her right eye.
Squinting, he tilted his head. “Hm. This one?” He grazed his finger over the one lash that extended past the others.
“Yes,” she whispered, her heartbeat thunder in her ears.
“It’s white, too,” Basil murmured, his voice intimately low.
His gaze locked onto hers, so full of warmth and everything good in this world, and—by the Fates, being at the receiving end of that look, being the person who made him glow like this, was the most beautiful thing that had ever happened to her.
Her heart broke with the knowledge that she wouldn’t get to enjoy this beauty for long. Because soon she would meet her own death…so he could live.
She quenched the sob that wanted to break loose, and met his kiss instead. Hot, his lips burned hot, despite the chill water clinging to his skin, and she sank into his heat, his passion, his love. She cupped his face while she rose on her toes to kiss him with all the need and desperation she’d repeatedly beaten into submission.
No reason to deny herself this pleasure anymore. She would drink him in, become intoxicated from his sunshine, so she could tumble into death’s arms later, buzzing with the bliss of how Basil made her feel.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Calâr’s voice scratched over her nerves like a knife over a plate. “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”
They broke apart, and Isa shot a dark look at the deceptive bastard. Oh, she’d take him down now, would make sure to reveal to Basil what a mendacious rat he was. Not right this moment, though. No, she’d have to play her cards right, needed to first find out what the fae’s true agenda was. An idea brewed in her mind, but she needed more time to work it out.
Until then, she’d watch him like a cat staking out a mouse hole.
* * *
“I really think we should keep going,” Calâr said. “The Nornûn oracle is not much farther. We might even reach it tonight.”
