Part 32 (1/2)

I gave my word, he told her, as the stone crept over his jaw. d.a.m.n it, Lethe. Go.

Go, and do not tempt me, he wanted to add. Terrified that if he did, the Sidhe queen would kill her. He would rather die himself. He would rather spend the rest of his life in a cage.

You gave your word, Lethe shot back. I didn't.

Lannes felt her hammer on the inside of his mind, and her desperation was as raw as his, wild and crazed. What are you doing?

Give yourself to me, she said, her mental voice breaking on the words. Let me have control over your body. It'll be my fight then, not yours. No broken promises.

No.

Then I'm staying.

The stone was almost to his eyes. He looked at the queen over Lethe's body and found her staring at him with cold pleasure. The Sidhe knew, he realized. She knew exactly what Lethe was doing. The queen wanted it that way. To imprison them both.

Trust me, Lethe whispered in his mind. I know you have no reason to, I know what this means, Lannes. But trust me.

Trust her. Trust a member of the same family that had tortured him, tried to force him into giving what she was asking for now, freely. His soul.

I'd rather be in h.e.l.l, she whispered. Rather in h.e.l.l with you than anywhere else.

Lannes felt the same.

Take it, he told her, free-falling inside his heart, opening the last, most precious part of him to her mind. Take it all, Lethe.

And she did, but it felt like being buoyed by a sea of pure light, and her love was.h.i.+ng over him was so brilliant, so desperate and powerful, he felt more alive in that moment than in any other. As though his skin were made of the sun.

Until he lost himself in that light, and Lethe took over his body.

It was not painful. It was not frightening. She slipped around him like a glove, and it was as though every lonely moment of his life, every hurt and slight and fear, was eased away by the gentleness of her spirit.

If we stay like this forever, she whispered, we'll be all right.

But even as Lethe spoke those words, Lannes felt another blossom of light, a force anch.o.r.ed to her spirit.

Runa.

He heard no words, but he felt something pa.s.s between Runa and the Sidhe queen, a heave of light and energy that was as heavy and sharp as the edge of a knife. Turmoil, a ripple beyond him, in the forest. He was stone now, as he had been years ago with the witch, but he felt no fear, no pain. Just Lethe. He clung to her soul-she clung to him- and they were so close in that moment, he was convinced that no force, nothing in this world or the next, would ever separate them.

Until, quite abruptly, the stone disappeared from his body and he could move again.

Lannes fell forward, gasping. Lethe was inside him, and her body was on the ground, breathing but still as death. He did not hesitate. He hauled her into his arms and staggered to his feet. On his left, Runa was gone from the roots of the oak.

Her flesh had been golden and s.h.i.+ning, and now there was nothing left but bone and rock and moss. The Sidhe queen knelt in the shadows of the great tree, her pale face hidden.

”Go,” she whispered. ”Both of you, go. You fools. Runa gave her life for you both.”

Lethe curled away from his mind, leaving a cold empty spot in his soul. Her chest rose and fell with a deep breath. Her heart pounded. Lannes swayed, weak in the knees, the separation of their minds making him feel as though he were dying all over again.

”Why are you allowing this?” he asked.

The queen closed her eyes. ”Because I take, and I take. And though I take because I love, nothing remains, nothing keeps. What I take, I kill. Except for one woman. One woman I freed. Lucy Steele. And she returned to me again and again to sit outside my cage and read.” Her mouth twisted into a snarl, tears glimmering in her eyes. ”And it made me weak. Weak enough to give once more.”

She flung out her arm, silver bells chiming. ”Go.”

Lannes did not argue. He ran, and the forest melted around him like some bizarre dream, though it was not his imagination that trees bent and the ferns danced, and that the brambles twisted like skeletal hands.

He saw sunlight. He burst free.

And he was back in the meadow, Lethe in his arms. She was alive. Burning a hole through his heart.

Lannes fell on his knees. He heard shouts, feet pounding. Shadows fell over him. Lethe's eyes fluttered open, and her face crumpled when she saw him. Lannes kissed her mouth, shaking.

And he felt, on the edge of his mind, a presence-cold and worn and bitter. Lethe stiffened, as well, her mind melting into his.

I am not sorry, whispered a dry masculine voice, skimming the edge of their thoughts. My body may have at last given, out, but my mind never will. I will never be sorry.

”Liar,” Lethe breathed out loud. ”Simon Says, you big fat liar.”

Lannes closed his eyes and sent his mind lunging toward that presence, swinging power like a hammer. He made contact. He felt a crack.

And the presence fractured. Simon disappeared.

But whether it was for good, Lannes had no idea.

Epilogue.

New York. Upper East Side. It was snowing early for the season, but Lannes did not mind the cold. He wore the illusion of a coat and had a woman tucked close to his side, under his arm. It was night and the city was bright in his eyes. Central Park was on their left.

Lethe was quiet and had been for most of the drive from Indiana to New York. They had only arrived this morning. Something needed to be done, and it could not wait.

”Frederick called,” he said, heart aching, knowing she was trembling from something other than the cold. ”Ed finally woke up.”

”Two weeks was a long time. Any permanent damage?”

”No,” Lannes said. ”He was worried about his cat.”

She smiled, but only briefly. Her face was small and pale beneath her chunky blue hat.

”I'm scared,” she said.

”I know,” he replied.

”I think I miss Runa.” Lethe smiled weakly. ”She knew what she was doing, even if it wasn't nice.”

”I behaved like her,” Lannes rumbled. ”Years ago, after I was free from the witch. I had lost nothing but my pride and my freedom, but once I had those back, I still behaved as though I was in a cage. I can't imagine all that time I wasted.”