Page 129 of Captive

Everly told me the truth a few days ago. How Mildred only had one child and she died when she was four summers.

“Do you have a tonic that can help delay it?” I ask.

Mildred nods, moves to her shelves, and runs her fingers around the bottles. She goes down an entire row, gliding her hand against the glass vials before stopping and selecting a skinny bottle and turning with it in hand.

“This will help you. Drink one drop every day.” As she hands it to me, she adds, “One drop, Sol.”

I nod.

“If you consume more, it could kill you.”

Great!

Another thing that could kill me.

“Thank you, Mildred.”

The old woman glances to her left again. “Annaleigh likes your ribbon.”

I raise my fingers to the silk ribbon tied at the end of my braid. “Tell Annaleigh thank you for me.”

Mildred tsks. “Tell her yourself.”

I stare at the area where Mildred looked. “Thank you, Annaleigh.”

Happiness sparks in Mildred’s eyes as we leave her cottage.

Neither one of us speak as we walk back to the palace. Maybe because we both know words would be as pointless as a rose during the winter. It cannot thrive in cold weather, just like I cannot thrive here.

When we step back into our bedchamber, he moves to the window. I sink into a chair and sigh. This is worse than earlier. Now, he’s upset. He hadn’t received the answers he sought. I am still his brokenKyanitewife.

“Hector.”

Sadness sparks in his eyes as he turns to meet my stare.

“Are you angry with me?” I ask, needing to fall apart in his arms. But I will not.

Nobody wants someone who’s shattered. The knowledge doesn’t stop me from wanting to stand and collapse against him, to let his heat chase away my darkness.

“No,” he says finally, the weight of that one word pressing against my chest.

My heart smarts with pain as I look down at my defective fingers. “Do you understand why I must renew myself?”

“Yes.” A muscle jumps in his jaw as he tightens his fingers into a fist until his knuckles whiten. “Will you return to me?”

My heart longs to say yes, to tell him I will spend the rest of my life with him. But I cannot listen to my heart and forget about what the Seer said.

“I cannot.” The words fragment inside me, piercing through the part of me that longs to stay with him.

He shoves his hand through his hair and exhales. I move to him and touch his arm, feeling the tension in his muscles.

“Hector…” I have no other words. No pleas. Nothing that will change anything.

“Sol…don’t do this,” he says, his voice low, ragged. “Don’t destroy the life we are building.” Those silver-blue eyes meet mine, pleading, desperately hoping I’ll change my mind. “Ineedyou.”

I blink back the urge to sob. To tell him I need him too. Desperately.

“I have no choice.” The truth falls from my lips in a heart-breaking reality I cannot run from. “If you keep me here, I will shatter.” Doesn’t he see me falling apart? Feel me falling apart? See the way I have changed since I started casting Bloodstone magic?

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