Page 121 of Only Cold Depths
“I can’t reach you!” I yelled.
“I can’t reach you either!” Vesper yelled back. “But that’s okay!”
Okay? It wasn’tokay. Being able to see Vesper but not being able to help her—protect her—was my worst nightmare come to life.
Vesper stared at me, and our gazes locked and held.It’s okay, Kyr.I trust you, and I need you to trust me right now.
Idotrust you—more than anything.
A grim smile curved her lips.And I trust you more than anything. But it’s also time we started trustingourselves. It’s the only way our bond is ever truly going to work. We can’t save each other all the time. Sometimes we both need to save ourselves.
The air at Vesper’s side flickered, and an image of my mother appeared, showing her arranging flowers just as she had been doing in the Castle Caldaren garden.
The scorpions will always be a danger, and they could always sting me, my mother’s voice echoed in my ears.But you can’t be afraid of the possibility.
Desdemona hadn’t been talking about scorpions. Not really. No, she’d been talking about Callus Holloway. Despite how many times the siphon had taken my parents’ power, my mother had still hoped the next time would be different, that she and my father would figure out a way to stop Holloway, that she and my father would finally befree. Somehow, in the garden all those years ago, she’d known I would need to hear those words and remember her lesson.
Holloway might not have captured Vesper and me, but I had still let him lock me in a prison of my own making. All I had done the past few weeks was worry, and I was tired of it. I should be celebrating my truebond with Vesper and reveling in my love for her, not living in constant dread and fear of the worst happening. Perhaps I would have been able to do that, if not for Callus bloody Holloway.
Well, no more. The siphon wasn’t going to control me through fear the way he had controlled my parents.
My inner monster roared in denial, but for once, I shut out the sound. I smiled back at Vesper, although my lips twisted more into a resigned grimace.Then go save yourself and come back to me, seer. That’s an order.
Her eyes brightened.You do the same, Arrow.Because I’ll come over there and kill you myself if you don’t survive this.
And I’ll do the same to you. Tried and true, remember?
Tried and true,she repeated.
We stared at each other a heartbeat longer, so many thoughts and feelings rippling through the bond from me to Vesper and back again. Then, at the same time, we spun away from each other and faced our enemies.
TurningawayfromVesperwas one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do, but she was right. I couldn’t protect her now, and she couldn’t rescue me, so we would just have to save ourselves.
Looking away from Vesper didn’t lessen my fear. The emotion would always be there, waiting to sting me like a vicious scorpion, just like my mother had said. But the hope was there too, waiting to blossom into something beautiful. Now Vesper and I just had to make that hope a reality.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
On the balcony above, Asterin had gotten back on her feet and started firing at the mercenaries on that level, but my eyes were fixed on the enemy in front of me.
Pollux.
He swung his two war hammers in a furious rhythm, bashing in heads and breaking the bones of the remaining mercenaries with quick, ruthless efficiency. His lunarium weapons were also spitting out large balls of fire, burning and further terrorizing his victims.
Zane stepped up beside me, twirling his stormsword around in his hand. “How in all the bloody stars does he still have so much psion power?”
“Pollux was part of a truebonded pair,” I responded, twirling my own sword around, my motions mirroring Zane’s. “Until he decided he didn’t want to share his power.”
“Let me guess. He killed his bonded partner and took their power for his own.”
I glanced at him in surprise.
Zane shrugged. “I’ve been reading a lot of books about truebonds. I wanted to know exactly what you and Vesper are capable of in case I couldn’t reason with you and the two of you tried to kill me.”
“And whatarewe capable of?”
For once, Zane was completely serious. “For two people who love each other as much as you and my sister do? Any bloody thing you can possibly imagine.”
He was right. I loved Vesper, and I hoped that she loved me. And that emotion was stronger than anything, even the fear that would always be lurking in the cold depths of my heart.
