Page 72 of To Wake a Kingdom

I knocked Mare off her feet and landed on top of her. To block her from using her magic, I grabbed her wrists and ground them into the floor, remembering when Ronan had done the same. Mare was smaller than me, all spidery limbs, and I was strong from my hours of training. She hissed and spat, bucking her hips, trying to dislodge me.

My sword lay by my knee, but I couldn’t let go of her hands to reach for it. I had only one heartbeat of time. Instead, I let go of one wrist and punched Mare in the face with a satisfying crack of retribution. She shrieked and speared a blast of power at me, sending me flying. I landed on the blood-soaked floor, my back tearing open on the rough stone. This time, she leaped on me as she snarled with the unrestrained fury of a roaring tiger.

But it was then I stopped struggling. This was what I wanted.

I wanted her to kill me. There was nothing left for me here.

She raised a thick, dark eyebrow. “Giving up, Princess?”

“End it, Mare. You win.” There was no mistaking the complete and utter defeat in my voice.

Her eyes flashed.“I don’t think so,” she hissed, digging her hand into my hair and yanking up on it. “You aren’t getting away from me. You haven’t suffered enough. I promised to make your heart bleed. This isn’t over yet.” She flicked her wrist, but still, nothing happened. She did it again, and a hope I had no claim to flared in my chest. She still couldn’t take me. Maybe Kianna was still alive.

Mare must have realized it too, because she made a sound of frustration and got off me. A metal claw fisted in my hair, she dragged me to where Kianna lay in a pool of blood, her wings limp and dull.

My eyes watered as I saw her chest rise and fall, and I offered a silent thank-you for Kianna and her nine lives. Preparing to bring down her wrath on Kianna, Mare raised a hand when, suddenly, she went flying.

Astonished, I watched as she screeched and hurtled through the air, slamming into the wall. A sickening crack vibrated off the stones as her head snapped against the surface. Knocked out, she slumped to the floor.

“Thorne?” said a deep voice I knew. A voice I’d turned over and over in my head, savoring its cadence and notes since he’d left. I was splitting apart, my body a collection of skin cells and tears, barely held together.

I was hallucinating again. This wasn’t real either.

But there he was, kneeling before me, hands smoothing over my limbs and my hair. “Did she hurt you?”

“Ronan.” His name came out like a prayer I’d just learned and wanted to remember. I blinked over and over, waiting for this image to change too.

I was dreaming. My mind had finally broken.

My face cradled in his hands, he looked at me like he would slay every monster in the universe and serve them to me on a silver platter.

“Are you real?” I asked, touching his brow.

“Thorne, I’m so sorry. I should never have left you. It was all too much at that moment. I understand why you did what you did. I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry I left you here with her. Please forgive me.”

“Really? Are you really here?” I touched his ear, marveling at its simple perfection. How could an ear be so beautiful?

He grabbed my hand, pressing it to his face. The stubble on his cheek scraped my palm, and I closed my eyes as the sensation traveled the length of my body.

“Really. And I’m never going anywhere, ever again.” His gaze flicked to where Mare lay against the wall. “But we should probably deal with this.”

He pressed a long, deep kiss to my palm, then stood and walked over to where Mare stirred. He raised his sword but didn’t get the chance to attack as she sent him flying halfway across the room. Like a four-legged demon, she leaped, landing on him and knocking him to the floor.

“Oh, isn’t this delightful?” she crooned. “He came back for you. How utterly noble and how utterly stupid.”

Busy tormenting Ronan, she didn’t notice me stand. Watching her threaten him awakened the devil that had found a home in the darkest halls of my spirit. I would not lose him again.

With a roar, I ran toward her with my father’s sword and stabbed her through the back, sliding the blade into the chambers of her shriveled black heart. Body arching, she screamed and writhed. Ronan slammed a boot into her stomach, and she flew back. As she crashed to the floor in a snarling twisted heap, there was a flash, and she disappeared in a hazy black cloud of magic.

For a few silent moments, we stared at the empty spot where Mare had landed. She’d escaped us again, but this was only a temporary reprieve.

Then I looked over at Ronan, still unable to believe he was here. I had been so sure I’d never see him again. But he was up and striding over, the weight of a million moments yet to be lived in his eyes.

He swept me into his arms and kissed me with the light of a thousand fires burning across a dry desert plain.“Can you forgive me?” His hands cupped my face. “I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I’m so sorry I left. I should have been here to protect you.”

“I shouldn’t have lied to you.”

“No, of course—it was too hard to tell me. He deserved it. I’ve always known what kind of man my father was, but some boyish hope always clung to the idea that maybe I’d misunderstood him. But hearing what he did to you and to Kianna’s sisters was the confirmation I needed to understand it had always been a foolish wish. And I didn’t handle that well.”

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