• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Oh, God.” Limos squeezed her eyes closed.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“No.” Her eyes were bloodshot when she opened them again. “I mean, I didn’t know about the scroll. But… I knew the chamber was a set-up.”

À"0em">

“I suspected as much,” he murmured. “I’m guessing Pestilence forced you?”

“Yes.” She looked so miserable he wanted to sweep her into his arms, but he didn’t trust himself to stop there. Oh, he wanted to forget all of this and move on to something much more pleasant, but they had to do this. They had to clear the air between them once and for all.

“All of this is because I wanted to cover up my lies.” Limos’s voice trembled. “All of this is because of me, Arik. It’s never going to end, is it?”

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He had to touch her. Stepping close, he gripped her shoulders gently, but firmly. “It’ll end, Limos. But tell me, right now… is there anything else you’ve been hiding? Anything at all?”

“No,” she whispered. “You and my brothers know everything now. Well, they will, once I tell them about the chamber. And the baby.”

Relief nearly turned Arik’s muscles to noodles. They’d gotten past the lies and the secrets, and surely her brothers would forgive her, just as Runa—

Shame washed over him, and he nearly doubled over from the power of it. He’d kept so much from Runa. Yes, for her own good, but when Limos had done things for his own good, he’d been furious, because he could make his own choices.

Once again his hypocrisy became the air he breathed, and for a brief moment, darkness and self-loathing swallowed him.

“Arik?”

“I’m sorry, Limos.” Pressure filled his chest cavity until he felt like he might explode. “God, what an ass I’ve been. All this time I’ve hated lies, hated people who tell them. But it was okay for me to do it in the name of protecting people like they were too fucking weak to handle the truth.” Oh, man, his chest hurt. “My dad used to say Runa was weak. He said she bruised easily. Cried easily. He called her a little suckling runt.”

Limos put her hand on his shoulder, but he wheeled away, unable to bear comfort right now. Not when he didn’t deserve it.

“I never thought I treated her like she was weak, but by keeping things from her, that’s exactly what I did.” He rubbed his sternum, but it didn’t relieve the pressure at all. “And then I ran around hating everyone who lied and kept secrets, but shit… I think I didn’t hate them. I think I’ve hated me all this time.”

This time when Limos touched him and he tried to shake her off, she didn’t budge. She clung to him even as he backed away, tried to peel her off. Hell, he even yelled at her to let him go, but she hung on like a cowboy on a bronco.

“Stop it!” she barked. “Arik!” She wrapped herself around him and buried her face in his neck, kissing and nuzzling. “Stop.” She petted his hair, stroked his shoulders, and eventually, he fell back against a tree, letting it—and Limos—brace him.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked. “I’m so sorry I was such an ass to you. You didn’t deserve to be judgÀve to beed like that.”

“Yes,” she murmured against his skin, “I did. Without you, all of that stuff would still be weighing on me, and Pestilence might have won.”

Gently, he pushed her back so he could look at her. “I don’t understand.”

“He wanted me to lie,” she said. “He knows it’s an addiction for me. But… you changed that, Arik. I want to tell you things. I hate keeping anything from you. You give me what lying and being self-destructive never could. I get an amazing rush from those things, but with you, I get that rush a million times more intense, and without the guilt. I love you so much. Please don’t hate the person I love.”

Arik’s eyes stung. He wrapped his arms around her so tight she “oofed,” and then he kissed her senseless. “We’re done,” he said into her ear. “We’re done with the lies and the secrets and the idiotic fake divorce decrees, right?”

She pulled back and grinned. “We’re done. You’re never getting rid of me, Arik.”

He was about to tell her that what she said went both ways when a gate popped open several