Chapter 12

Thorne

Ileft Hanna unsupervised for three hours. By the time I woke up, she’d tried to forge a mind link with her would-be murderer and had accidentally begun to commune with the dead.

She told me the story, at least. As I sat in front of the fire, watching her beautiful, animated eyes dance with excitement, I scrubbed my hand over my face in exasperation.

“Anything you might’ve forgotten?” I asked. “Did you by chance sneak into the spice kingdom without me and murder the Snake Queen? Start a war with the wolf shifters? Make an alliance with the Merkingdom?”

She drummed her fingertips against her lower lip as if she were thinking. She looked beautiful in the firelight. The delicate features of her face were cast into harsh shadow, her eyes deep and dark and full of secrets. “That’s all.”

I wanted to make a joke, but my heart hammered at the thought of her reaching out to Kaelan without me knowing. I could imagine him arriving at our campsite while I was asleep, creeping up behind her, emerging from the shadows of the trees to slap a hand over her mouth and drag her backwards away into the night… “You don’t believe me about Kaelan.”

“It’s not that,” she said. “Your sister confirmed his enchantment. Unless…” she shook her head, but I knew she’d considered the possibility that Alys and I had constructed some kind of elaborate plot, and I wasn’t sure she had dismissed it entirely.

“Then what?” My voice came out harsh, impatient.

“I love him, Thorne.” Her gaze met mine, and for once, there was no laughing mischief or teasing guile in her eyes. There was just… sadness.

Something broken and hard wrapped around my chest. She would always choose him. And why shouldn’t she? She had fallen in love with him during all that time when she didn’t even know me.

Who was I to her?

Just the fool who had loved her from a distance all these years, knowing she didn’t love me back. She didn’t even know me. It had been insane… and it was still insane.

I wouldn’t suffocate her with the love she didn’t even want.

“I love him too,” I said.

And that was true too.

She just sat forward, staring into the fire, as if it held all the answers.

“I’ll do it,” I said finally, grudgingly. “I’ll call to Kaelan. I’ll see if he’s fighting the enchantment.”

Her lips parted in a sunny smile that warmed my heart.

Dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy, casting a kaleidoscope of greens and golds. My hand instinctively reached for the hilt of my sword as I closed my eyes—as if that could protect me when Kaelan and I would be so close mentally—and prepared to bridge the vast distance between my mind and Kaelan”s.

Hanna”s hopeful presence at my side felt warm and bright. The world around me shifted focus, sharpening, before I slipped out of it altogether.

The earthy scent of moss and ancient bark filled my nose, the scent of wildflowers weaving through the heavy aroma of the woods. Somewhere nearby, a brook babbled over smooth stones. The whisper of leaves rustled overhead, punctuated by the distant call of a bird.

Hanna hovered next to me. A branch snapped somewhere to our right, but I remained still, trusting her to watch over us both.

My consciousness stretched outwards, reaching across the miles as easily as one might reach across a table. Although I didn’t know where Kaelan was, this was a path well-traveled. Walking into Kaelan’s mind felt familiar as a strange kind of homecoming.

Hanna would never know how much it had hurt me to betray him. I’d seen so much through his eyes. He had suffered enough. But I would sacrifice anything for her.

Suddenly, I was not in the forest but gazing at the walls of the gray city we had left behind.

Shock rushed through me. Kaelan was so close.

We needed to move. Soon. But I lingered a minute in his mind, feeling an unruly surge of hope that Hanna was right, that Kaelan could be reasoned with. His mind just felt so familiar. Like home.

Through Kaelan”s eyes, I saw the familiar streets, cold and unwelcoming. The sky was a low ceiling of oppressive clouds. His steps echoed against the stone as he retraced our steps, and he reached the dark mouth that led down to the underground marketplace.

Although I had no access to his thoughts, my heart was beating fast, and I was sure I was feeling a ghost of his emotions—anger, pain, confusion, regret.

Kaelan strode into the underground marketplace. The air was thick with the scent of magic.

Kaelan found his way to the same merchant I had bargained with, and he asked him a dozen questions about what we had wanted there. His jaw clenched at the discovery of the antidote we’d purchased, but I felt a throb of his grim satisfaction.

He knew I was taking care of our girl. No matter if part of him planned to kill us both, I was sure part of him still loved her.

I was just terrified which part would win out.

Then Kaelan’s gaze fell on the golden cuff, lying on the maroon velvet tablecloth, under glass. I felt a thrill of relief. It hadn’t been sold.

The cuff itself wasn’t worth much more than the gold it was made from. It carried enchantments I had collected like charms for Hanna, seeing what she needed as time went by, trying to take care of her in my imagination when she had been far from me. The cuff meant something to me.

Even though I knew it would probably never mean anything to her.

Kaelan laid down coins, so many coins fanning over the tablecloth. Then he retrieved the cuff, and tucked it safely into his pocket.

A wave of shock surged through me. Why would he reclaim the cuff he must see as a useless trinket?

And had he bought it for Hanna’s sake… or mine? I’d never told Kaelan about the cuff. It had been one of the few secrets between us.

”Thorne?” Hanna”s voice pulled me back to the present,. ”Can you reach him?”

I opened my eyes, and I felt startled to find myself back in the lush greenery of the forest, with Hanna’s bright eyes looking up at me.

”Yes. I can see through his eyes.”

Her eyes, brimming with longing, searched mine. ”Could I—would you let me use a spell? To see through your connection?”

The request felt dangerous, and worse, vulnerable. The link between Kaelan and me was intimate, forged through years of trust as we fought side by side.

But the hope in her gaze undid me.

I hoped she never realized how much I’d give to make her smile, to see the way her eyes softened when I pleased her.

”Alright.” I consented.

She smiled, a bright smile that warmed my heart and felt painful at the same time. It was a smile for Kaelan, not for me.

She plucked an enchanted string around her wrist and began the incantation, her words soft but resolute. She began to unwind the string from her wrist and tie it around mine, binding the two of us together. I steeled myself, wishing I could shield her from whatever darkness we might find.

But now perhaps she would understand the stakes. I needed her to believe Kaelan could be a danger before we came face to face with him.

A shiver ran through me as Hanna”s slender fingers danced in the air, weaving an intricate pattern only she could see. As her murmurs filled the space between us, a warm, tingling sensation began to spread from where her hand grasped my wrist over the string and up my arm, until the warmth was in my mind.

”Be careful,” I warned under my breath, though I wasn”t sure if the caution was for her benefit or mine.

Then everything shifted. It was as if a door opened within my mind, and she stepped through it with her usual easy grace. The connection sparked to life, a vibrant current that thrummed with the essence of Hanna: her strength, her kindness, her relentless hope.

I marveled at the feel of her consciousness mingling with mine; it was like being bathed in sunlight after years of cold darkness. This was a different experience than seeing through Kaelan’s eyes and catching shadows of his feelings. Did this bond feel different because it was different magic… or because of Hanna herself?

Hanna laid her head against my chest, and I was surprised by her proximity, but I found myself folding my arms around her. Inside, I could almost see her inside my head, her luminous spirit lighting my own mind.

”Are you there?” Her voice was a whisper in my thoughts, tentative as if she feared she might break something precious.

”Right here,” I assured her, the closeness we now shared laying bare my emotions. ”I”m with you.”

“Take me to him, please, Thorne.” Her voice held quiet pain that wrung my heart, although I wasn’t sure if it was just because she was hurting or because she hurt over her love for another man.

The forest around us seemed to fade, the towering trees and their whispering leaves becoming nothing more than a distant murmur. The two of us held each other closely even as we moved into someone else’s mind.

And then I opened my eyes, once more in Kaelan’s mind, in the busy marketplace. Her warmth was a steadying presence as I saw him striding through the market, cutting through the crowd. People got out of Kaelan’s way, sensing his wrath.

I felt his awareness snap to attention, honing in on my presence like a hawk sighting prey.

”Thorne,” Kaelan”s voice was sheer ice. “You haven’t had enough of a chance to betray me? You need to spy on me?”

”Listen to me. I left with Hanna to protect her. You’re under an enchantment. You would have done the same.”

”Protect her?” he seethed. ”Or make up a reason why I’m unworthy? Why you should claim her for yourself?”

The accusation hit me like a hammer. It was far more painful because I did want Hanna for myself. There was too much truth in his fury.

”No. I swore to protect her as you would, until we can break Seraphine”s hold over you. You must believe me.”

He laughed, hollow and mirthless. ”Believe you? Why would I? She’s my wife, and the moment I finally won her again…”

He stopped speaking, as if he were overcome by emotion. Then he managed, “You claim you’re protecting her, Thorne, but you’ve betrayed us both.”

His words were a knife twisting deep, carving out the truth I had so desperately tried to bury. I couldn”t deny the forbidden longing that stirred within me whenever Hanna”s gaze met mine. I couldn’t ignore the love that had formed as I watched her from his eyes. And I couldn’t help hoping that the heat that sometimes shimmered between us was real, that she was coming to love me as I had loved her all these years.

”Kaelan. I would die for both of you. And I’ll find a way to bring you back from this curse.”

“There is no curse. You’re a traitor, and my wife is a fool.” He spat the words in his mind.

At the edge of the market, by the door, one vendor’s shop was a maze of mirrors, reflecting back a dozen Kaelans with his quick, angry stride, his dark cloak billowing from his tall, muscular frame.

“I know you love her,” I said, trying desperately to find something to break through to him. He had called her his wife; that meant something to him. “You can fight the enchantment. I know she is everything?—”

Kaelan paused before the polished, age-worn mirrors. In that reflection, our gazes locked, and his eyes blazed fiercely. “She’s nothing. She’s a disappointment. I was stupid to desire her.”

Beside me, Hanna inhaled sharply, her delicate fingers tightening around my wrist. Through the fragile bridge of our own connection, I felt the tremor of her shock at the raw hatred etched across her husband”s face.

Kaelan despised me, but not just me. He hated her.

Her gasp was the sound of innocence fracturing. Every instinct within me rioted to shield her from Kaelan’s poisonous tongue.

”Kaelan,” I managed, my voice hoarse with the effort to remain composed, ”you”ve never been worthy of her.”

I would cut him if the act would salve her pain.

Without waiting for his response, I severed the mental tether that bound us, the link snapping like Hanna’s enchanted string. A void rushed in to fill the space where Kaelan’s consciousness had been. I opened my eyes in the green hush.

Hanna’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears. She tried to smile at me, the effort unconvincing. “Thank you for trying.”

The urge to reach out, to comfort her with more than just hollow words, surged within me. But I held back, bound by my love for both of them. Hanna didn’t need me rushing in to replace Kaelan.

As much as I hated to admit it… she needed Kaelan. I couldn’t fix this by replacing him. I’d only hurt her worse.

”Hanna,” I said softly. ”It”s the enchantment. It”s not him, not truly.”

Her fingers trembled against mine, like leaves caught in a merciless wind, ready to be torn away. And then they were. She pulled back, distancing herself not only in body but in spirit.

She blinked, and the tears were gone, and she fixed that smile on her face more sturdily. I’d come to realize she always returned to that smile when she didn’t know what else to do.

I watched as she composed herself, the line of her shoulders rigid.

Hanna took a step back, and another. Then she turned and stepped into the shadow of the giant trees.

My heart belonged to her, wholly, irrevocably. It had since the day I first saw her.

And I would have betrayed Kaelan, if that was what it cost to have her love.

But it would never be that simple.

Kaelan wasn’t worthy of her, and neither was I.