From Spirit and Binding

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  And I was nervous.

  “I should have said this before…but I didn’t know how.” I turned to look at Easton and swallowed hard. He looked so different. As if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, even though I knew the literal weight of the world rested on them just as it rested on mine.

  It didn’t matter, because he was mine. And I didn’t know what I would do if I lost him. Just like he had almost lost me.

  “What? What should you have said?”

  He took two steps forward, and then he was there, his heat against me as he cupped my face.

  He slowly lowered his head, his nose brushing along mine as he exhaled a breath that sent shockwaves through my body. As if he had so much riding on him, that he couldn’t even formulate words. Now we could rest. Just be.

  Because, in this room, right now, he wasn’t the King of Obscurité, and I wasn’t the Spirit Priestess.

  We were just Easton and Lyric.

  “I love you, Lyric. And I’m sorry I couldn’t say it before. I’m sorry that it took so long for me to say the words. I couldn’t feel them. I knew it was there, but I couldn’t reconcile it. I love you, Lyric. And I will fight to the end of the world to keep you happy, to keep you whole. I don’t know what I did in my life to deserve you. But I will make sure that no matter what, no matter who comes at us, I will prove myself to you. Through the depths of the world and even to the end of it. Even if that may never be the case.”

  I blinked through my tears, wondering if this was all a dream. Maybe I had died on that battlefield, and he wasn’t really here, saying these words. When he slid his thumb under my eye, wiping the tears away, I let out a shuddering breath.

  “You’re real,” I whispered, my voice shaky. He smirked at me, and then I knew this was real. Because that smirk did funny things to me. I could only smile back at him. I didn’t want this to end, I didn’t want to go back to the real world and have to think about what we needed to do to save it. I wanted to make this moment last forever. And even though I knew it couldn’t, I could at least pretend. For a little while. And Easton would let me pretend. He would give me this moment. And I would do everything in my power to make sure he shared this moment.

  “I love you,” I whispered. “I didn’t think I would ever actually be able to say that to you,” I said, a watery smile on my face.

  Easton lowered his head and brushed his lips against mine. Before I could deepen the kiss, he pulled away.

  “I could kill The Gray for not letting me have this moment before now. For making me wait.”

  I shook my head.

  “No. You can want to kill him for many things…but this moment? Let’s just keep it between us. Okay?”

  He nodded, and then he kissed me again, this time a little deeper, a bit sweeter, and then harder before he pulled away again.

  “We don’t have to do anything tonight, Lyric. We can just sleep and rest like we need to.”

  I opened my mouth to say something when he spoke again.

  “Although, of course, I wouldn’t mind doing something more.”

  There it was again, that smirk. I loved it so much.

  “Oh?”

  “It’s just you and me. And I’m okay. I’m ready.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “For you? Always.”

  And then there were no words. He kissed me, and I sank into him, wanting more. His hands cupped my face and then slid down my shoulders. When I leaned into him, craving him, knowing that this was us, our future—even if we only had a few more days left—I knew I would never regret this.

  He made me feel wanted, loved, needed. And when we held each other in the aftermath, I clutched him tightly, never wanting to let him go.

  He just kept whispering my name, saying that he loved me, and I wiped the tears from his cheeks.

  Because what we were doing, what we were feeling, wasn’t only about this moment or what we had just done.

  No, it was about the fact that The Gray had taken something from him. Yet, somehow, we had found it. Together.

  And even if I died tomorrow to protect the realm I loved, I knew I would never regret this moment. I’d never forget it.

  Because life was short. And while the world tried to take everything, they couldn’t take this. Not again. No matter what. Because Easton was mine, and I was his, and we would face the horrors of the world together.

  And the worth of what we could lose was one thing I had learned about the pain and the heartache and loss that we both shared.

  The one thing I would never forget.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Lyric

  * * *

  Even though it felt like my whole life had changed, I couldn’t dwell on it. Because now I had to sit through another meeting and formulate more plans.

  I’d never thought to be involved in battles or part of battle strategy. It wasn’t something I had studied in school or was even taught by tutors like everyone else in the room.

  Emory hadn’t been taught either, but we were on a crash course to learn.

  Even Brae looked confused with her little furry face, and I hoped that we could play catch-up.

  Because everyone else had decades’ worth of experience in fighting the Lumière, and I was just trying to keep up.

  I did not appreciate the fact that everyone kept looking to me for answers. All I knew was that I somehow needed to use all five elements to fuse the crystals together. That meant I had to get them in the same room. Right?

  In order to do that, we had to get the king on our side.

  Or kill him.

  I hated that that thought came so quickly to my mind. As if killing someone, taking their soul straight from their body, was something normal. Maybe it was for everybody else. It surely wasn’t for me.

  “Are you okay?” Easton murmured out of the side of his mouth, and I looked at him and nodded.

  I knew a blush stained my cheeks when I looked at him and hated the fact that it did.

  Not that I blushed at the thought of him, more that everyone else could see it. They would know what we had done last night. Not that I was ashamed of it. Not in the slightest. However, I needed time to process it and wonder if we would actually have a future together. Because while I knew that we might be soulmates, I didn’t know if there was a future there.

  And that was why we needed this meeting. We had to ensure that we would survive.

  “We’ll have to meet him on the battlefield again. This time, we’ll have more Water and Air Wielders with us,” Lanya said, looking down at the map of the two kingdoms that someone had spread over the long table where we had eaten the night before.

  I could see the divisions of the territories, the mountain ranges, even the red rocks that we had gone to when I first met Easton.

  All of it was on a map, with little toy pieces on top to represent the armies.

  It wouldn’t be as easy as taking out a little symbols, knocking it over.

  No, we would have to use our strength and what numbers we had to kill him.

  To take the shards and destroy them.

  In reality, that would mean lives, not just wood.

  “There are already defectors crossing the border,” Justise said, moving more pieces around.

  Easton crossed his arms over his chest, nodding as he studied the map, and I did the same.

  I needed to memorize every inch of this map, and I was exhausted already trying to do it. Because not only was I attempting to learn every single bit of terrain, I was reading the histories of the people that Rosamond had given me, trying to catch up and understand all of the underlying tensions between the factions, who might be our allies, and who would forever be lost.

  Slavik was in the back of my mind. I had hoped that the pirate king would be on our side if we called to him. We couldn’t find him at the moment. I just hoped to hell that he wasn’t already on our opposing side.

  With his second in command out of the way, he would be a good ally if
we could secure him. Even if he didn’t always follow the rules and thought of himself as a ruler in his own right, he had the strength of numbers, and power that was quite startling. We already had feelers out, people searching for him.

  I just didn’t know if we would find him in time.

  Didn’t know if it would be enough.

  “That means that there’s probably people on our side going to their side, too, right?” Emory asked, and we all looked at her. She shrugged, her head down. “I’m just saying. There’s probably Fire and Earth Wielders, and even Danes who would prefer The Gray in power. Maybe he promised them something? Like their own power if they fought with him.”

  “You’re right,” Easton said, surprisingly. He didn’t like Emory, for many reasons. And not only because she was my ex. She hadn’t been a good person. But she had suffered enough. And she was learning. Kind of even helping.

  I was trying to do the same.

  “We have men and women out there searching for the defectors. Both sides?” Easton asked, and Justise nodded.

  “Yes, we’re bringing in those who were formerly Lumière.”

  “Good,” I added. “And we’ll make sure that they’re actually going to fight with us and that they’re not spies?”

  Ridley winced, and I covered my face with my hands. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “No, it’s fine. We all know that I used to be a spy. Things didn’t work out well for the Lumière king.”

  It was the first time that Ridley had ever announced openly that he had been a spy. I wasn’t sure what more there was to say about that. Every single person in this room had fought with him over the years.

  They trusted him. And so did I.

  Love changed a lot of things, even though I’d never thought that was possible. I used to think it was a myth, a ruse. I had been wrong.

  So wrong.

  “Yes, we’re checking for that,” Lanya said. “As much as we can anyway. They won’t be in the inner circle. They are people that I know and trust. And those that I don’t, the ones I’m not quite sure of, we’ll have those who we do trust watching over them. It’s not an ideal situation with so many borders being crossed, but it’s the best that we have at the moment.”

  “Well, our numbers are increasing, even though some are leaving.”

  I looked at Easton. “People will follow you. You don’t want total control. You just want to save the kingdoms.”

  “And that’s what the King of Lumière is promising. That if you give him full control, he’ll bring the kingdoms back together.”

  “And he says that the answer is slaughtering this entire side,” Rhodes snapped. And then he pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a breath. “Sorry. I’m a little pissed off right now.”

  “We all are,” Easton said, not sounding worried in the least. “You’re welcome to go punch something or go use your Air Wielding and make something break if you’d like. There’s a whole courtyard out there that we use for temper tantrums.”

  “A temper tantrum?”

  “Boys,” Lanya said, her voice stern and sounding more like a mother or even a grandmother than I’d heard from her before. “Not now.”

  “Sorry,” the King of Obscurité and the former Lumière prince said at the same time.

  My lips threatened to quirk, only Wyn shook her head, her lips twitching, as well.

  No, now would not be a good time to laugh. Though there wasn’t much levity these days, so maybe that’s exactly what we needed.

  “Is your father going to join us?” Easton asked Teagan, who nodded tightly.

  “He’s mourning. He’ll be out of his room soon and will help with strategy. He just needs a moment or two.”

  “I won’t hold that against him,” Easton said.

  “I wouldn’t hold it against him if he needed time away from the battle,” I said, frowning. “Though I really hope he doesn’t need that much time.”

  “He wants revenge. Wants the king’s head on a platter. So, no, he won’t stand back. He’s just so angry right now, he could burn down this whole throne room. So, he’s meditating with some techniques that Ridley taught him.”

  “I’ll go check on him soon and make sure he’s okay,” Ridley added, then we all started talking battle strategy again.

  Every single person in the room was trying to help us win. It was apparent that one couple was not here. One who had vowed to fight with us. They had left the battlefield mid-skirmish.

  And when the door opened, I hoped it would be them, finally coming in to help us with battle plans, and to fight on our side. It wasn’t.

  Instead, it was a courier with a note in hand. Dread filled my belly.

  “Sire, I have a note for Rhodes.”

  Rhodes’ brow shot up, and Easton looked at the other man.

  “Well, open it,” Easton said.

  Rhodes went to the courier, nodded in thanks, and took the note.

  Then he crumpled it in his hands. His Air Wielding spiraled around his hair, the water in the goblets in front of us moving in their cups.

  “Tone it down,” Luken whispered, taking the note from the other man’s hand.

  “They’re gone,” Rhodes barked. “The Lord and Lady of Dirt have left. They didn’t say where.” A pause. “But, they called in their favor.”

  He looked directly at me, and my hopes sank.

  “Their boon? They called it in? What does that mean?”

  “That we can’t outright kill them. They’re leaving. And I have a feeling they’re not going back to their estate.”

  Wyn let out a pained sound and then turned, her arms folded over her chest as she faced the window. Teagan moved forward and put his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off.

  Her parents were now traitors, and we all knew it.

  And Rhodes and I couldn’t be the ones to take vengeance on them because of what we’d promised them.

  “Fine,” Easton snapped. “There’s more than just the two of you in this room. We’ll take care of it when we see them next.” He looked over at Wyn for a moment and then turned back to the map in front of us.

  There was no use trying to console Wyn then.

  Everything had been taken from her—her Wielding, and now her family.

  She was with us, and she was fighting.

  And that counted for so much.

  It had to.

  The door opened again, and that same courier came in, his eyes wide. “Sire, there’s someone here to see you. We didn’t know exactly who she was until it was too late.”

  Everyone went on alert, my Wielding at the ready as I looked at the door. I gasped as I saw who walked through.

  Delphine, Queen of Lumière, strode in, her chin high. I could see the pain and unsteadiness beneath the mask. This woman was moving on fumes and pretense.

  “I know I’m the last person you expected to see,” she paused. A small smile played on her face, even though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Okay, perhaps not the last, but likely close.”

  “Aunt Delphine, what are you doing here?” Rhodes asked. It was Rosamond who answered.

  “You defected. I didn’t see that coming.”

  “No, you wouldn’t. Because I didn’t know if I was really going to make the decision until I was already making it. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a heads up. My heart barely let me know.”

  I stood there, transfixed. “Defected. You’ve left the Lumière?”

  She nodded tightly. “Yes. I can’t watch what my husband is doing. What he’s already done. I know I haven’t been the best queen—he stripped my power within the kingdom long ago. I only had my Wielding. Even then, I could never Wield with him near me.” She held up her hands and pulled back her sleeves. Bruises shone on her wrists. She had always worn long sleeves. Now, I knew why.

  “He bound your powers,” Easton growled. “The queen?”

  “Yes, I took the shackles off. It weakened me. I need a couple of days. Hopefully, we have th
at much time. I’ll be able to fight. I can’t stand what he’s doing to the kingdom, and I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to help before.” She looked at Lanya. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help your daughter.” She looked at Rhodes and Rosamond. “Your mother. I’m here now. My son has chosen his side.” Tears filled her eyes. She blinked them away, looking more royal than I had ever seen her.

  “Eitri is going to fight with his father, then?” Easton said, and she nodded. “Okay.”

  Her eyes widened fractionally. Then she returned to her cool composure. “You may do whatever tests you need to ensure that I’m not lying. I’m here to help.” She pulled out a rolled paper from her robes and looked down at it. “This is all I could take. Nothing else. It’s some of his strategy. Not all.” She looked at me, hope in her eyes. “He doesn’t know the true prophecy. He claims he does, but I know for a fact he’s never heard it. Not even The Gray has.”

  “You’ve seen him?” Easton asked.

  She gave a tight nod. “He’s the one who helped my husband bind me. He only comes in shadows. He comes more often than usual lately, though. Ever since the king’s brother died.” She looked at Rhodes and Rosamond, and then turned back to us. “I’ll do what I can, I’ll fight by your side. I’m only sorry it took me so long.”

  Ridley was at her side then because it looked as if she had been deflated, her whole body sagging.

  I didn’t know what to say because it wasn’t my place. I was only the one who was supposed to save the world, not rule it.

  “Thank you,” Easton said. “We’ll take what you have, and we’ll see what we can use. My uncle will go and help you rest. Heal up. Because we’re going to fight. And we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

  Warmth spread through me, and I reached out, gripping Easton’s hand. He squeezed. There was no more time for hope or for anything else.

  Instead, we needed to focus on what was in front of us.

  The battle to come.

  I wanted to believe in hope, so maybe I would hide it, but first…the truth of technicalities.