A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

52. Rev

Chapter 52

Rev

The towering iron-leaded doors of the Fortress were waiting to be opened, but I didn’t want to move.

My fingers wrapped through Karus’s cold hand, and yet she was not close enough.

I did not want to do this.

Every part of my body begged to scoop her up and take her back to bed.

Every sliver of my soul warned me, screamed at me to force her behind locked doors and close her up to keep her safe from the task that faced us.

I could do it.

Just as I had argued with her since I found her on that chair in her old room, I could use the spell. I could light Viridis in sunshine and push the Blight back far enough at least to get the book we needed.

I could convince the Growers that?—

“No.” Her voice came swift and hard as she looked at me with eyes of viridian steel, feeling everything I felt, knowing exactly what I was so very tempted to do.

I warred with respecting her choice and demanding she make a different one, and there lay the parts of me that lied, pretending to promise to trust her every decision.

“You don’t have to do this.” I grabbed her waist and cupped her cheek, pulling us close and soothing my pulse having her so near.

“You promised,” she began, tucking my waves behind my ears. “You promised you’d break this spell for me, and I believe you, Rev. You will not fail in this. I will return to you just as I am. And that is my promise to you.”

Her conviction only made me further fear her loss from my life.

“Fuck that, we’re going back to bed,” I rumbled, reaching down to pull her legs up to me.

“We are not.” She pushed my hands aside and broke from my heavy kiss, taking my face in her palms. “I’ve learned my lesson about choices. I know how asking you to help me with this is affecting you. But it doesn’t mean we’re going to agree on every choice either of us makes. I’m doing this for us, for Pompeii, for our future. I am thinking clearly. It’s you who is deterred by our past and I understand why.” She pressed her forehead to mine. “We will not fail. You will not fail.”

She kissed me once more and reached for the handle of the doors. She pulled, revealing the coppery hue of the sun rising through the trees. She took a deep breath, looking back at me. “Viridis returns today.”

I followed her out slowly. Moira waited on the stone newel at the bottom of the staircase, her wings fluttering madly as she spotted us.

One glance at me and she grimaced. “Karus, maybe we could?—”

“Where are the Growers?” Karus interrupted, obviously done listening. “We need to move. We’ll lead them to Viridis and get this done.”

Moira scrunched her lips, but turned, calling in a screech toward the tree line.

Movement from the forest developed into the foreign shapes of the Growers’ bodies, at least twenty of them in their varied forms moving slowly from the trees.

Karus nodded, addressing them all, “This way.”

My head fell back, and I looked to the sky in a weighted exhale as Karus walked through the Fortress doors.

“Is she going to be alright?” Moira asked as the long line of growers clambered into the Fortress.

I clenched my teeth and looked to Moira who fluttered at my side. “I don’t know.”

It was the only real truth I could give her as we followed the last of the Growers through the foyer.