“And even if I’d like to think I would never have done what my brother did, it is no excuse,” Tyr continues before he swallows. “What I did is unforgivable. What every ruler of Aphelion has done to their warders is unforgivable and a stain that will live on in our history forever. I do not ask for your absolution, only that you hear how much I regret every single day, and I’d do anything to start at the beginning of my rule when I would make so many different choices.”

When his gaze finds me again, tears shimmer in his eyes. As he says these words, I begin to understand what I should have known from the beginning. No matter what we might have felt for one another, he would always have been a king, and I would always have been his servant. We could never have been anything else.

There is too much pain and too much memory. Too much to overcome anyway.

Though he isn’t asking for it, I do forgive him. If only for my own peace of mind. If only because I deserve it.

Slowly, Tyr lifts the ark above his head and closes his eyes. We wait in silence, sharing looks around the circle. I glance over my shoulder at Hylene and Erevan. She tips her chin, offering me her silent support.

As I turn back to the center, the Mirror begins to glow, and I assume Tyr must be speaking with it. His body trembles as he holds the ark over his head, his lips moving softly as his ashen hair falls around his face.

A soft yellow beam arches slowly from the surface of the Mirror, hitting the ark. The object glows with gilded light before eight more beams spring from the ark and find their way to the centers of our hearts.

I tense as one hits me, bracing for the impact. But there is no pain, only warmth like a sunbeam through a window. Golden light spreads over my chest like I’m being dipped in bathwater before it ripples over my shoulders and down my arms, melts down my legs, and then rises up to my throat, where my skin tingles.

Tiny crackles spark against the lines of the marking that has kept me a prisoner for so many years. With my breath held, I feel it slowly burn away. I watch as the lines flare on my brothers’ throats until, a few moments later, the light dissipates before the Mirror returns to its usual reflective surface.