“I found your note and was lying here waiting for you to return when my rune stones flashed . . . and then suddenly I was astral projecting. You know I can’t control that, right? Like it just happens, and I don’t understand it. I can’t stop it from happening and I can’t pull myself out of it. You and Tegan have always rescued me from this⁠—”

“I know.” He scooted closer so I could see him leaning over me. “Where did you go?”

I clenched my teeth as a new wave of tears spilled from my eyes. My eyes and throat burned. I sniffled and wiped my face with my sleeves roughly. “I heard a conversation I shouldn’t have, I know that, but I was helpless to do anything about it.”

He scowled. “This conversation is why you’re crying?”

“Yes.” I nodded as I wrung my hands together. “I refuse to be the girl who doesn’t communicate and ask for an explanation for what I heard⁠—”

“No, that has never been your style.”

At that, I met his worried gaze. There was nothing in his eyes that suggested he knew which conversation I’d heard. Somehow that made it hurt more. “I projected to the backyard . . . where I saw and heard your conversation with Saber.”

His face fell. “I see.” He turned away from me, sitting sideways on the bed staring at the wall.

“Do you?” I sniffled and sat up to face his profile, crossing my legs under me. “I heard your whole conversation, Everest. The promise she asked of you . . . and everything after until Braison walked out. That was what allowed me to get away. Tegan pulled me out. But I heard all of it, Everest.”

He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I don’t yet hear a question.”

I gasped. That was not a good start. My pulse pounded in my chest. “So . . . so . . . so you’re choosing Saber over me?”

He had the grace to cringe even as he answered, “Right now, yes.”

I pressed my hand to my chest that was tight like someone sat on me. “You love her.”

“There are many forms of love, Francelina,” he said softly, in a voice so tender it made me want to throw up.

Fresh tears ran rivers down my face. He loved her. My soulmate loved another woman and was choosing her over me. I gagged and then scrambled out of my bed. There was no way I was adding insult to injury by vomiting in my bed. I pressed my hands to my stomach and walked away from him, needing him to not see how much this was affecting me. “If Saber and I were both in mortal danger right now, as in one of us was definitely going to die and you could only save one . . . who would you save?”

“Her,” he whispered without hesitation. “But that does not mean what you think it does.”