“Come on, Bloom.” His bark of laughter was low and dark. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out who he was? I promised you I would.” His sharp smile blinded me with a hatred that swam bone deep when he dared to open his mouth again. “Your paintings of him and Vordane were discovered months ago, and your reaction to this news only further cements what I’d begun to suspect. He is there, and now”—he trailed a finger down my cheek, his lips falling into a sneer when it reached the corner of my mouth—“now you fear for his life enough to betray your own people.”

“I would never betray them.” How he could even say as much when I’d done as he’d said for them—wasted away for a short eternity. I’d given him and this doomed kingdom my heart, and more than that, it was the remnants of my soul that were bound to this place I could not escape that kept me here.

Rorn tutted. “To disrupt this peace we’ve gained is the work of a traitor.”

“So behead me and be done with it,” I snarled, for he’d need to find me first.

But as I attempted to call forth the ribbons of energy and time, to manipulate them into taking me back to a kingdom I’d never dared to believe I’d see again, nothing happened.

Rorn grinned. “I could never harm you, you know that.” He sauntered back to the table to pluck my empty glass from it. “So unless you wish to sail, which I will certainly not allow, you’ll be staying right here…” He dropped the wineglass to the table. It shattered, his venomous expression one I’d not seen before. “Where you belong, Astrantia. For unlike this thieving male who is but a fleeting pest in our long lifetime, I fucking love you, and I won’t let you betray us.”

My fingers tingled with empty warmth as I tried again and again to disappear. Panic heightened my fear and rose my voice. “What did you do?”

“I won’t let you betray yourself.”

“Rorn,” I whispered, choked as I studied the thin air all around me, desperately needing it to thicken. To take me within its embrace and away from here.

“I won’t let you betray me.”

I ran at him, growling as I grabbed his shirt in my fists. “What did you do to me?”

Gently and smiling wide, he pried my fingers from his shirt and brought them to his mouth. He kissed them as tears blurred my vision, as I tried to comprehend all that he was doing.

All I’d never be able to do again.

“I’ve saved you,” he said softly, so simply.