My heart skips a beat as she looks at me, and I realize she’s talking about Vann.
“Vann? Regret what?”
“You,” she continues, her voice firm, “are tied to him more deeply than you understand.”
I open my mouth to speak, but she holds up a hand, silencing me as she turns away. “Come, kin sister,” she urges, leading me deeper into the cavern. “There is more you must see.”
Her pace quickens as we move further, the soft glow of the walls marking our path. Her words stay with me, gnawing at my thoughts. She said she felt something—a connection. What the hell does that mean?
More debts float around me.
And between them, written in light, are words that do not stay still. Promises, broken and unbroken, twisting like ink bleeding intowater. Some flicker faintly, nearly faded, lost to time. Others burn so brightly I can barely look at them.
“It is unusual for a human to be with a member of a magical race,” she says. “The world must be very different from how it was the last time I visited.
I hum. “Humans having mates is new, yes.”
“Does that mean that you and him are…?”
“What? No. He… was mated before.”
A part of me wonders why I am telling her everything, but I like her. And… I want to know what she’s talking about.
“So he never told you.”
I freeze.
“What?”
The old woman stops and looks at me.
“Is he still in pain?” she asks, her voice soft, but there’s a sharpness to it that I can feel deep inside me. “Still cold? Still walking around without a heartbeat?”
My heart tightens, and I want to say something—anything—but the words catch in my throat.
Heartbeat… No heartbeat.
My eyes widen as I review all the moments I thought it was strange I couldn’t hear his.
“You aren’t one of us,” she says, voice flat. “But you are human. A kin sister, of sort.” She studies me carefully. “A human being with an elf or a giant or a troll, it is unwise. Before you stay with him, you should know the truth.”
I swallow hard, uncertain of where this is going. “What truth?”
My pulse pounds in my throat and my hands go numb. It isn’t her who makes me feel unsafe so much as it is the look in her eyes.
Her lips press together, her hand brushing against the curve of the cavern wall. She doesn’t look at me for a moment, lost in thought. When she finally speaks, her voice is heavy with time, with things unsaid.
“Long ago, I met your troll. He was young then—different. He came here to make a deal. To remove his heart, so he would never have a mate.”
“He did what?” My voice is raw with disbelief.
“He didn’t want to be bound,” she continues, the words coming slower now, like she’s reluctant to say them. “He said he had a woman—that she was more important to him than the future.”
Her gaze softens as she looks at me, almost protectively.
“Are you telling me… one of these debts is his?”
She nods once, then leads me into another room. More debts are swirling above us, but in the center of the small space, there is something deep purple. It’s large, carved from crystal, but not still. It moves. It glows. It pumps.