even in death.
If the world were to burn to ash and to emptiness,
even our bones as dust,
I would remember him.
I would be his.
The Book of Heart
FORTY-TWO
Meilyr had run that night as well.
The night it had all come to an end, the night his parents had died.
The night Khaim had killed them, because of him.
‘Meilyr!’
Meilyr ran through the corridors, through cloisters and archways. Ran as his lungs burned and his muscles screamed as he flew into the gardens. The rain cut through the world, drenching him just as it had that night.
Even that had not been enough to quench the fires, burning his life to grief and guilt.
He fled down the terraces, metallic bile burning his mouth. He ran without direction, coursing with familiar fear:They know. They know, and you are dead.
Before his eyes, the storm-darkened grounds twisted into the press of the night-drowned forest. He was a child, running on his mother’s dying wish, as his heart broke open in his chest.
Just as it did now, for a very different reason.
Osian.Osian’s eyes, wide and knowing –knowingwhat Meilyr was.
If they find out what you are, they will kill you.
His mam’s voice. His da. Idwal.
It was always going to end like this. Yet somehow, his lonely and desperate heart had hoped. Hoped it could be some other way. Hoped they could each be someone else, and maybe—
But it was always going to end with the truth. With Meilyr’s blood on the stones at Osian’s feet.
Tears filled his eyes, streaming reality with memory. Bushes and branches swept past as he ran and ran. As through the dark and the trees came a flicker of presence, an ember in the depths.
The glimpse of cinders and fire, and golden eyes. Mottled fur.
The fox ahead, just as it had been. Urging him to follow. Leading him to the boy—
Osian all but crashed into him sidelong, catching his arms. Meilyr cried out in shock.
‘Meilyr, wait!’
He struggled like a snared hare, pulling away.
‘Meilyr—’ Osian held his wrists, not cruelly. ‘I knew, I already knew!I already knew.’
Meilyr froze.
Osian held his gaze, breathing ragged. ‘I knew, Meilyr. I knew, so please do not run from me. I could not harm you even if my life were the forfeit, if all Khaim and Cyngalon both were to burn because of it.’ He let him go, gently. ‘I could not harm you. I will not.’