“No, Nyfain!” I yelled, jumping up and swatting him with my will. I had to hold up my end of my deal with Dolion, or he’d be able to hold me accountable for all the demons I’d killed last night. Not to mention that if Nyfain managed to kill the demon king, apparently it would mean he’d kill himself and the rest of us all in the process.
My will knocked Nyfain to the side, directly into Jedrek. The two of them rolled, Jedrek screaming. When they stopped moving, Nyfain picked himself up and lunged for Dolion.
“No, Nyfain! Please, no!” I pushed him away with will again, feeling his power growing. My animal siphoned from it and stored it, then grabbed more and stored that, too. On and on, not letting him build. She knew we couldn’t let him get his hands on Dolion.
Make sure you don’t give that back to them, I told her, just to make sure.
I know, she said, seeming out of breath.
I caught him up with my will and threw him at the door. I needed time to talk to him alone.
With a finger in the air at Dolion, I said, “Give me a minute to send him away.”
“Of course,” he said, struggling for composure and attempting to look like he wasn’t. “Take half the time you need.”
“Don’t try to be clever. It just makes people feel sorry for you.”
I shut the door behind me and pushed Nyfain down the hall and into an empty room. There was no stench of demons, so I closed the door. He pushed to standing, rage still flowing freely through the bond.
“Nyfain, no.” I put a hand to his chest. My aching sadness was surely leaking through the bond. Tears coated my cheeks. “You knew it was always going to come to a deal. I see why that is now. I see why it has to.”
His chest heaved. Rage still pounded in the bond. His gaze dropped slowly to mine.
I pulled him to the window at the other side of the room so I could see his face.
“Let me go,” I said, my voice cracking. “Now is the time you’ve been preparing for. Let me go.”
Agony mixed with the rage. Desperation. His eyes turned glassy.
“No,” he said softly. “I won’t. Not like this.”
“Trust in me. I will be great one day, remember? You have to let me go. Right now.”
Tears filled his eyes, the first time I had ever seen him cry. Helplessness colored the bond. Anguish.
“No, Finley, please,” he whispered, and a tear overflowed and trailed down his cheek. He made no move to wipe it away
I put my hand over his heart. “I am yours, remember? Heart, body, and soul. I will fight to keep it that way. But now I must go to war. I must, because you cannot. This curse is the only thing keeping you alive. It’s the only thing keeping this kingdom alive. If it ended now, he would bring in all his forces and kill you before you could get to another kingdom and beg for an alliance. I’ve studied up on him. He will not let you live, Nyfain. No demon would. Not with all the bounty in this kingdom. This kingdom is a prize, and he wants nothing more than to collect.”
“This one time, I hate how much you read.”
“Knowledge is power, but sometimes a heart must break to wield it. We have to even the odds somehow. I am the only one who can break out of here and do it. Let me do my part. Even if he only bothers with me because of my looks or because I’m important to you.”
Another tear rolled down his face. A dozen rolled down mine. My knees were weak, and I wasn’t sure how much strength I had left to do this, especially with Jedrek in the mix. Clearly he’d been brought in to torment me. Dolion had found my weakness, and he would exploit it. He wanted to see me squirm.
So be it. I’d handle the torment, as Nyfain had done all these long years. But I’d have to walk away from my prince to do it. It was the only way.
I could feel his heart breaking. Mine broke right alongside it.
“Let me fly free, Nyfain,” I whispered. “Let me fly free. I will come back to you.”
He shook his head and then bowed it, his chest heaving. He clutched my upper arms, like a drowning man hanging on to a life raft. “I don’t think I can.”
“You have to. Now is the time for strength and duty. Be the prince you must be. I’ll be the scrappy little commoner I must be. This is how it has to play out. You know that.”
He took a deep, shuddering breath, his hands shaking as he gripped my shoulders. Slowly, he peeled his fingers away and dropped his arms at his sides.