But then I burst through the door, and I’d seen the adoration in her blue eyes, scented that familiar smell of lilac and rosebuds, heard the longing in her voice…
That Fates-cursed mating bond had sunk its hooks into my beating flesh, and my heart had faltered.
My love for Ellie had faltered.
And I wasn’t sure if I could live with myself knowing that.
So I left the seedy bar and wandered into the woods.
It was first light by the time I arrived, the glowing sun making its appearance, the silvery moon finally slipping past the horizon.
My father hadn’t wanted to bury him here, not initially. No, my father had wanted pomp and circumstance in the gravestone that would honor my brother, honor his heir.
I’d convinced him otherwise.
It was the first request he’d ever granted me.
I’d been shocked when he agreed, thinking the grief of my brother’s loss must have altered something ancient in him.
It hadn’t in the end, unless you counted being more irritable, but that didn’t matter so much.
I’d asked him to bury Jerad back here, and he’d let me.
In the center of the castle grounds, there was a casket in a tomb large enough to pass for the resting place of a Fate, but the casket was empty.
My brother lay here, far away from tourists and prying eyes and citizens who liked to gossip and speculate about just how exactly my brother had died.
My father had granted me few gifts in my life.
If I had to pick just one, this would have been it.
His gravestone was simple, only his familial nickname carved into its face, lest someone stumble upon in and realize who was buried there.
Jed
A Son, A Brother, A Friend
I settled into the earth and dug my fingers into the soil. Something about the feel of earth between my fingers made me feel connected to him, like he’d returned to being part of the earth and was sitting here with me, just with another form, another purpose.
I could work with that.
“I keep messing up, Jerad.”
Is that anything new? I could imagine his voice, the low timbre that never let anything provoke it. Could hear it like he was speaking to me now.
It was why I liked this place.
I laughed. “No, but at least when you were around, you could fix it for me.”
Perhaps it’s for the best that I left, then. You always need a bit of prodding to grow up.
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call your death a prodding. More like a staking, but okay.”
Let’s hear it then. What have you done this time?
“I fell in love with the wrong woman.”
Also not a first. Surely we could sift through some of our old talks and get a head start on figuring this out.
I shook my head. “It’s different this time.”
If you’re saying one’s the wrong woman, I’m going to take a gander and guess there’s a right woman?
I chuckled, but it sounded more like a cough.
And what, exactly, makes her the right woman?
“Well, she’s my betrothed, for starters. I’m to marry her in just a few days.”
Ah, yes. It would have been convenient for you to fall in love with the woman you were actually planning to marry, wouldn’t it?
“Not just convenient,” I said. “It would be… it would be perfect. I’ve never met a woman like her, Jed. She’s got this drive that would level a continent if she thought that was what needed to happen to reach her goals. And she’s so stinking clever. Not just with her craft. I mean, the art she can make with her hands—that’s amazing. But she’s just so funny. I never know what’s about to come out of her mouth, but it has me flabbergasted and exasperated and delighted all at once. You would have liked her. Probably would have stolen her from me, honestly. Though I would have let you have her. She deserves to be loved. Deserves better than what I can give her. Besides, I think she would like you better than she likes me. The two of you could be boring and responsible together.
I thought you said she was hilarious. She doesn’t sound boring to me.
“You’re probably right,” I said, breaking apart pieces of a leaf and tossing it to the side.
Probably.
