Page 54 of Stolen Thorn Bride

He felt everything. Felt as his words tore a gaping wound in his bondmate’s heart, but the pain faded quickly as she met his eyes without flinching.

“If that’s what you truly want, Dechlan,” she said quietly. “I will go.”

Dechlan willed himself to open his mouth. To tell her that yes, it was what he wanted, and she should leave, now, before he lost his courage, fell to his knees, and begged her to stay.

He couldn’t do it. So he simply remained silent, feeling the cold creep back around his heart once more as she searched his face and eventually nodded.

“I see,” she said. “Then I will prepare to leave. I think…” She turned away before pausing briefly, her eyes on the ground. “I would like to go today, if that’s possible.”

“You are not yet recovered—”

“Today, Dechlan.” Her tone was steel coated in ice.

He nodded, forgetting she couldn’t see him, but she strode away as though she had.

She was almost through the door when he called after her.

“Kasia.”

She stopped, but left her back to him.

“Know that I will never forget what you’ve done for me,” he said hoarsely, unable to prevent her from hearing his emotions. “You saved my life. You gave us all hope when we’ve given you nothing but pain. I hope someday you will be willing to forgive me for everything I’ve taken from you.”

Kasia still didn’t turn around. “If this is what you truly believe,” she said softly, “then you know nothing.”

And then she was gone.

Chapter 15

Somehow, Kasia held herself together until she was on the road, mounted on Aral with Tiernan beside her.

Somehow, she’d walked out of Northwatch Keep without pausing for goodbyes or begging Dechlan to let her stay.

He’d already made up his mind to send her away.

It didn’t matter that she’d saved him. That her magic could mean the difference between victory and defeat. It didn’t matter that their bond was a true one. Not when she hadn’t had the courage to tell him.

Perhaps she’d been wrong about what he felt for her. When he touched her face so gently during the battle with the wraith swarm, she’d thought… But judging by his icy expression, he truly felt nothing.

And yet, she didn’t believe she’d been completely wrong. Not when she could feel the pain he’d inflicted on himself when he told her it was best that she return to her own life.

Oh, she’d heard what hesaid. Listened to all his excuses. And they were not wrong. Shehadbeen manipulated. Lied to. Stolen away from her family. And in his mind, the only way to right the wrong they had committed against her was to send her home.

And shedidwant to go. She couldn’t wait to hug her siblings and reassure herself that they were all right.

But how could she not come back? How could she leave behind this world and its desperate need? How could she leave Dechlan when she had only just realized she loved him?

And yet, what choice did she have, when he was so obviously unwilling to care for her in return?

He feltsomething. She knew that he cared a little. The gentleness of his touch, the warmth in his eyes—he was not entirely indifferent.

But Dechlan had never lied to her. He was loyal to the memory of his first love, and even if Kasia had managed to win over Eilis, Fionn, and Nuala, Dechlan’s heart might be too gravely wounded to ever truly heal.

Perhaps she should have told him about the bond. She could even have explained how she’d found him in the midst of the wraith swarm, but it would have felt cheap—like begging for scraps, when she would never be happy with less than everything. If the bond was only true on her side, perhaps it was better that he never know.

So she would go back and leave him in peace. Leave the elves to their endless war. Leave this strange new world that felt more like home than her own ever had, because here she could be herself.

In the end, perhaps she was never meant to be anything more than a cursed pig keeper.