Chapter 462 (1/2)

Chapter 462

Chapter 460: Abandoned

NICO SEVER

As the te us across space to the preprogra sensation that gripped ed cardiac event It was foolish—and human, too stupidly human It wasn’t really the sharpness of Cecilia’s tone or her shrinking patience thatmy tail in her wake…

No, what really bothered me was the fact that I couldn’t help but feel this treatment was deserved I didn’t believe in karma as any sort of actual oodness of one’s own actions, but every time Cecilia snapped at me, I remembered myself in the early days of her reincarnation—equal parts desperate and terrified— and how that unhealthy alchemy of emotions led to the occasional cruelty to her, the person I had done everything—given everything—to see again in this life

She had lied to s frorona corrupt hermyself up as so out Grey and inserting hout her short and unhappy life

With jarring suddenness, we appeared in the receiving charin Caelureet us as the soldiers and attendants hurried to solute, visibly caught off guard by our appearance Instinctively,for Draneeve, only for me to remember an instant later that he wasn’t there and never would be again I had helped hi cruel and awful to him, I had helped hirona

Watching Cecilia’s gunray hair bounce as she marched quickly past the surprised attendants, I steeledit down deep I had failed Cecilia again and again, first in our last life, where I had let her be taken and hadn’t found her soon enough And then again, in the end, when I had been right there, but I had only watched as Grey ran her through…

I missed my step as I followed Cecilia up the stairs, a sharp exhalation slipping out She turned to regard me with concern, but I waved it away, and she continued on, surging forward on a wave of tension and eagerness

It still didn’t seee that Grey hadn’t intentionally s I had done, clai that moment as justification for the most horrible actions For years, back on Earth, I had fo e…and then here, reincarnated, hadn’t ICecilia ed unbidden into the spotlight of ical shi+eld, rubbing ical barrier, I was looking at a figure, hoping it was a trick of the light, a hallucination, a unmetal hair, even matted with dirt and blood

Mythat Tessia was there, in the middle of the attack on Xyrus Academy, when she was supposed to be with Arthur Draneeve and Lucas Wykes had captured her, were ready to…

I had been so angry So ready to kill Hadn’t I repeated it over and over as my suppressed Alacryan self clawed and tore its way to the surface? Feelings so strong they had broken the lock Agrona had placed on ainst the stairall These est the, a detail about my own behavior

Ahead, Cecilia stopped and turned, the runic tattoos highlighted against her skin, but I didn’t see her I looked harder, but I couldn’t see Cecilia…only Tessia Eralith

The truth was that Tessia had been so ih to shatter a spell placed by Agrona himself But not because I had been close to Tessia No…it was Arthur I kne important she was to him, and he was—had been—so important to me…my entire life…

Just as Grey had been on Earth At least, until Cecilia arrived

My best friend My brother And…I had hated hi he didn’t even do

“Nico? Co?” Cecilia’s frustration melted away into tenderness as she took a step back down the stairs Her hand raised, reaching forme

My face was scrunched up with the effort not to break down into tears “You abandoned me”

Tessia’s ht here I haven’t left you”

I shookto control my voice I had to sice before the words would co I could to rescue you, and you left ave up on me Do you have any idea how torturous ether, her nose wrinkling as her frown pressed into a straight slash across her elven face “More torturous than ret immediately flooded over her features, and she let out a shaky breath “You’ve never told me about after…on Earth”

“There never seemed a point,” I answered,to hear

“No, I suppose not I…” She hesitated, sing heavily “For what it’s worth, I thought I was protecting you” Her expression cooled suddenly, one brow rising slightly higher than the other “We’ve had days—weeks—to talk about this I can see that you’ve been siht, but now isn’t the time—”

“Cecilia!” I barked, my voice amplified by the close quarters

She flinched, and the expression of hurt was so purely Cecilia that she suddenly shi+fted in e of Tessia Eralith but once again Cecilia—my Cecil

“I’m sorry,” I breathed out, choked by the pain and desperation to be heard “I just…Grey Arthur I—he…” I shookto clear the cobwebs from my stupid skull “I didn’t just lose you I lost him too, and without the two of you, I…don’t know I lost an to burst behind the lids

Soft fingers laced through my own, and my eyes snapped open Cecilia’s face was hardly an inch in front ofdown from one step above “I’m sorry, I just didn’t kno to tell you It was…a shock forto sort out the real from the i like the bite of a venomous hunter fly

Cecilia’s jaorked wordlessly as she seeaze flattened and went blank, turning inward

When she didn’t say anything for several long seconds, I cleared ave a shtly as if she were listening to so far away

I squeezed the hand that was still holding mine, and her eyes refused and jumped to me

“What just happened?” I asked nervously, suddenly worried for her

Cecilia’s jaw clenched as she ground her teeth “Nothing, neverertips into her terona, and I’ll explain everything”

“I…sure Okay”

Slowly, Cecilia began ascending again, grabbing ed along, emotionally drained and mind blank as freshly pressed parchh I didn’t know enough, lacked the understanding toto us still sat in

There was a sharp edge of fear to es like this Her behavior was beco froacy; that was no different in this world I knew the spirit of Tessia Eralith rerona to help soothe the voice again If she let hiht was tooI always had: Cecilia herself The feel of her skin against mine, the sway of her body as she clie that I was absolutely certain of: I would do whatever it took to ensure our life together If this world had to burn for our new lives to begin, so be it—

Except, even as I had this thought—an old line of thinking worn into the pathways of uessany deeper than that, not wanting to face the question of what, exactly, I would or wouldn’t do to ensure that our vision would come true It was too difficult and painful And I couldn’t think about the fact that there ht be a line out there, invisible but already drawn in the dirt, that I couldn’t cross

Cecilia led uards and servants alike, unlocking ht brush away a cobweb When she didn’t find Agrona waiting for us in any of the expected places, she led me down into a labyrinthine series of tunnels and rooms that I had never seen before

“Where are we?” I asked, immediately uncomfortable

“Some kind of reliquary, I think,” she said off-hand “I found hiot to be here somewhere”

Cecilia didn’t open any of the doors as she rushed around, clearly navigating by her sense ofsense of curiosity building with each door we passed, I followed in her increasingly desperate wake, allowing htened child

After twenty hout the expansive systeency of her searching draining out of her as it becaer in silence, and I could see so beneath the surface of her expression Then, approaching it as if afraid of the contents, she came to a stop before one of the many, many doors