What did she tell you?
Mortimer's voice slid back into my thoughts like a blade between ribs.
I kept walking.
Ahead of me, Lyra picked her way through the narrow passage the Earth Prison had opened for us.
White hair caught against the emerald glow running through the walls.
Every few steps she glanced back.
Checking.
Making sure I was still there.
As though I could possibly go anywhere else.
Raiden.
I ignored him.
My attention remained on Lyra.
My mate.
Gods.
The word still felt impossible.
Not wrong.
That would have been easier.
Impossible.
As though someone had taken every strange moment between us and finally handed me the missing piece.
The dreams.
The thread.
The way I could find her when I shouldn't have been able to.
The instinct that had driven me toward her from the moment I'd seen a teary girl kneeling in a war torn battle ground.
Except...
That hadn't been the beginning.
Apparently, I'd loved her before.
I'd known her.
She'd known about my mother.
She knew how I'd gotten the scar running across my body.
She remembered things about my own life that I didn't.
And somehow...
She is still here.
What happened while I was gone?
My steps faltered.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Mortimer didn't know.
I hadn't properly considered that.
He had been absent inside the prison.
Completely.
For the first time in months, my thoughts had belonged entirely to me.
And whatever had happened during that silence...
Mortimer couldn't see it.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
I glanced toward Lyra again.
She had told me the truth because Mortimer wasn't there.
Not intentionally.
She hadn't known what the prison would do.
But the result remained.
There was something between Lyra and me that Mortimer didn't possess.
Knowledge.
Mine.
Ours.
Something inside me hardened.
Tell me.
No.
The answer formed immediately.
Mortimer went quiet.
I almost smiled.
Excuse me?
You heard me.
Darkness stirred somewhere deep inside me.
It had always been strange trying to distinguish where Mortimer ended and I began.
His power lived in me.
His shadows answered me.
I enjoyed them.
That was perhaps the worst part.
I couldn't blame every dark impulse on him.
I'd admitted as much to Lyra.
Some of it was mine.
But this?
This decision belonged entirely to me.
No.
The darkness recoiled.
Then pushed.
Pressure built behind my eyes.
What did she tell you?
I kept walking.
Nothing.
He would get nothing.
Not her confession.
Not the memories.
Not the mate bond.
Not the fact that somewhere inside the woman walking ahead of me lived an entire history of us that had been stolen from my mind.
Especially not that.
Lyra glanced over her shoulder.
"You've gone quiet."
"I've been quiet most of the walk."
"Different quiet."
Of course she noticed.
Hiding anything from her seemed significantly more difficult.
Concern brushed through it.
Soft.
Warm.
Hers.
My chest tightened.
"I'm fine."
Her eyebrows rose.
I sighed.
"Mortimer."
Understanding replaced suspicion.
"Ah."
Apparently that explained everything.
She knows I'm here.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
She's not an idiot.
Tell her I said hello.
Tell yourself.
Lyra slowed until I caught up.
For several steps we walked beside one another.
Neither spoke.
We didn't need to.
The bond hummed between us.
Different now.
Or perhaps I was simply aware of what it was.
I had spent so long treating it as an unexplained inconvenience.
A magical thread.
An anomaly.
But instead it was something created by relics or dragons or gods.
Mate bond.
I looked sideways.
Lyra caught me.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"That was absolutely something."
"I was thinking."
"Should I be worried?"
"Usually."
Her mouth curved.
Something warm moved through the bond.
Mine this time.
I looked away before she noticed.
Which was pointless.
She could probably feel it.
This was going to become irritating.
You are distracted.
Mortimer again.
I clenched my jaw.
And you're becoming repetitive.
Something changed.
There it was.
Not a question.
He could feel that much.
He didn't know what had happened.
But he knew I wasn't the same man who had entered the prison.
What did she do?
I didn't answer.
What did the mountain show you?
Nothing.
What did—
Must you always make so much noise?
I stopped walking.
Lyra took two more steps before realizing.
She turned.
"What?"
I barely heard her.
Because Mortimer had gone silent.
Not confused.
Not surprised.
Silent.
The new presence inside my mind settled like the weight of a mountain.
Earth.
I'd nearly forgotten about her.
Apparently, she had been listening.
Mortimer's darkness shifted.
Slowly.
Recognition rippled through it.
Then something I had never expected to feel from him.
Not fear.
Something adjacent to it.
Old caution.
You.
One word.
Yet it carried more hatred than some men managed in entire wars.
The Earth Goddess didn't seem particularly bothered.
Hello, Mortimer.
My blood chilled.
They knew each other.
Not knew of each other.
Not stories.
Not legends.
They knew each other.
Lyra stepped toward me.
"Raiden?"
I lifted one hand.
Wait.
Her expression tightened, but she obeyed.
Inside me, Mortimer's darkness curled like smoke around something it couldn't touch.
You should have remained beneath your mountain.
Earth answered with maddening calm.
And you should have remained where we buried you.
My breath stopped.
We.
One word.
One very important word.
We?
Neither answered me.
Typical.
Apparently gods had collectively decided useful explanations were beneath them.
Mortimer recovered first.
Careful.
Earth almost laughed.
Still afraid of old truths?
I fear nothing.
You always were a terrible liar.
The darkness surged.
My lightning reacted instinctively, snapping beneath my skin.
Lyra grabbed my wrist.
"Raiden."
The contact grounded me immediately.
Her eyes searched mine.
"What is happening?"
"They know each other."
Her face changed.
"What?"
"Mortimer and Earth."
Her gaze unfocused slightly.
I recognized the expression now.
She was listening.
You didn't tell her?
Mortimer's amusement returned, but it sounded forced.
Earth remained quiet.
Lyra's eyes narrowed.
"Apparently they're not friends."
Despite everything, a laugh escaped me.
"An excellent deduction."
Mortimer hissed inside my thoughts.
Ask her.
I frowned.
What?
Ask your precious goddess who stood beside me when the world was still young.
Something about the way he said it made my stomach tighten.
Not mockery.
A challenge.
Earth's presence became heavier.
Warning.
Mortimer felt it too.
And laughed.
There she is.
"Who?" I asked aloud.
Lyra looked at me.
"Who what?"
I ignored her.
"Who stood beside him?"
Silence.
The mountain around us rumbled.
Not violently.
Almost like a sigh.
Not every truth belongs to this moment.
I laughed bitterly.
"Convenient."
Truth given before its time can destroy as easily as any lie.
Mortimer's amusement disappeared.
Coward.
The goddess answered softly.
I remember what you were.
Everything stopped.
Mortimer's presence vanished so suddenly I almost thought he'd left.
He hadn't.
He was there.
Hidden.
Listening.
Earth continued.
Do not mistake my silence for fear.
Something ancient moved beneath those words.
Grief.
Not hatred.
That surprised me more than anything else.
For one impossible moment, I sensed that the history between them was far more complicated than enemies standing on opposite sides of some forgotten war.
She remembered him.
Not the creature inside me.
Something before.
I wanted to ask.
A thousand questions rose at once.
What had Mortimer been?
Who buried him?
Why?
What happened when the world was young?
And who had stood beside him?
Before I could choose one—
Her presence withdrew.
Not gone.
Simply farther away.
The channel remained.
The conversation was over.
"Infuriating," I muttered.
Lyra smiled faintly.
"You'll get used to it."
I stared at her.
"You live like this?"
"Frequently."
"Three gods."
She hesitated.
So briefly most people wouldn't have noticed.
I did.
Then she nodded.
"Three."
Something about the answer felt incomplete.
I studied her.
She suddenly became extremely interested in the cavern wall.
Interesting.
I filed that away.
Not now.
She had given me enough truth for one day.
I could allow her one secret.
For now.
We continued.
I thought about Mortimer's reaction.
About the goddess's words.
I remember what you were.
I looked down at my hand.
Earth answered faintly beneath my skin.
Solid.
Ancient.
Mine, somehow.
The power felt nothing like lightning.
Lightning demanded release.
Earth waited.
It didn't need to prove its strength.
It simply existed.
I understood why the goddess had chosen Lyra.
What I didn't understand...
was why she had chosen me.
Then another thought surfaced.
Mortimer knew about my missing memories.
I was certain of it.
Maybe not everything.
But something.
Did you know?
Silence.
I continued walking.
Mortimer.
Nothing.
Did you know I knew her before?
The darkness twitched.
There.
Small.
But enough.
I stopped.
Lyra immediately turned.
"Again?"
I barely heard her.
Did you know?
Mortimer finally answered.
There are things better forgotten.
Rage hit me so quickly my vision blurred.
Lightning exploded across my fingers.
The cavern walls flashed white.
Lyra flinched.
"Raiden!"
I turned away.
Not from her.
Because if I looked at her while imagining someone deliberately tearing her from my memories...
I didn't know what I would do.
"You knew."
Mortimer laughed softly.
I know many things.
"You knew."
Knowing and causing are very different things, Prince.
Not an answer.
Which meant it was close enough to one.
Lyra approached carefully.
"What did he say?"
I looked at her.
Really looked.
At the woman I'd apparently loved once.
The woman I'd forgotten.
The woman I'd met again as a stranger.
The woman I'd chased.
Fought.
Protected.
Hurt.
Wanted.
Loved?
I wasn't ready for that word.
Not because it felt wrong.
Because it felt terrifyingly close to right.
"He knew something."
Her face paled.
"About us."
The bond tightened.
Pain moved through her.
I hated it instantly.
"And he's not telling you."
"No."
Her jaw tightened.
Anger replaced hurt.
Good.
Anger I understood.
Anger we could use.
I reached for her hand.
The movement surprised both of us.
There was no danger.
No collapsing cavern.
No enemy.
No reason to touch her.
Except...
I wanted to.
Her eyes dropped toward our joined hands.
Then lifted to mine.
I waited for the familiar panic.
The instinct to retreat.
It didn't come.
Instead, something inside me settled.
Choice.
Not prophecy.
Not gods.
Not a magical bond deciding for me.
Mine.
I tightened my fingers around hers.
Lyra said nothing.
Neither did I.
We walked.
Together.
Eventually, emerald light appeared ahead.
Natural light followed.
The passage widened.
Voices echoed from somewhere beyond it.
Familiar voices.
"Lyra!"
Revik.
She immediately moved faster.
We emerged into the cavern we'd left what felt like days ago.
Revik stood first.
Willow beside him.
Several surviving guards waited farther back.
Revik's relief lasted approximately three seconds.
Then his eyes dropped.
To my hand.
To Lyra's.
Back to me.
Then Lyra.
His eyebrows climbed.
"Well."
"Don't," Lyra warned.
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
"My face is innocent."
"Your face has never been innocent."
I almost smiled.
Almost.
Willow wasn't looking at our hands.
She was staring at me.
No.
Through me.
Her green eyes widened.
"What..."
She stepped forward.
"...did you do?"
Lyra looked offended.
"Why does everyone assume I did something?"
Revik shrugged.
"Experience."
Willow ignored them.
Her attention remained fixed on me.
Then moved to Lyra.
Back to me.
The color drained slowly from her face.
"Earth."
Silence.
She approached.
I felt the power inside me respond.
Stone shifted beneath my boots.
Barely.
Enough.
Willow stopped.
Her eyes snapped toward the floor.
Then toward Lyra.
The same recognition crossed her face.
"No."
Lyra frowned.
"What?"
Willow shook her head.
"That's impossible."
"You're going to need to be considerably more specific," I said.
Her eyes locked onto mine.
"You have Earth."
I nodded.
"Apparently."
Then she turned toward Lyra.
"And so do you."
Lyra glanced at me.
I looked back.
Willow took one slow step away.
Confusion had become something closer to fear.
"A relic doesn't do that."
The cavern fell silent.
Willow stared between us.
"A relic doesn't choose twice."
Inside my mind...
the Earth Goddess stirred.
Warm.
Ancient.
Utterly unconcerned.
This time I did.
I looked at Lyra.
And judging by the expression on her face...
she'd heard it too.