The Centaur Queen (The Dark Queens #7)(64)
Her face set in a full frown. “But you lost me well before my sojourn with the Fates.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Because though you were banned and staying with Tronos, I knew where you were, knew you were safe. But when I lost that tether to you, I went insane with guilt. I could have stopped you. I should have stopped you, and yet I’d done nothing to help you. Then I couldn’t find you. And I tried, but failed to reach you in Gnósi. Soon after that, I was tasked by Aphrodite to join in a game of sorts. They called them the love games, but they were more like the war games, pitting a team of two against another team of two. That’s where I met Tymanon, where I began to fall in love with her brilliance and quick wit, though I didn’t recognize it then.
“It’s also where I finally began to draw close to you, Myra. For so long, I blamed not just myself, but even you too, for not being satyr enough, for wanting more than you should have. I was so angry at you. Until her. Until I saw her and she me, and she changed my entire outlook on everything. Tymanon is my world. She is my heart and my soul, and I understand now, sister, why you threw it all away.”
She shivered, never even blinking as she said, “Because Tronos was mine too at the time. But I fear for you, my brother. The vows of Veritas make it so that two hearts can truly know they are one. Without that assurance, you can only hope, you can only guess that your chosen one is truly yours. I thought Tronos was mine. But he wasn’t, Pétrapos. He wasn’t.”
I swallowed, staring at Myra with all the love in my heart. “But Tymanon is mine. Tronos never did a kindness for you, Myra. Not in the way he stole you in the dead of night, not in the way he refused to come to our people and speak plainly and boldly of his love for you. He took you away, forcing the elders to make the decision they had.”
“Do you really think any of them would have understood or even bothered to truly listen?” She snorted, rubbing her arms with jerky movements.
“Maybe not. But maybe you could have turned a few hearts. You would have at least turned mine, if Tronos had claimed you as he ought to have. I would have respected him more at the very least. Tymanon isn’t Tronos, Myra. She sacrificed herself for you when she didn’t need to. She didn’t know you.”
“And now you are the wrong one, brother. For it was not me she sacrificed her freedom for, but you. You are going to leave me, aren’t you?”
I could not have them both. Tymanon was forever trapped in Gnósi. There was a choice to be made.
“I’ve just gotten you back. How could I leave you?” I said, tears heating my eyes.
She sniffed. “If I were you, and she was Tronos, even now, I am ashamed to say, I would leave you too. Love is a powerful affliction. I cannot say I understand, and yet I completely do. I will never give my heart again, but, brother, if you have found the true kind of happily ever after, you would be a fool to let it go. Tomorrow we will leave. I will head for home, and you will go back to her.”
I shook my head. Powerful as the need was to return to Tymanon, I was torn by my sense of duty to my sister.
“You cannot roam unhindered through this new world. It is too dangerous.”
She grinned. “Have more faith in me, brother. I am a big girl and can take good care of myself.”
“Out of the question,” I all but growled. “We will travel together.”
“If you come with me, you will never leave. I know you. You will find one reason or another to see me safe. You will lose your light.”
My heart ached as I leaned in and kissed her forehead. “That will never happen. I will return for Tymanon. I will.”
But deep down, I feared my sister might be right. I couldn’t abandon my sister again. I simply couldn’t. Tymanon would never think kindly of me if I did. Bleeding inwardly, I tossed Myra a crooked smile, one she didn’t return.
Standing, I tried to shake off the sadness as best I could and add some levity to my voice. “Go to bed, Myra. We leave at dawn.”
She got slowly to her feet, looking at me for several long seconds before leaning in and kissing my cheek. “I love you, Pétrapos. I hope you always know that.”
Fighting tears, I nodded at her. “I always have and always will.”
I watched her walk away, back into the castle. I stood out in the cold night, looking up at the sky, wishing with all my heart that my Ty stood with me now, that wherever she was, she was staring up at the very same sky and thinking of me as I would always think of her.
*
When I awoke the next morning, I found a note on the empty side of my bed.
You are too honorable, and so I’ve made the decision for you. Do not look for me. I left almost the moment I returned from the garden, and am now long gone. I will not return to the land of our home. Where I go, you will never find me. But I beg you to find your happiness, Pétrapos, as I never could. Find that joy for us both.
All my love,
~M
Heart beating a painful rhythm, I turned on my heel and stared at the blank wall behind me. I knew what I would do. And though I hated the sudden flash of relief coursing through me, I was grateful and humbled by my sister’s show of love for me. If Myra did not wish to be found, she wouldn’t be. Satyrs had learned long ago how to hide our tracks from the inquisitive eyes of our prey. Myra had made her choice, and now I needed to make mine.