The Cursed Luna's Tenth Awakening novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Full Moon

I did not sleep, and neither did he.

At the grey end of the night I found him alone by a dead fire at the edge of the camp, with his sword across his knees.

I sat down on the other side of the ashes.

"The council sold me," I said. "Joren told you."

"He told me."

"Then you know I'm going to the Stone at moonrise."

"I know you'll try."

He did not look up.

"Rorik, I'm sorry about the wish."

"You said you'd do it again."

"I would."

"Then don't be sorry." He turned the sword over. "Be honest."

I waited.

The wind pulled at the ashes.

"The first time I woke from the dream," he said, "I thought I was going mad. I had killed a woman on her knees and I could still feel the weight of her head."

I flinched.

He did not stop.

"I have a mother in the ground, and I thought the worst thing I would ever hold was her body. Then I held yours nine times, in my sleep, and I woke up with my hands wet."

"I didn't know."

"You made me your executioner. You made me the hand, nine times, and you did not ask me once if I could bear it."

My eyes burned.

"I thought you were safer not knowing."

"I'm not safe." His voice rose. "I would rather have been a dead man on that ridge than the one who did it to you."

"Don't say that."

"It's what I feel."

I got up and walked around the ashes and stood in front of him.

He still would not look at me.

I knelt, took the sword off his knees and laid it on the ground, and took his face in my hands.

He let me.

His jaw was rough under my palms, and his eyes were wet.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," I said.

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