The emerald light running through the cracks in the cavern pulsed once.
Then again.
The chamber trembled.
At first I thought the prison was shifting once more.
Instead...
The walls moved.
Not outward.
Inward.
A low groan rolled through the stone as every surface around us crept closer.
Almost imperceptibly.
Almost.
Lyra frowned.
"...Is it just me?"
"No."
I pushed away from the wall.
"The room's getting smaller."
The moment the words left my mouth, ancient runes ignited around the ceiling.
Letters carved themselves into the stone.
TRUTH IS THE FOUNDATION OF ALL THINGS.
The sentence vanished.
Another replaced it.
LIES SHALL CRUMBLE.
Silence settled over the chamber.
Then an ancient voice echoed through the room.
"Speak."
Lyra looked at me.
"...That's it?"
I studied the walls.
"No riddles."
"No monsters."
"No puzzle."
Lyras panic slightly palpable in her words.
The stone shifted again.
Closer.
A handspan this time.
The prison wasn't waiting forever.
Lyra folded her arms.
"So..."
She looked at me expectantly.
"You first."
I almost laughed.
"I don't think so."
She sighed dramatically.
"Worth a try."
"What truth would satisfy a mountain?"
"I have no idea."
She looked around.
"My favorite color is blue?"
Nothing happened.
The walls moved again.
Closer.
We exchanged another look.
"...Right."
I cleared my throat.
"I dislike court banquets."
The room shrank.
Lyra blinked.
"I don't think it cares."
"It would appear not."
She frowned thoughtfully.
"It wants something important."
The chamber pressed inward another few inches.
The air suddenly felt tighter.
Lyra took a slow breath.
"I don't like being called the Primal."
The room paused.
Then...
Continued shrinking.
"You're lieing."
"No."
She looked away.
"I guess I don't hate it."
"I tolerate it."
"Lyra!"
The chamber stopped.
For a heartbeat.
Then moved again.
She winced.
"It wasn't entirely a lie."
"The prison seems to disagree."
The walls slid inward.
Closer.
The distance between us shortened from several steps...
to one.
The ceiling lowered.
The green cracks brightened.
The prison wasn't threatening us.
It was crushing us.
"Fine," Lyra muttered.
"I hate that everyone looks at the dragon before they look at me."
The room stopped.
A breath.
Then expanded.
Barely.
Only a few inches.
But enough.
We both noticed.
"So..."
She smiled faintly.
"It likes honesty."
"It appears to reward it."
"It also appears to want more."
The walls immediately answered.
Grinding inward again.
I looked up.
"Impatient."
The prison didn't appreciate the observation.
Stone scraped louder.
The chamber became uncomfortably small.
We stood almost shoulder to shoulder now.
The walls continued advancing.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
Lyra swallowed.
"My turn is over."
"I don't believe it works that way."
She gave me a look.
"You noticed."
"I generally do."
I folded my arms.
"I have no desire to be king."
Nothing.
"I enjoy solitude."
The walls moved.
"I don't enjoy solitude."
Closer.
"I..."
I exhaled sharply.
"This is ridiculous."
The prison disagreed.
The chamber became so narrow that Lyra's shoulder brushed mine.
Neither of us moved away.
There wasn't room.
She looked sideways.
"I think..."
"...it's asking about something else."
I met her eyes.
The room shrank another inch.
"I don't know what you mean."
The walls lurched.
Harder this time.
The ceiling lowered enough that I instinctively ducked.
Lyra stared at me.
"You lied."
"I omitted."
"You lied."
"I..."
The stone groaned violently.
"For fuck sake..."
The room continued shrinking.
Our backs pressed against opposite walls.
Except...
There were no longer opposite walls.
There was only enough space for the two of us.
The stone continued closing.
Until there was nowhere left to stand without touching.
The prison left us no choice.
Lyra stumbled as the floor shifted.
I caught her instinctively.
The movement trapped us tangled together in the center of the chamber.
Arms instinctively pushing as if I could force the walls back.
To no avail...
There was nowhere else to go.
The walls continued advancing.
Slowly.
Patiently.
Waiting.
Waiting for one of us to finally stop pretending.
I closed my eyes.
For the first time in months..
There was no Mortimer.
No whispering excuses.
No voice telling me to remain silent.
Only...
Me.
The words escaped before I could stop them.
"I've spent my entire life believing I'll become him."
The room stopped.
I laughed once.
Without humor.
"My father."
Stone held still.
"I have never felt worthy of calling myself a prince."
Another pause.
"I only wear the title because it belongs to my blood."
Not because I deserve it.
"My father commands fear."
"I inherited that."
"My father rules through power."
"I've begun enjoying power."
The admission tasted like ash.
"I tell myself every decision I make is necessary."
"That every life I take serves a purpose."
"But every day..."
I opened my hands helplessly.
"...it becomes harder to tell where necessity ends..."
"...and where the monster begins."
The chamber expanded another foot.
I barely noticed.
"I don't think I'm meant to love anyone."
My voice sounded strangely distant.
"I don't think someone like me deserves that."
The words settled between us.
"I keep people away because it's easier."
"Safer."
"They can't leave if I never let them close."
A bitter smile touched my lips.
"Then you arrived."
I finally looked at Lyra.
"And for reasons I still don't understand..."
"...you walked through every wall I built as though they were never there."
My throat tightened.
"From the moment I looked at you, you've been there."
"In my thoughts."
"Under my skin."
"In every damned corner of me I thought belonged to me alone."
Her eyes didn't leave mine mist beginning to form.
"You infuriate me."
"You challenge me."
"You make me question decisions I have never questioned before."
"I don't want to care."
A humorless laugh escaped me.
"Gods, it would make my life considerably easier if I didn't."
"I don't want to wonder if what I'm doing is wrong because I know you'll look at me and somehow make me wish I were better."
The room shifted.
Expanded.
Barely.
"I don't want my first thought when you're hurt to be how quickly I can get to you."
Another breath.
Another truth.
"I don't want to search for you every time I enter a room."
The walls eased farther away.
"I don't want to wake wondering where you are."
"Or lie awake remembering the way your lips felt as I tasted them."
My voice dropped.
"I don't want every battle to begin with wondering if you're safe."
"Or end with needing to see for myself that you're still breathing."
My fingers curled against my palms.
"And even when I finally sleep..."
I swallowed.
"...even my dreams aren't safe from you."
The room expanded again.
But I barely noticed.
Because I was looking at her now.
Only her.
"There is no silence anymore."
My voice came quieter.
Rougher.
"Because somehow, even there..."
"...I find you."
The admission hurt more than any wound I'd ever taken.
"I spent my entire life making certain no one could become something I couldn't afford to have."
I held her gaze.
"And then you came along and became exactly that."
"My weakness."
The walls pulled away.
"And I don't know what terrifies me more."
"That you could be my undoing..."
My chest tightened.
"...or that somewhere along the way, I stopped knowing who I was without you."
The room expanded again.
The pressure eased enough that we could breathe freely.
I didn't notice.
I couldn't stop.
"Why?"
The question escaped before pride could catch it.
"Why do you affect me like this?"
"Why do I always feel drawn back to you?"
"Why do you always look at me....
My voice broke quietly.
"...like I mean something."
"What am I to you?"
Silence.
Complete.
Absolute.
Only then did I realize my eyes were closed.
I opened them slowly.
Lyra hadn't moved.
A single tear traced silently down her cheek.
My hand clenched at my side, fingers curling into my palm as I fought the instinct to reach for her.
To brush it away.
To touch her.
Because apparently even her tears had become something in me that demanded answering.
She looked at me with an expression I couldn't understand.
Grief.
Hope.
Love.
Relief.
Resolve.
All tangled together.
She whispered my name.
"Raiden..."
It sounded almost like a prayer.
The ancient voice echoed once more.
Gentle.
Patient.
"Truth has been given."
A pause.
Then...
"Now the foundation must answer."
Every emerald vein surrounding us brightened.
The chamber waited.
Lyra lowered her head.
I could almost see the battle unfolding behind her eyes.
When she finally spoke, her voice barely rose above a whisper.
"You asked who you are to me."
She looked up.
"You're my prince."
"My friend."
"My teacher."
"My protector."
"The man who taught me I was stronger than the world ever allowed me to believe."
A sad smile touched her lips.
"And you're the man I fell in love with."
I forgot how to breathe.
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"You were my first love, Raiden."
Her hand trembled as she pressed it over her heart.
"And no matter what was taken from you... no matter how many times the world tries to tear us apart..."
Her eyes found mine.
"I will always be here."
My gaze dropped to her hand.
To the place beneath it where I knew that impossible thread lived.
"The thread we've always felt..."
Her voice softened.
"It was never just magic."
"It wasn't the relics."
"It wasn't the gods."
"It wasn't Mortimer."
She swallowed.
"It was us."
Something inside my chest pulled painfully toward her.
"It has always been us."
Her tears spilled freely now.
And then she gave me the truth the mountain had been waiting to hear.
"You are my destined mate."
Everything inside me stopped.
The words should have meant nothing.
Instead, some ancient part of me seemed to recognize them.
Recognize her.
"I knew you before the battlefield."
"Before Mortimer."
"Before any of this."
Her voice shook.
"I know how you got your scar."
My blood went cold.
"Your mother..."
She took an uneven breath.
"You told me about her."
I stared at her.
"You trusted me with pieces of yourself you didn't give to anyone else."
Her mouth trembled.
"And I gave you mine."
The chamber seemed to disappear around us.
"Your memories of us were taken from you."
Her voice cracked.
"And they may never fully return."
"But mine weren't."
She closed her eyes.
"I remember everything."
"The way you looked at me."
"The things you told me when no one else was listening."
"The way you made me believe that maybe... just maybe... there was somewhere in this world I belonged."
Her next breath broke.
"I remember falling in love with you."
A tear slipped from beneath her lashes.
"And I remember losing you."
My chest tightened.
"You were standing right in front of me..."
Her eyes opened.
"...and you didn't know me."
The words struck harder than any blade.
"I lost the man I loved without ever getting to bury him."
"Then you broke my heart without ever knowing you'd been the one holding it."
The chamber didn't move.
It simply listened.
"And I hated you for it."
My breath caught.
"For forgetting me."
"For looking at me like I was a stranger."
"For making me remember enough for both of us."
A broken laugh escaped her.
"And then..."
She shook her head.
"...you did the cruelest thing you possibly could have done."
I couldn't speak.
Her smile appeared through her tears.
"You made me fall in love with you again."
Something inside me fractured.
"Not with the man you were."
She stepped closer.
"With you."
Another step.
"The impossible, infuriating man standing in front of me now."
Her voice softened.
"Maybe some pieces of you changed."
"Maybe some were taken."
"Maybe I'll never get all of them back."
She looked directly into my eyes.
"But I know you, Raiden."
"I knew you then."
"And I know you now."
I stared at her.
Unable to speak.
Unable to think.
There was only one question left.
"How...?"
My voice was barely my own.
I looked away from her.
"...How could you love someone claimed by darkness?"
Silence.
"I've embraced Mortimer's power."
My hands curled into fists.
"I've used it."
"I've wanted it."
The confession tasted bitter.
"That isn't him."
My eyes met hers again.
"That's me."
Lyra stepped closer until only a breath separated us.
She shook her head.
"No."
The word was impossibly gentle.
"You are not only your darkness."
Her eyes never left mine.
"Without darkness, there can be no light."
"Without night, there can be no dawn."
"Without shadow, how would we ever know where the light begins?"
Her hand lifted.
For one terrible second, I thought she might hesitate.
She didn't.
Her palm settled over my heart.
Every muscle in my body went still.
"The world likes pretending only beautiful things deserve to be loved."
Her fingers curled slightly against my chest.
"Only the good."
"The gentle."
"The untouched."
Her gaze softened.
"But that's not love."
My heart hammered beneath her palm.
"Love doesn't look at the ugliest pieces of someone and pretend they aren't there."
"It sees them."
"It knows them."
"And it stays."
My throat tightened.
"I don't love Mortimer."
Her voice became firmer.
"I don't love what he has done to you."
"I don't love the things he's made you believe about yourself."
Her thumb moved once against my chest.
"But your darkness?"
She gave me the faintest smile.
"That doesn't frighten me."
I couldn't move.
"Because I have seen what lives beside it."
"The man who reaches for me before he remembers he's supposed to hate me."
"The man who protects people and then pretends it meant nothing."
"The man who questions himself when cruelty would be easier."
"The man who is terrified of becoming a monster..."
Her eyes shimmered.
"...and somehow doesn't understand that monsters don't fear losing their humanity."
Something inside me cracked wide open.
"I love the man who keeps fighting inside the darkness."
"The man who still chooses."
"The man who still cares."
"The man standing in front of me."
Her voice fell to a whisper.
"You."
Not the prince.
Not the dragon.
Not Mortimer's weapon.
Me.
"Even if every memory of me is gone."
Her forehead nearly touched mine.
"Even if you never remember the first time you loved me."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"I will."
Her hand remained over my heart.
"And if I have to..."
That sad, beautiful smile returned.
"...I'll let you fall in love with me all over again too."
The chamber around us fell utterly silent.
As though the mountain itself had stopped to listen.