A Court of Graves and Flowers

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The night air hung heavy with the lingering scent of smoke, but that wasn't the reason why Tamlin suddenly couldn't breathe.

"You know?" he managed to choke out.

"I do," Callisto confirmed, her purple eyes filled with apprehension and a sliver of hope. "It explains why I could only cross the border once before when you defended the Summer faeries. And how I crossed again, unknowingly, during this fight."

Dread, cold and clammy, coiled in his gut. He could barely look at her, the fear in his emerald eyes mirroring the terror churning within. "Explains what?"

Callisto paused, looking as though she were trying to figure out how to phrase her next words. But there was no easy way to say it.

"It's you, Tamlin. Somehow, you're the reason I'm tethered to the Spring Court. And you have the power to release me."

Each of her words felt like a hammer blow, driving the truth deeper into his already fractured soul. A knot of guilt tightened in his stomach, strangling him. Tamlin knew, deep down, that her words made sense. She was only able to cross the border when he, too, was beyond it. Had this been the reason for their connection? Was she somehow tied to him because of the spell that brought her back?

"I didn't mean for this." When he looked up at her, his green eyes were full of anguish. "I never meant to keep you trapped here. I didn't know. I didn't know."

She knew that, right? She knew that he had no part in this, that he would never deceive her like that?

Callisto reached out, her touch gentle yet firm, a lifeline in the storm of his emotions. "I know you didn't, Tamlin. But now . . . now we do know. And you can set me free, Tamlin."

Fear coiled like a serpent around his heart. His gaze, raw and desperate, locked onto her face. Every curve, every freckle, every glint in her amethyst eyes was a searing reminder of what he could lose.

No, no, no, no.

He didn't want to. Not like this. Not when he just got her back. Not when their love had just begun to flicker to life.

His beast thrashed within him, a wild echo of his fear. It urged him to take her back to the manor, to hold her in his arms and never let go. The thought of her leaving, of her laughter echoing in empty halls, was a torment he couldn't bear.

Yet, as their eyes met, he saw not fear but love mirrored back at him. A love laced with trust, with understanding, a love that demanded his strength, not his fear. Tears welled up in his eyes, blurring the world around him. He knew, with a heart-wrenching certainty, what he had to do.

He looked up at the vast expanse of the sky, a silent scream tearing through his soul. He screamed at the gods, at the cruel twist of fate, at the Cauldron itself for binding their love in such a twisted way. To have her but not to keep her. To love her, only to lose her. Maybe this was a punishment, after all. Distantly, he wondered if this was what Orpheus felt like in that fairytale that Callisto spoke of that one morning.

But his anger, his fear, melted away as he looked back at Callisto, her unwavering gaze his anchor. Reaching deep within him, he tapped into the well of power. He channeled every ounce of his love for her, every stolen kiss, every whispered truth, into the magic that flowed through him. It swirled around them, a luminous cocoon.

With a voice thick with emotion, he spoke the words that broke his heart. "I release you, Callisto." And as he spoke the words, the tears finally spilled over, tracing silver tracks down his cheeks.

The magic obeyed before receding like the tide. Tamlin watched, his breath hitching in his throat, as the invisible barrier seemed to shimmer and disappear. A gasp escaped Callisto, filled with relief and disbelief. Her wings cracked open like obsidian sails, and in the blink of an eye, she shot upwards, soaring into the night sky. Beyond the hills. Beyond the border. Beyond his sight.