Zero Affection Behind His Vows Chapter 11

Zero Affection Behind His Vows Chapter 11 The Last Sunrise

The countdown came down to its last day.

People said there were shallows east of Crescent Lake where the water ran clear all the way to the bottom, so I saddled a pack beast and rode out to see them.

The countdown pulsed on inside my head at 23 hours and 59 minutes.

The sprites’ voices came thin and scattered, quieter than usual.

I sat at the mouth of a shallow cave and watched the lake go dark by degrees. Full dark came, the moon came up with it, and I sat back against the rock face.

Footsteps came along the shore, and I didn’t turn around.

They stopped at the edge of my fire, stood there a while, and then crouched.

“About Clara,” he said, and his voice came out heavy as a stone off the lake bottom. “It was staged. She hired those beastkin herself and took the money out of the pride’s stores. She cut her own wrist. The crying, the fear, the kiss. All of it was a performance for me.”

His voice kept dropping. “And for somebody who was acting, I almost killed the one I actually love.”

I pulled a stick out of the fire, pushed the coals around with it, and kept my head down.

“Silas knew,” he went on, “and he let it stand. He says he only worked it out later, and by then, it was too late.”

I set the stick back in the fire, and the sparks that jumped out died on the sand.

“Callum,” I said, “these ten days taught me one thing.”

He looked at me.

“I got myself back. The Wren Frost who wanted something, who was worth something, who lived for herself. So if today really is the day I die, there’s nothing I’d take back.”

He grabbed my hand. “You’re not going to die! We’ll go to the healers, we’ll go to the High Seer, we’ll go to all of them. There has to be a way…”

“Callum.” I eased my hand out of his. “It won’t help. This is what the mission game does when you Neither of us can change the rules.”

He stopped short. “The mission game? What are you talking about…”

fail.

I smiled. “You don’t need to know. All you need to know is that those six years were a dream to me. And now it’s time to wake up.”

He stared at me like none of it made sense.

The two sprites sounded upset.

“What does that mean? Is Wren really going to die?”

“No, please. She only just started living her own life.”

The countdown started its last ten seconds.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

The numbers kept falling. Sunrise was coming.

“Callum.” I kept my back to him.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t set a stone for me. Scatter my ashes on the wind. I want to be able to go anywhere I feel like.”

He stopped, and his voice caught in his throat. “Wren…”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.”

The countdown hit zero.

The System chimed inside my head. “Mission failed. Erasure protocol initiated.”

I closed my eyes and waited for the last of it.

The moment came and went, and nothing happened.

I opened my eyes, and out over the lake, the sun was coming up.

Gold light spread across the whole surface of the water, and it stopped the breath in my chest.

I was still there. I was still alive.

The System spoke again, and this time there was nothing cold or mechanical in it. “Player has rebuilt her own selfhood inside the final ten days. Mission objective has shifted from the love of another to the love of self. Mission judged successful. Reward granted, a new life.”

I stood at the water’s edge and listened to it land in my head one word at a time, and slowly my mouth curved up.

The whole time, the one I had been sent to win over was never Callum at all.

I turned around. Callum was still standing by the fire with his face wet. “Wren… you…”

“I’m all right,” I said. “The game is over.”

Something in him seemed to understand, and the rest of him clearly didn’t.

The two sprites broke into cheers.

“She made it!”

“I’m crying. I’m actually crying.”

“Now go live your own life!”

In the end, he asked it quietly. “Could we… start over?”

I looked into his eyes for a long time, and then I shook my head.

“Callum, we’re finished. But you can start over. Go find somebody you actually love, and love her the right way. Don’t put anybody in a cage again.”

He cried like a young animal that had lost something.

I stepped up and put my arms around him for a moment. “Goodbye, Callum.”

He held on tight, and then he let go. “Goodbye, Wren.”

I turned and waded out into the shallows until the water came over my ankles and up my calves. The morning wind came off the lake and filled my sleeves, cold and exactly right.

The System sounded one last time. “Congratulations. You have a new life.”

I stood there in the water and laughed, then lifted a hand and brushed it lightly across my eyes.

The System went silent, and the sprites thinned out and were gone.

Morning light came off the lake in a flood and filled everything I could see.

Everything after that was my own life. It belonged to nobody but me.