Liam Vale's Arc

Chapter 7 of 7

Liam watched Violet walk through the open gate. He did not follow. The rose still lay in the dirt between them, and he left it there. He had let her go the honest way. But honesty, he realized, was not the same as being clear. The herb-seller still didn't know any of this. She only knew he'd gone quiet. He walked to her stall the next morning. He carried nothing in his hands. She was sorting dried roots into baskets. When she saw him, her face closed like a door. "You stopped coming," she said. She didn't look up. "Two days of silence. I thought that was your answer." "It wasn't silence," Liam said. "It was cowardice. Same thing looks like, from where you stand." She set a root down hard. "A woman with purple hair came through here yesterday. Bought nothing. Looked at me a long time." Her jaw tightened. "So I knew there was someone. I just didn't know if you'd picked her." "I didn't pick her." Liam made himself hold her eyes. "She offered me her love. It was easy. Safe. I almost took it because losing feels worse to me than lying ever did." He breathed. "I told her no. I told her I'd be cheating her out of a man who really loved her. And cheating you." The herb-seller went still. "Why cheating me?" "Because you're the one I want." The words came out plain, no charm underneath them. "I didn't say it these two days because I was scared you'd shake your head at me. Like you did the first morning. So I said nothing. And nothing told you I didn't care." He shook his head. "That was the last lie. The quiet kind." She reached under the counter. She brought out his mother's locket and set it on the wood between them. "You left this with me as proof you could be honest," she said. "Then you went and hid the biggest true thing you had." "I know." She pushed the locket toward him. "Take it back. I don't want your proof anymore." His stomach dropped. Then she folded her arms. "You told me once we were both cowards afraid to risk anything real. I said it first, remember." A slow, tired look crossed her face. "You just risked something. In front of me. That's new." Liam picked up the locket. His hand shook. "Does that mean—" "It means come back tomorrow." She turned back to her baskets. "With your words, not your gifts. And say the true thing on the first breath next time. Not the third." He closed his fingers around the locket. For the first time she had asked him to return, not to prove anything, but because she wanted him there. He walked out lighter than he'd come. The hard hand, he thought. He was finally learning to hold it.