Ariock would not confront Garrett alone. He summoned the heroes of prophecy, but he did not explain the purpose of the meeting. They would have to wait for him to show up. And first?

He stopped at Vy’s office.

Vy interrupted herself in the middle of a conversation with Cherise and several other people. She knew that Ariock never barged in like this.

“Can I talk with you?” Ariock asked. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“Uh, sure.” Vy apologized to her guests. They shot curious looks towards Ariock and Vy, but none dared to demand an explanation. They let Vy exit with Ariock.

“Mind if we talk in my home suite?” Ariock asked, and he barely waited for Vy to nod.

Once they were alone, he sat on the oversized couch so he wouldn’t tower over Vy. She liked to snuggle whenever they were alone together, but she sensed the seriousness of his mood, so she did not plop down onto his lap. Instead, she took a dignified seat on the normal-sized rocking chair.

“I need to know something.” Ariock broached the subject without preamble. “My dreams predict the future. Did you…”

He saw her lack of surprise; her pained look of guilt. The answer was plain on her face.

He asked anyway. “Did you know that I have a prophetic ability? Because I didn’t know.”

Vy hunched with shame.

She had known.

The whole time.

Ariock had casually told Vy about his recurring nightmare that he couldn’t save her, and she had known that his dreams predicted the future, yet she had pretended to be emotionally stolid. For months. Such devastating news would make anyone quake with fear, yet if Vy wept, she did not do it where Ariock might see.

Instead, she’d held him. And comforted him.

She probably sneaked back to her own suite so she could cry alone.

That blew Ariock’s mind even as it hurt his heart. Didn’t Vy trust him? Was she afraid to be honest with her fiancé? Was he so unpredictably dangerous that she felt she had to coddle him?

Vy stood and went to him. “Delia asked us to keep the secret from you.”

His deceased mother?

“She made us promise,” Vy said.

Ariock could not imagine why.

“She was protecting you,” Vy said, as if that explained things.

What had his mom wanted to protect him from? The truth? Himself?

“She didn’t want you to blame yourself,” Vy explained gently. “For, uh, for failing to save your father.” She brushed his cheek. “Because his death wasn’t your fault. You were just a little kid. You did everything you could. But you were a child.”

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A lump rose in Ariock’s throat. There was a phantom smell of electrical fiery smoke.

He had failed. And his mother had carried that knowledge ever since it happened. She had borne witness. She had confronted the fact that her son was no hero—and she’d let him forget it, and delude himself.

Well, maybe he wasn’t entirely delusional. He was the leader of a galactic empire of some sort, after all. He had probably earned some of his status. And although he had failed to save his father and his mother, well, Garrett Dovanack shared some of the blame. He had also failed.

Vy climbed onto the couch next to Ariock and put her arms around him. “I thought about telling you, multiple times,” she admitted. “But I didn’t want to add to your burdens.”

That hurt. Vy was supposed to trust him.

“I didn’t see the point in making you aware.” Vy swallowed, and Ariock realized anew that she was facing her own mortality. Yet she’d pretended to be happy to share a future together with him. She had celebrated his marriage proposal. All the while, she had carried this terrible knowledge alone.

Just how delicate did she think he was?

Ariock gently pulled Vy onto his lap. He held her. It felt good to give her some degree of comfort; to remind her that she didn’t have to face doom alone, or necessarily face doom at all. They were in this together.

Vy clutched him.

For the first time in months, Ariock felt as steady as a rock and as invincible as the galaxy itself. At last, thanks to Thomas, he understood the implications of his nightmare. That meant he no longer had to question his own instincts or his own sanity. He knew exactly what his feeling of foreboding was.

Knowing made all the difference.

“You don’t have to protect me anymore,” Ariock told Vy. “I’m sorry that you thought you had to carry that burden for both of us. But it’s not yours alone.”

Vy relaxed into his embrace and gazed at him with wonder.

“I’ve been sheltered all my life,” Ariock admitted. “I had a magical great-grandfather looking out for me, making sure the Torth didn’t touch me until I was old enough for self-defense. I had a dad who taught me to enjoy life. And a mom who made sure I never had to face any hardships unless I wanted to face them. And a super-genius friend who’s wise enough to guide me in the right direction. And you, the best person in my life, to remind me that I’m human, and that humans are important.”

Vy grinned weakly, but she seemed pleased.

“A lot of stars aligned to create me.” Ariock was building up to a point, and he knew it was important. “I’ve been manipulated onto a heroic journey. I’m the Strength according to a prophecy that’s older than the Torth Empire. My path was laid out thousands of years ago. And I had the best people to guide me in every step of the way.”

Vy stroked the fuzz of his cheek. “That’s not fair. You did a lot of it yourself.”

“I had a ton of help.” He needed to make that plain, not only to Vy, but to himself. “I was forged by you and other people in my life. But…”

If he was going to fully grow into his role as the Strength, then he could not afford the overprotection of his loved ones. He was their shield and their protector. Not the other way around.

“I don’t want to be shielded from anything,” Ariock said. “An effective weapon has to face hardships. I need to be allowed to face this, unsupported.”

Vy studied him with love and hope. “Do you believe you can change the future?” Her gaze turned inward, no doubt towards her own predicted death. “I don’t see what you can do.”

“I’m not accepting it as inevitable.” Ariock stood.

How many times had he faced inevitable defeat? More times than he could count. When the Torth had defeated him in the dead city, he should have died from the fatal wound in his chest. Instead, he had used the last of his strength to shove Torth off the ruined tower. When the Stratower fell, he should have been crushed. Instead, he had thrown the biggest building in the galaxy at a Torth armada, and then he had teamed up with Thomas to create a colony starship and rescue a planetary population.

“I’ve defeated certain doom before,” Ariock said. “I can do it again. Never mind my nightmares. Never mind Garrett’s interpretations. Ah Jun was the most powerful prophet who ever lived. She was an oracle. I need to see what she foresaw, and I need to see it firsthand.”

Vy looked at Ariock like he was a true hero.

“And then?” Ariock said. “I’ll come up with a plan.”

Vy stood on the couch, on her tiptoes, and she embraced him. Her kiss was all the confidence he needed.