Memories assaulted me, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to fight them off. I couldn’t succumb to them now.
You killed my mother.
Gods, it couldn’t be true. But how else would she have Brielle’s knife?Whenhad Kiera gotten it? I’d never seen her with it before, and I would’ve noticed by now.
So many questions.
This didn’t feel real.
Nikella pulled a rope coil from the wall. “Bind her first. Then we talk.”
I almost stopped her, my first instinct to protect Kiera dying under the weight of her lies.
Why? Why did you lie to me? Why did you betray me?
The pain hit me all at once, and I shoved away from her as Nikella bound her wrists and legs.
Ruru watched with an open mouth, until he spotted the knife too and reached for it.
I kicked it away. “Don’t touch it!” I snapped.
He stared at me.
I sighed, rubbing my hands over my numb face. “Have you ever seen that knife before?”
“Only her throwing knives,” he said, nodding to where Nikella was unbuckling Kiera’s knife brace.
Nikella dragged the unconscious Kiera into her room. She came back out with the rest of Ruru’s knives and shut the door. She handed the knives to Ruru. “Keep these close.”
“Gods damn it,” I muttered. “Why did you put her to sleep, Nikella? Now I can’t ask her any of the thousand questions I have.”
Nikella sat in the chair Kiera had vacated moments ago. “I heard you two yelling from the bottom of the stairs. I heard what she said.” She leveled me with an eerily calm look. “She was going to kill you, Aiden.”
“No,” I said, righting my chair and sitting in it. Ruru retreated to a far corner of the room and sat, watching us. “She was angry and in shock. I had no idea...”
“Who she was?” Nikella bit out.
I glared at her. “I told you how we met, the story she gave me. That must’ve been a lie as well.”
“Was she sent by Renwell?”
My heart was falling, crashing, breaking all over again. This was what happened when I trusted. She’d stabbed me in the back as surely asherfather had stabbed mine.
“I don’t know,” I whispered, staring at my hands. Murderous hands. “Probably. She said Renwell knew I was attacking tomorrow night. She told me not to.”
“She must’ve informed him,” Nikella said grimly. “My gods-damned brother and his manipulations.”
How had Kiera, aprincess, become entangled with that monster?
You forget you’re a monster, too.
I’m not.
I’m not.
Nikella steepled her fingers and stared at me over them. “What did she know about your plan, Aiden? What could she have told him?”
It struck me then how much trust I’d given her so quickly. Telling her my secrets about Pravara and the mine. Telling her about my past. She must’ve picked up a few tricks of manipulation from her master.
