I hadn’t meant to state it so baldly, but I had no desire to shape the words into something more palatable.
Renwell slowly faced me. His cheeks hollowed as he worked his jaw. “How?”
“Saving us,” I said, willing myself not to get emotional. “And destroying your precious mine.”
I had no trouble interpreting the rage that steeled Renwell’s features. He stepped toward me, his hand going to the hilt of his sunstone sword. “I knew that was your doing at Calimber,” he spat. “But how? How did you get an explosive strong enough to gouge such a mass out of the coast?”
I balled my hands into fists to keep them from reaching for my knife. “Our explosives only took down part of the mine. Mynastra did the rest.”
He stared at me for a moment, then threw his head back with a laugh I’d never heard before.
It unnerved me more than his anger.
“Mynastra? Gods damn it, your rebel lover must’ve taught you to be a better liar, you seem so convinced. But choose a more believable lie next time. The few soldiers who escaped Calimber’s fall told me nothing of a goddess. Only explosions.”
My heart tripped over itself at the mention of Aiden. I tried to keep my face and voice neutral. “It’s the truth. After Nikella sank your warship, a vicious storm crumbled everything else into the sea.”
Renwell cocked his head to the side and studied me. “Why do you continue to choose him?”
I didn’t need to ask who he meant. I kept silent.
Renwell stepped even closer, his voice dark and soft. “I protected you. I trained you. I gave you a purpose?—”
“I was simply a blade you forged and sharpened to keep in a sheath at your side,” I snarled in his face. “You only released me when you wanted to use me for your own gain.”
“Is that not what my sister has done to you as well?” Renwell breathed, his eyes like chips of sunstone. “She turnedyou against me, filling your mind with lies, thinking that even in death she’ll best me.”
My nose wrinkled in disgust. “This isn’t about ‘besting’ anyone. I chose to come here. For Everett and Delysia.”Although I’ll gladly kill you when it’s time.“And she didn’t need to turn me against you. I already hated you, Renwell.”
His face shuttered, turning perfectly cold and blank. “You hated me once before. And you still came to care for me.”
My stomach twisted as if he’d wrenched it. I tried to breathe evenly, but I couldn’t. He’d known all along of my naïve trust in him, and he’d used it against me as he was doing now. I’d never felt so ashamed.
“I shouldn’t have,” I whispered. “I should’ve stayed away from you after what you did to Julian and the rest of the People’s Council.”
“But you didn’t. You needed me. You will come to care for me again.”
He was so sure of himself. He spoke as if he knew my mind better than I did. Had I really been so ignorant all those years?
“Care for you?” I croaked out, my anger and hurt stripping my voice. “The man who betrayed my mother and lied to me about it?”
“I’m not the one who killed her.”
“You killed my father in front of me.”
The corner of Renwell’s mouth quirked. “Yes, I killed a man you despised who would’ve executed you.”
“You threatened Everett and Delysia,” I snapped.
He shrugged. “Empty threats to halt your attacks on me.”
“I don’t believe you.” My fists were shaking with the effort of holding back from grabbing my knife, from striking him with my bare hands.
“I don’t believe you either,” Renwell said softly. “You don’t hate me. You can’t. I saved you when no one else would. You will never hate me for that.”
My rage boiled over, flooding my body with heat and my mind with blood. I snatched my knife from my boot, but Renwell had me against the wall in a flash, his hands like shackles around my throat and wrist.
I gasped, tears rising to my eyes. “You destroyed that mountain village. You’ve killed innocent men, women, and children. You sent Korvin after us, told him to punish me. You have no excuses for any of your crimes, andI will never forgive you.”
