“You forgavehim,” Renwell growled in my ear. “He killed your mother. He used you to further his rebellion. He’s using you to get to me just like he did with your father, and youstilldon’t see it.”
Darkness crowded the corners of my vision as I struggled against his grip. “Aiden loves me.Younever cared for me at all.”
The deadly look in Renwell’s eyes made me wonder if he would kill me here and now. Banish whatever plans he might’ve had in store for me.
Instead, he loosened his grip so I could breathe. “Didn’t I?” he whispered.
Chapter 56
Kiera
I gaped at him.
For a moment—just one horrible moment—my old self lifted her head with hope.He cared.
Then I squashed that thought like the poisonous spider it was, trying to draw me back into his web of lies.
This was what he did. This was how low he would stoop to trick my mind. To win this game he played with my life.
“You lie,” I whispered as if we were playing a game of Death and Four and I was calling his bluff.
“Do I?” He wrenched Mother’s knife from my hand. “I’m leading you to see your brother and sister. Alive and well in their rooms, just as you left them.”
“Because you needed to dangle them in front of me like bait.” I lunged for my knife, but he was faster, stepping out of my reach.
He stared at the glittering weapon. “I wondered what it would take for you to reveal this, to show your true intentions.”
I grit my teeth. Was that what this had been about? If so, I’d failed spectacularly.
“Strange to think I won’t be able to make more of these, thanks to you and”—he smirked—“Mynastra. But no matter, Ihave more than enough weapons for whatever vengeful plans are swirling in your head, my little apprentice.”
With that, he turned on his boot heel and strode off down the hall. I followed more slowly, shaken to my core.
I’d come here with such confidence, such surety of my thoughts and emotions. That he wouldn’t be able to break me.
But he’d already cracked me open.
He walked up to Delysia’s bedroom door, where two guards stood outside. He knocked instead of barging in like I expected him to.
“Come in,” Delysia said from the other side.
I shoved past Renwell and burst into the room. And there she was. With Everett. Alive and well, just as Renwell said.
Delysia was facing the door in a plain pink dress, her face drawn and tired. But she lit up when I barreled into her, throwing my arms around her. I cried, unable to help myself. Delysia’s body, which seemed thinner and less curvy than before, was shaking.
Everett wrapped his arms around both of us, his scent of books and ink immediately soothing me.
“We thought you were dead,” Delysia whispered. “When Renwell told us of the mine, we thought you were dead, Kiera.”
I drew away, looking over my shoulder. But Renwell was gone, along with my knife, and the door was closed. “He told you about Calimber?”
Delysia nodded, wiping away her tears with a wrinkled handkerchief.
Everett kept his hand on my shoulder. “He said it’s completely destroyed. That you were likely with the rebels who did it, except no one made it out.”
My upper lip curled. He hadn’t been surprised when he saw me. Someone had to have reported our ships fleeing. He’d only said such things to hurt my siblings.
I will always hate you, Renwell.
