“Treachery is treachery.” She moved toward him then, halting when they stood around a yard apart. “What are you hiding from me this time?”
The rage glinting in her eyes made a warning ripple through him. Torches burned brightly around them. All Lara had to do was summon those dancing flames, and she could incinerate him. He should tread carefully, and yet when it came to Lara, he was foolishly reckless.
“Nothing. I came alone … without my wulvers. Without allies. There’s no trick. No plan.”
Her lips pursed. “I don’t believe you.”
Alar raked a hand through his hair, even as something twisted under his breastbone. “Asking you to trust me is too much,” he said roughly. “I know that. I burned that bridge behind me. But I need you to believe me. The person hiding a dangerous secret from you isn’t me this time.”
She folded her arms across her chest, a nerve flickering in her cheek.
“I swear … upon my mother’s memory … that I’m not plotting against you.”
Her lip curled. “You’d even drag yourmotherinto this?”
Heat flared in his gut.Enough. “My mother’s memory is precious to me,” he growled. “If I make an oath in her name, I mean it.”
She snorted.
“I mean it,” he replied, his voice lowering once more. “Because Ikilledher.”
Lara jolted as if he’d just slapped her.
His pulse quickened. This wasn’t a story he wanted to tell. To do so would slice him open. It would reveal the core of who he was, and what had driven him all these years. His hunger for justice. His restlessness. The uneasiness that gave him no peace. The fact that wherever he went and whatever he did, nothing truly satisfied him. All of it was down to this.
Lara remained silent. She was waiting for him to explain himself.
He hesitated. They’d all taken a battering from The Gaulas today, him included. They had a temporary reprieve at present, and it made him want to shore up his defenses, not spill his guts. But he had to.
“When I was around ten, I started following my mother when she left our cottage,” he began, each word halting. “She’d become distant … secretive … and took to disappearing at odd times. I tracked her to a glade deep in the woods, a sheltered spot surrounded by dark-green sycamores. I then watched as she circled the clearing, whispering charms and prayers. She even sprinkled rose petals. She calledhisname as she walked …where are you, Wynn Sablebane … come to me, Wynn. My brave Shee warrior. My love… but he never appeared.” His throat grew tight then. “Finally, she sank to her knees and began to weep.”
Lara’s brow furrowed.
“He abandoned her, but she still pined for him.” He looked away then, unable to hold her eye now. “I was angry. Jealous. My mother wept over aShee… a lover who’d used her and then abandoned her … while she only gave half of herself to me. In the evenings, she’d stare into the flames of our cookfire, barely listening as I prattled on. She was still sweet, still tucked me up in the furs each night, kissed me on the brow, and told me she loved me.” His gut clenched. “But it wasn’t enough. I wanted all her love and affection. I didn’t want to share.”
He halted then, sucking in a deep breath. “So, I came up with a plan. I thought that if she stopped going to that clearing, she’d forget about him … that she’d focus on me again.”
Lara made a sound in the back of her throat, and he met her eye once more. “A group of lads from the village liked to go hunting for frogs in a nearby burn. Sometimes, when they allowed it, I joined them. One day, I told them that my mother often went to the glade where she’d once met my father … aShee, obviously … hoping to see him again.” He halted then, his throat aching now. “I knew they’d tell their parents. My plan was that they’d shame her into letting go of my father’s memory. It didn’t work out that way.” His pulse started to thunder in his ears. “Instead, a group of women—the mothers of the lads I’d told—followed her into the woods two days later … and when she reached the clearing, they stoned her to death.”
He stopped talking then.
Bile stung the back of his throat.Ashes. That had been even harder than he’d thought.
Lara still didn’t speak. He didn’t blame her.
“So, there you have it,” he said finally, aware that cold sweat now trickled down his back. “I betrayed the person I loved most. And nothing has ever mattered so much since.”
Lara swallowed, her lips parting as if she might answer. However, he spoke first. “There are few things I hold sacred in this world, Lara. But my mother’s memory is one of them.” His gaze ensnared hers then. “So, heed me when I swear by it.”
Silence swelled behind them as Vyr’s voice rose and fell.
Eventually, Lara cleared her throat. “All right … so if you’re telling the truth, someone else is hiding something from me.”
He moved closer to her, even as his pulse still raced. After cutting himself open like that, he wanted to reach for her, to find comfort in her embrace. But since she’d likely whip out her dagger and stab him if he touched her, he restrained himself. “This dream … where does it take place?”
She swallowed. “In the middle of dark woods. I’m walking through it … and there’s an ancient yew tree with seven crows perched upon its branches. There’s—” She halted then, her eyes snapping wide.
He stiffened. “What?”
