Instead of words, I began to gather ki. Pulled it from the rich soil beneath my feet, and wove it about my shoulders. Dipped my hands in it. Readied myself for a fight I wasn’t entirely sure I intended to survive.
Asher nodded, letting my pendant fall. Stripping off his uniform coat. Exposing muscled arms, narrow waist, and a broad chest that did…somethingto my insides. Made them flip and dance and squirm, no matter that he was preparing for battle.
“Give me my pendant,” I said, “and I will allow you to leave here tonight. Unscathed.”
At this, he simply spread his hands, smiling through his teeth. Inviting me to take the first strike, as if I would be fool enough to attack a man easily twice my size. As if I would so much as approach a bloodysoldier—a man trained to see beauty in war—if he weren’t bound and restrained.
A smile creased my lips, and it wasn’t the delicate mask of a Senator’s daughter.
That girl was dead.
AndIdidn’t have to move a muscle to attack the captain.
Much as I wanted to throw myself at him, to scream and rage until I tore him down, I held myself utterly still. Thought of all those who had fallen so that I might go on. Those who had been captured or died.For me. For the refugees of science upon whom their hopes for rescue were laid.
Of the Tritan people, it was my father’s face that burned the brightest. But he was not alone—flashes of poisonous green light had seared their terrified faces into my brain forever. Whether I’d been there to watch them fall or if they’d been alone when the Caledonians came, I saw them.
The High Priestess, enslaved or dead.
Even the Goddess herself. Milithia, whose name had inspired my own. Whose temple now lay in smoldering ruins.
All of them taken by the Empire.
Burned and begging for retribution. Vengeance.
Justice.
The Glaith hung heavy in my pocket, but I ignored it. Turned everything I was, took every facet of my Truth, and sent it down into the soil rich with life, and fed the grandmother the anguish of a nation destroyed.
Pain and fury and seething, black hatred exploded from my very being. Ripening roots and sending seedlings into mature growth in seconds.
And with a scream that echoed through the ages, I threw it all in Asher’s face without taking a single step. Watched him buckle, folding to his knees as he was ensnared. He, the betrayer who dared to offer protection for the price of everything I’d ever known or loved. Burying me in a landslide of anguish, choking me with grief so thick, it was a wonder I could draw breath without drowning on muck.
Goddess, but I did so muchmorethan simply breathe.
Roots and branches descended upon him, capturing him in their unyielding arms. Restraining wrists, ankles, even wrapping around the base of his throat. Thorns stabbing into golden flesh, shock lashing at the tainted spot in my heart where he lurked.
But still, as he was swallowed up, bit by bit, he didn’t have the decency to beg for mercy. That accursed sinister smile still fixed to his lips growing all the more wicked.
Hungry.
Fists clenched, I ordered his tomb sealed. Air-tight, but for a tiny gap above his heart where a chain of silver gleamed, yearning to be returned to its place onmybreast.
Only when bark grew gnarled with false age, and silence fell on the wood once more, did I dare to cross that babbling creek. At first, taking tiny, mincing steps. Pausing to test his restraints with every breath. Braced for a counterstrike.
He didn’t fight.
I laughed. And how could he? EvenIwas leery of the thing I had called into being. A great cocoon of living wood, thicker than I was tall. Stained black, and in the right light, streaked through with silver.
My ugly Truth made manifest.
Hysterical, I bounded forward. Drunk on ki, for now, with Asher’s imminent demise, there was nothing they could do to stop what was coming. Nothinganyof them could do to clip the dark wings snapping at their brittle cage.
Disregarding caution, I plunged my scarred right hand into the captain’s prison and hooked that silver chain with the crook of my index finger. Pulled, until it was freed.
But the pendant caught on something that refused to yield.
I pulled harder, setting my feet. Grinding my teeth. Giving the delicate chain every pound of effort I could without breaking it.
