Kiva’s hand fell on Sinvarra. “I know you’ll be fine, because I’m going to be right there to run him through if he tries anything.”
“And I’ll just cower in the corner while you do that,” I replied drily, earning an annoyed look from her. “Stay here.”
Auma nodded to one of the monks. They unlocked the door before returning to their place along the wall with hardly a sound. I pushed the door open.
A single sona lamp hung from the ceiling of the small room, its light consumed by the shadows at the edges. It was enough to illuminate Ericen, who’d been bound to a chair with his hands behind his back. He looked uncomfortable but unharmed.
He smirked. “I don’t suppose you brought dinner?”
Rolling my eyes, I closed the door on Kiva’s murderous glower and leaned against it, folding my arms. “Drop the act,” I ordered. “Or I’m leaving.”
The words had my desired effect. Ericen’s smirk vanished, the threat behind his eyes evaporating like mist on a hot day. His shoulders caved as he settled deeper into the chair, but the arrogant air didn’t entirely dissipate. It never did, but something still seemed off about him. A little…wild.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” he said.
“I followed you into a forest alone at night,” I replied. “You think I’m afraid of facing you tied to a chair?”
He shrugged, the action pulling his tunic tight against his broad shoulders. “I wasn’t sure they wouldlet you come,” he clarified.
“You should know me better than to think I’d let that stop me.”
He grinned. “Oh, I do.”
His words reached deeper than I expected, dragging their claws along something inside me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, settling into the familiar comfort of our back-and-forth.
“Just that I like to think I know you rather well.”
“Really. What do you know?”
He leaned back in the chair as much as his restraints would allow, his gaze ensnaring mine. “I know that some part of you, beneath that façade of peace and harmony, wants war.” I started to protest, but he pressed on. “Because just stopping Illucia won’t be enough for you. Just stopping my mother won’t be enough. You want to tear her apart for what she did. You want to make her suffer.” He smiled that wolflike smile of his. “You want revenge.”
I stared at him, his pale gaze turned hazel in the orange lamplight. My words stuck in my throat, my thoughts tumbling as I struggled to parse my feelings about what he’d said. Yes, I wanted revenge. I’d promised Samra I would make Razel pay for what she’d done, and I meant it.
But would I pursue that at the cost of peace?
The anger inside me was a constant simmer, simply waiting for a breath of fuel to ignite into an inferno so hot, it could consume anything in its path.
And Ericen could see it.
Some part of me knew he was looking for common ground, growing that connection that had always strung between us in hopes of rekindling my trust. But that didn’t make what he’d said wrong. I’d ordered Res to destroy those Illucian ships without hesitation, and they wouldn’t be the last casualties of this war at my hand.
“What’s the point of this?” I asked. “In the forest, you said you had something else to tell me about the Sellas. What’s this got to do with any of that?”
“Nothing at all,” he replied. “I just don’t like seeing you lie to yourself. You have every bit the potential to become a monster as I do.”
His words stole my breath. They made me feel raw and exposed, and I was thankful for the shadows the dim light provided.
“What do you want, Ericen?” I asked hoarsely.
He studied me without answering, a look on his face I couldn’t decipher. It was careful, considering, as if wondering how much further he could push me until I cracked. As if wondering if he wanted to.
I glowered back at him.
At last, he replied, “You have Sella blood.”
“What?”
