By Garrick the Red.
The color of my reputation did not matter. Black had always suited me.
But these livesdidmatter. Jarrin obtained the grain for his mill by extorting desperate farmers. He was not a good man. Neither was Amero; I’d known that before accepting the job. But one bad man commissioning the death of another was not a crime I concerned myself with.
This…
I curled my hands around the back of the nearest chair. The one with the pregnant young woman. The wood cracked beneath my grip. “You killed them all.”
I killed them all.
Amero was a clever man. He noticed the shift in my tone. He paused in his looting. “You have your bounty. You may go.”
I was not going anywhere. Neither was he. I would have to live with this forever. I would see that young woman’s face in my nightmares.Forever.
Amero’s eyes darted to the door—no escape there. Maybe he was thinking of the closet beyond, where Jarrin had stashed all of my weapons when I’d turned them over. The chair splintered beneath my hands.
I did not need poison or weapons to kill. I was the weapon.
CHAPTER 39
KORYN
Hours had passed for me,but only minutes had ticked by for those waiting outside the Peace Gate.
My head ached from crying, my skin felt papery and dry, my chest carved out of emotion. I was left with a deadened feeling of emptiness. More than anything, I wanted to curl up beneath a warm coverlet and sleep. Instead, I had to stand in the cold and wait for Garrick.
He will be fine, I told myself. He will survive this.
But he had his own crime to make peace with in those tunnels beneath the mountain. I understood Alize’s ramblings, now. Her crime from the Justice Gate was also her worst memory. I’d seen it at the Memory Gate. She’d tried to smother her infant brother Edmund in his crib. Her garbled words revealed why. She’d thought death a better alternative than growing up under their father’s thumb. It was a heinous crime. I understood it.
But she’d found her way out of the caves, so she must have found a way to forgive herself.
Would Garrick be able to face his crime? Or would he remain lost below the mountains forever?
Please, let him want to live more than he wants to punish himself.I didn’t direct the prayer. But I was sure that one god in particular heard it. Whether he’d do anything about it remained to be seen.
I wrapped my arms around myself beneath the cloak that Garrick had draped over my shoulders before entering the Peace Gate. Its size swallowed me, the hem bunching on the ground, but it smelled of him. I inhaled deeply, trying to re-center myself.
Tomin had fallen back into line with Varian. Alize stood on her own two legs again, but she remained close to Edmund’s side. My coven sisters also stood side by side, though the casual closeness of siblings eluded them. Then there were Maura and the king.
Her wild array of dark curls brushed her chin as she lifted it in—defiance?
I gripped my own arms tighter. Maura’s mouth moved, but I could not make out the words, nor hear them at this distance. The group of observers had moved closer, leaving the horses tethered beneath the evergreens. Ready to intercept Garrick and me if we tried to run, now that we were so close to completing another gate.
They did not know how tied we were to Balar Shan. That was good, I told myself. Maura did not suspect that I knew about the talisman.
But the king… there was something wrong. His posture was always perfect, but now it was just a little bit more rigid. The familiar line of his jaw was hard. There. The movement was so tiny it would have been imperceptible to a human. His jaw ticked.
His tells were similar to Garrick’s. Their shared lineage betrayed him. The fae king was angry—with Maura. I had to know why. I could not get any closer without raising suspicion.They would see me and cease exchanging their already limited words. But I was not alone.
Isa…
I thought you hated nicknames?
I need your help.
My familiar perked up immediately.Who am I eating?
