Her voice was rough when she answered. “You would have cherished me like a blacksmith cares for his favorite hammer. Once I was no longer useful, you would have no purpose for me.”
“Perhaps.” His voice was tauntingly intimate. “But your broken, jagged pieces would never have bothered me.”
Iryana sucked in a shuddering breath. She didn’t want to be in pieces anymore.
He leaned the side of his sharply angled face against hers, the scruff along his jaw rubbing against her cheekbone. A loud sigh escaped his lips.
“I thought you understood me.” Karvek shifted the hand holding the dagger, running his thumbnail along her neck and up toward her ear. His voice grew darker. “I thought you were loyal, but you are shortsighted—weak. A rodent crawling along my floor.”
Iryana swallowed as Karvek lifted his head.
“You have made a mistake by turning against me,” Karvek called out over Iryana’s shoulder, the crowd and fighting quieting. “But I am a generous man. If you turn back to me now, I will consider this a fleeting moment of poor judgment. You will have opportunities to earn back my trust.”
Before he even finished talking, Iryana knew most of the soldiers would give in. He had been easily victorious, easily fighting Iryana off. The soldiers would see him as all powerful and unbeatable. Why wouldn’t they turn?
The clang of weapons being thrown to the ground, the forged weapons disappearing, was still a shock to her system.
She knew without a doubt that if Karvek didn’t need the numbers for his war, he would have slaughtered every person who had stood against him.
“Escort the rest to the cells,” Karvek ordered before whipping around, dragging Iryana with him.
“What will you do to them?” she demanded, struggling to get a purchase on the ground.
“Whatever I want.”
The doors to his estate grew closer, and Iryana thrashed wildly.
Chapter Forty-Two
Iryana tried kicking, biting, and even using the last of her strength to summon her dagger to drive it into Karvek’s side. Nothing worked.
With each attempt, Karvek seemed to enjoy it more. If she let him take her into the estate, she would never be free again.
She looked around desperately for anyone and anything that could help. But there was no one left. Tears burned her eyes and poured down her cheeks. It was like Marisha all over again.Worse. A thousand times worse.
A sob forced its way out of her throat. She’d wanted to keep her clan together, and instead she’d surely gotten half of them killed. She was poison. Destroying everything that was good, everything that she touched.
Her fingers dug into Karvek, almost ready to beg for death. To be free of the guilt that was strangling her.
Karvek met her eyes, the promise of a slow death glinting in them.
She deserved it. Found herself sagging in his grip, defeated.
She had entirely given up hope, but in the corner of her eye, she saw a figure launch at Darish.
Lidishta.
She sent Darish to the ground. And then she was throwing knives and rocks at Karvek, kicking out at his legs.
It was a pathetic attempt to kill them or even cause much of an injury, but it surprised Karvek.
When his arms loosened, Iryana used her new leverage to rip free.
“Go,” Lidishta shouted, already retreating in the opposite direction. “GO.”
Iryana didn’t hesitate; she bolted. She may not have deserved to make it out, but she wouldn’t turn her back on her last chance to save them.
The shadows of the fort welcomed her as she followed the familiar paths through the walls and out of the fort, not pausing to look around her. She was singleminded in her focus to escape.
