Through the steady roar of the storm, she could hear people shouting. It was all around them.
It felt like ages before Pyetar spoke.
“I don’t know why the fuck you’re here, but you need to leave. Now.” Pyetar’s voice was just a whisper, but it was sharp enough to cut. “You don’t want to be anywhere near this.”
The rain was falling just in front of their faces, a wet mist blowing onto their skin as the wind tried to sludge through the downpour. She could almost pretend nothing existed past that barrier, but if she moved, she knew it would all become too real.
Iryana wanted to argue with him, to let the familiar anger rise and settle the clashing thoughts wreaking havoc inside her. But Iryana had seen the look on Karvek’s face. She had seen the blood, and he hadn’t wanted her to. She needed to leave. He could never find out.
A twining vine of betrayal and disappointment burrowed inside her.
“He can’t know I was here,” she whispered, though not specifically to Pyetar.
“I don’t want to know how you got out here, how you followed him this far.” He sounded frustrated but distracted, like he was warring with too many things in his mind at that moment. “I don’t know what idiocy came over you tofollowhim, but—damn are you lucky.”
He didn’t know she’d come with his brother, then. Pyetar had been away from the fort during Iryana’s nightly meetings with Karvek, so did he not know about them either? He would soon.
Pyetar reached over, grabbing her arm. “You can’t tell anyone I was here, do you understand? You can’t tell anyone.”
“Why would I keep your secrets?” she demanded.
“Because if you don’t, I won’t keep yours.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but what could she say? Holding one of Pyetar’s secrets over him was perhaps the closest she could get to trusting him, and she needed to trust that he would keep hers. She couldn’t let Karvek discover what she had seen. She needed to get far away from there.
“Why are you here?” she asked, hoping for some hint of what was going on before she left. “Are you helping your brother with this?”
He watched her for a moment, eyes tightening. “No.”
“Then why didn’t you stop Karvek from killing that man—he was the general, right?”
“I was too late.”
Too late for what? “But—”
“Be grateful I saved your life. My brotherwouldhave killed you if he had found you in there. This is what I was talking about. Why you don’t belong here,” he seethed.
She bristled. Admitting that any of what Pyetar had said was right chafed, but she had seen Karvek’s face as he killed his superior. Knew the fear in her heart too well to ignore it. She was wrong about him.
“Why are you helping me?”
“I don’t want you messing up my plans any more than you already have.” He sighed, softening. “Consider it a thank you for the plants you gave me for my injured leg. Now please go.”
She could understand paying back a favor, but saving her life went too far. Nowsheowedhim. And she did not like that one bit.
“Fine.”
“Besides, I have places to be.”
She glanced back at him. There was a cruel twist to his face, lips curled into a sneer.
“People to rough up for money.” He said it like an accusation, and Iryana shrank, but she couldn’t fathom why. He didn’t seem the type to feel shame for the evils he committed.
She turned away, not able to worry about Pyetar anymore as her mind circled back around to what she’d done. What she’d allowed Karvek to do.
Iryana managed a step into the rain, and everything was instantly heavier. Her braid was drenched, tugging on her head. Her cloak was leaden. Her breaths seemed to sit in her lungs like snow. She felt sluggish.
“Leave, Iryana. Before you’re caught.”
