Open the fucking door.
Drawing in a breath, Ahnna reached for the latch—
Right as the door exploded inward.
16
James
James slammed his shoulder againstthe door to the cabin, the force ripping the latch out of the old wood. He saw Ahnna’s wide eyes only for a second before the edge of the door struck her.
She stumbled back, ankle catching in a blanket, and then she was falling.
The sound of her head hitting the table sent a jolt through him, and James stood frozen, staring down at the woman who’d torn his world apart. She lay unmoving, and the sudden certainty that she was dead almost brought him to his knees.
It was over. It was done.
Yet rather than elation, James swallowed bile as the interior of the cabin spun around him.
This was what you came to do,he screamed at himself.This is what she deserves.
Yet his heart screamed a silent plea to the stars to undo this moment, because Ahnna was dead. She was dead, and he’d been the one to kill her. A howl started to rise in his throat, but he clenched his teeth.She deserved it. She deserved it.
She didn’t deserve this.
James grabbed hold of the doorframe to steady himself, but then Ahnna’s boot moved.
A sickening mix of relief and panic surged through him.
Kill her!a voice that sounded distinctly like Lestara screamed in his skull.Prove your loyalty!
Instead he flung himself down on Ahnna, catching hold of her wrists. There was twine on the floor next to her belongings, and he used it to bind her arms tight. James told himself it was because honor wouldn’t allow him to cut her throat while she was defenseless on the floor. That he’d do it after she roused. After he said his piece.
He looked up from her bound wrists to find Ahnna watching him, clearly disoriented. “James?” she murmured. “You’re alive?”
“Disappointed?” The word came out as a snarl.
Twin tears dripped from her eyes, one catching on the rapidly swelling bruise on her cheek. “No. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You didn’t want to hurt me?” He repeated the words as if doing so would cause them to make sense. Trying to kill him was the least of the hurt she’d caused him, and anger boiled up to chase away all other emotions. Grabbing the blanket, he tore off a strip and shoved it between her teeth.
“I don’t want to hear another fucking word from you,” he hissed. “You murdered my father and tore my family to shreds, and if that is not enough justice for your execution, know that your actions have caused Ithicana and Harendell to move toward war. If you have any goddamned decency in your black heart, confess and accept punishment, because it is the only way to avoid the destruction of your entire people.”
Her already pale face drained entirely of color, but Ahnna slowly shook her head.
James jerked a knife from the sheath in his boot, then pinned her to the ground, his knees to either side of her. “Confess.”
Her voice was garbled and muffled by the gag. “No.”
The blade of his knife kissed her throat, a line of blood appearing. “Confess, and I’ll make it quick.”
Her hazel eyes had regained their sharp focus, and she glared at him with utter defiance. “No.”
The knife in his hand quivered as he warred with himself. As his desire for vengeance for his father and absolution from the hurt he’d caused his family fought against an inner force that refused to do harm to the woman beneath him.
James dropped the knife and closed his fingers around her throat. “Why won’t you confess?” he whispered, his fingers tightening enough that she struggled to breathe. “I saw you, Ahnna. Saw you holding the bloody knife with my own eyes. Saw the ruin you made of my father with the same blade. Your guilt is certain. All you need to do is confess and we can end this painlessly.”
Ahnna only stared him in the eye and jerked her head from side to side.
