Graviter has also raised his head, his eyes narrowed. When he first raged at us, he called Blacksmiths ‘murderers’. He said that there was nothing but betrayal and darkness in their hearts.
Milena doesn’t take her eyes off Asha. “From the moment I first saw you when you were a baby, I knew that the light magic within you was beyond any power any Blacksmith had ever wielded. Light magic!” she exclaims. “We are not creatures of the light and have never been. And I…” She swallows visibly. “I was afraid.”
“Afraid of me?”
“Afraid of the justice you would bring. Even when you were a mere five years old, I saw it in your eyes. I saw the way you looked at us. At me.”
“You feared me,” Asha says. “You hated me.”
“Yes!” Milena gasps. “Yes, I hated you. Because you could tear our world apart. Tear our power down.”
“So you tore me apart first.”
“I did.” Her gaze wavers for the first time. “I convinced myself I did it to protect you from my brother. I told myself he was too cunning. He would find a way to exploit your power for his own purposes. And by then, I was writhing within his grip. Trapped. Unable to breathe because of his darkness, and when I saw a chance…”
Milena falters for the first time since she started speaking.
“And then…” Her forehead creases and her lips purse. “I had a reason to escape…” She struggles against the fur wrapped around her. “I had to go, but I don’t remember…”
“Thaden Kane Ironmeld was born,” Asha says.
Milena blinks up at her. The moment Asha speaks his name, Milena’s face becomes completely blank and devoid of recognition.
My heart sinks to see it.
Every time we’ve asked her who attacked her, or any other question relating to Thaden Kane, she has been unable to answer.
Resignation is heavy in Asha’s voice. “She can’t tell us anything about him.”
My jaw clenches. “We will find the answers ourselves.”
At the sound of my voice, Milena’s focus shifts to me. Then to the trees behind me, then to the buildings behind Torva.
The structures are partially blocked from Milena’s view by Torva’s body, but I’m startled when she fixates on the cabin’s roof and the spot where a turret is hidden.
That was the turret from which Thoren shot the arrows that killed a Blacksmith.
“I know this place,” Milena whispers, startling me.
Back on the snowy cliff, she called me by my birth name, Erik, notVandawolf, as every Blacksmith knew me then, and now it looks as if she recognizes my home.
She struggles within the fur again, wriggling her left hand free despite the pressure of Asha’s hand and reaches for me, her eyes suddenly bright. “Is your father here?”
I can’t stop myself from recoiling—away from her grasping hand and the unexpected hope in her eyes.
She falters a little at my reaction, her hand hovering in the air. “Is… Thoren here?”
I don’t understand how she knows my birth name, let alone knows about my family. She was long gone from the city by the time Thoren and I were captured, and I can’t see how she would have known about my father in such a way that she would ask about him.
My voice is a cold growl. “My family is dead.”
Her choice to withhold a hammer from Asha led to their deaths, but it wasmychoices that killed them.
Her forehead creases. “But… I…”
She closes her eyes and tears trickle from them.
Torva takes glances between me and Graviter, who is an increasingly tense form nearby.
