“What’s in it?”
Smart girl.
“Blood. Mine.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you going to make me a monster like you did Cameron and Dianna?”
This girl didn’t just carry Dianna’s scent. She had her will. Was she like a child to her? A babe to nurture, even if she was far closer to the age of twelve or thirteen. The healers of Jade City did not age like mortals. None that breathed in these realms did. Would Dianna crave that now? A family and child of her own? Was she looking to replace what I had stolen from her?
My hand flexed on the glass, and I consciously forced myself to relax my grip so I didn’t break it. “So you know of me? Did she tell you everything?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“That is why you don’t know that this isn’t enough to change, only help.”
She blinked at me, nowhere near ready to trust me.
“Take it,” I said again, only a little harsher. “Before I change my mind.”
“I don’t know if I can swallow. My mouth, teeth, and throat really hurt.”
“Drink. It will fix it.” Still, she eyed the glass warily. Very smart girl, indeed. Dianna had trained her well. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t need to poison a glass of water. I could take your head off with the back of my hand.”
She sighed before she scooted across the bed and took the glass. Taking a cautious sip, she glared at me suspiciously over the rim. She winced but moved it around her mouth before swallowing. Her tiny nose crinkled in a grimace, but she took a breath and chugged it down in a few quick gulps before placing the glass on the table beside the bed. The bruise receded, and the swelling disappeared, chased away by the soft pink of her natural skin color. She tentatively slid her fingers over her cheek, her eyes widening as she worked her jaw. “It worked.”
I nodded but said nothing. Spinning on my heel, I started toward the door.
“Why help me?” she called out. “You’re the bad man. You hurt Dianna and Cameron.”
My feet stopped, and a thousand and one emotions and memories ran through not just my mind but also my body. It felt like me and not. I was what she called thebad man. I was the villain in everyone’s story, and when I died in truth, that would be my legacy. History would confirm it if there was a history to be told at the end of all this.
“I’d like to sleep without your constant whining,” I said and started moving again, walking out the door without looking back.
24
DIANNA
It had taken us three full days to track down an encampment. It wasn’t as large as Nismera’s other war camps, but it was the closest. Trees surrounded the camp, and the nearest town was just a few miles through the forest.
Fire crackled, sending smoke in a spiraling column into the sky. We hadn’t planned for a huge fight, but Nismera’s troops had charged us the moment we landed. They had fought, but were no match for the three of us. The battle had been short but intense, and now the insects in the forest had resumed their chattering.
Samkiel sat at the table in the commander’s tent, his armor dirty and ink smeared across the side of his head where he’d rubbed his temple.
“They have already hit most of these regions,” Samkiel said with a sigh. “There is nothing new here.”
“So it’s the same oldtake-over-what-she-canbullshit?” I asked.
He rubbed at his jaw and sat back in his chair, his brow drawing down. “Maybe.”
“What are you thinking?”
He dropped his hand. “I’m thinking this doesn’t sound like Nismera. These aren’t plans to claim territory and a region. She already has them, and they have been secured. Yet she is sending these small units to them? These are cities, some small, some overrun and ragged. It doesn’t make sense. Her hubris and ego are far larger than small patches of land. It’s almost as if she’s looking for something or someone, but trying to stay under the radar about it. It can’t be me. She has made her search and hatred for me far too known.”
The tent flap was thrown back, and Cameron entered with a groaning general in tow. “Found her.”
Cameron dragged her in and pushed her to her knees. Half her head was shaved, soot and dirt turning the spiky white hair covering the other side a dark gray. A good portion of her body was burned almost black, and parts of her armor were dented from falling from her dying Ryphor. Cameron had chased her down, and from the looks of it, his aerial training had indeed come in handy.
Cameron held her by the back of her armor collar as I crouched in front of her. She grimaced, her one good eye glaring at me. I heard Samkiel rise and saw Reggie step forward out of the corner of my eye.
