“Yes, you son of a bitch,” she spit out. “And you stood there, making sure I drank it all. To warm me up. So that I wascomfortable. And then you just let me be.”
“Beastly of me.”
“You weren’t cold and harsh like they said you were,” she said, sounding angrier with every word. “You showed me kindness, not just tolerance.”
“How can you see anything wrong in that?” I asked.
“You were supposed to be cold! They told me you would be uncaring and distant!” She bellowed. A few short, haggard breaths later, she calmed down. But then that eerie, unhinged grin, meant to strike and hurt, contorted her face once more. “You think you didn’t influence me? Maybe this truth will help you sleep better at night.”
She squeezed her face between the bars, and tightened her mouth into a pout that betrayed her youth.
“Your mother wasn’t supposed to die,” she whispered, gleeful. “I was instructed to kill you, but I couldn’t bring myselfto do it. Not then, not after. Your kindness sealed her fate and Geryll’s. Now you live withthat, Ryker.”
Chapter 70
Allie
The ground shook as the civilians stomped their feet, cries now hoarse from demanding revenge.
The candles had been replaced with torches, blazing in the darkness like they wanted to light up the night on fire.
The warriors, freshly returned from the brutal war, stood between the civilians and the fortress, stoic and unrelenting.
But their faces contorted as the shouts kept growing. Aunts, grandfathers, and friends roared in their faces.
Asking them to fall back.
Screaming that they weren’t on their side.
“These warriors risked their lives for them.” I fisted and unfisted my palms, the effects of the truth serum lessened, but not totally gone from my veins. “If that isn’t being on their side, I don’t know what is.”
“People who don’t see the horrors others have to face will never understand.” Dax tsked. “They just see their own pain. Nothing else matters.”
I shook my head. “I ache for them, I do. But this isn’t right.”
The turmoil billowed, gaining momentum.
The crowd pushed against the warriors who were reluctant to push back.
I clenched my jaw, feeling Ryker’s composure crack in the dungeons. I didn’t know what was worse, him facing Nadya after all she’d done or me watching this unruly gathering hungry for blood.
Even hers.
“They’re not being totally unreasonable,” Dax muttered. He’d been holding onto the dagger strapped to his belt since we’d returned. “Nadya needs to pay for what she’s done.”
“And she will,” I said with absolute conviction. “But spitting at their own people to get inside the fortress isn’t helping anybody.”
More cries.
More shoves.
Krynn fell to the ground, no arm to soften the drop.
I rushed out the doors before I realized what I was doing, my power surging forward.
“Enough!” I splayed my hands to the sides, a great blue light spearing and quieting the night. Only when shocked silence remained did I allow them to fall to my sides. “Help him up.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Krynn said as the two warriors closest to him helped him. He staggered back on his feet, still unbalanced.
