“But if you’re lying to me,” Kreya said, “know that my team and I will tear you apart and burn every trace of you so that there is no chance of you ever coming back again.”
“I understand.” He held out his hand.
She didn’t shake it. “How are you alive?” she asked again.
“I was never dead,” he said. “Merely seriously injured. Eventually, with the aid of my constructs and with the use of medicines I’d stored in my tower, I recovered.”
“Huh.” She stared at him, trying to read his face for any lie. She didn’t believe him, but she also didn’t know what the truth could be—there was no way he could have resurrected himself.We should have burned him then,Kreya thought. “And your army?”
“I told you—there was no new army, only the remains of the old, and I destroyed them all thoroughly,” he said. “After one of my constructs harmed Stran, I wanted no chance of their resurrection. I wished I’d destroyed them sooner, before any of my creations could hurt anyone.”
“You expect me to believe you.”
“I don’t,” he said, and she could read nothing but honesty in his eyes. He was spinning the talisman again. Still hadn’t activated it. “I expect you and your team to keep searching. But I know you will find nothing, because there’s nothing to find. And eventually, I hope you will come to believe me. Iama changed man.”
“We’ll see,” Kreya said.
With a bow, he walked away from her. She watched him until he disappeared around a corner, and then she returned to the main hall with the massive carved pillars, retrieved her coat, and walked out into the sunlight. She answered no questions and spoke to no one until she reached Zera’s palace.
Her team rushed forward as soon as she walked inside. “You’re alive! Did you see Eklor? Did he hurt you?” “What did Lorn want? Did he have an explanation?” “Did you kill Eklor? Half-hoping you didn’t and half-hoping you did.” “What did you learn?” “You should never have gone in alone. Was it worth the risk?” “What’s his plan? What does he want?”
Kreya looked at her friends. Really looked at them. Marso, his face anxious, his body skeletally thin, his hair escaping the braids that Zera had forced it into. He still seemed so fragile, as if wind would shatter him, but he was coherent now, improving every day. Stran had his arm around Amurra. The years hadn’t shrunk his great heart, only expanded it. Zera, her face painted and her body bejeweled, looked the same as she had when Kreya had intruded on the life she’d built, but Kreya knew she wasn’t the same.She forgave me,Kreya thought. Zera may not have said it in so many words, but she’d shown it again and again bystaying with them and by being here now. They were like sisters again, something she had thought wouldn’t happen.
And then there was Jentt.
Eklor was right. She had gotten her husband back. Eklor had never gotten that chance. It didn’t excuse what he’d done, but... For the first time ever, she thought perhaps she understood better what had happened and why.
If she understood the past, could she begin to let it go?
All of her friends were here, now, changed but here.Maybe it’s time for me to live in the present too. And the future.“I spoke with Eklor,” Kreya said. She described everything he had told her and shown her. Finishing, she said, “He wants a chance at redemption. I think we should give it to him.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“That’s a fucking terrible idea.”
Zera could not believe what had just come out of Kreya’s mouth. She must have fallen and hit her head. Or eaten a hallucinogenic mushroom and was experiencing delusions. Or maybe she’d finally lost it.
Kreya defended herself. “I am not saying forgive him. Or trust him.”
“Good. Because that’s not happening.” Zera put her hands on her hips. “No more going off to chat with genocidal maniacs without supervision. You come back with your brain messed up.” She was relieved when her friends nodded their agreement. They may have all reverted to following Kreya’s lead, but at least there were limits.
Concerned, Jentt took Kreya’s hands in his. “What did he say to you? What could he have possibly said to cause this change of heart?”
“He pointed out that he crossed a line. Many, many lines. But I’ve crossed them too.” She drew his hands to her lips, kissed them, and then released them. “If he can be redeemed even a little, if someone so broken and twisted can find some measure of forgiveness and peace, maybe I can as well.”
Jentt cradled her face lovingly, and Zera contemplated vomiting on their shoes. Instead, she shouldered between them. “Okay, false equivalence. What you did”—she waved her hand expressively at Jentt—“is in no way the same as what the Betrayer of Vos did.”
“She’s right,” Amurra said.
Zera glanced at her, surprised she’d volunteer an opinion. It was obvious the woman was intimidated by Kreya, though she had relaxed a bit recently. It was nice to hear her speaking up, especially to speak sensibly.
“You acted out of love,” Amurra continued. “He was fueled by hate.”
“Yep,” Zera agreed, nodding vigorously and pointing. “That.”
“He’d lost his wife and daughter,” Kreya said. “When I lost Jentt, I lost my mind. I abandoned all of you on the field, wrecked our plan, and chased after Eklor by myself.”
Rolling her eyes, Zera groaned dramatically. “Not. The. Same. This is absurd. He’s playing you. Can’t believe you fell for it.”
