Broken Veil (Harbinger #5)(80)

“He never betrayed you, Christina. He was true. No, you betrayed him. He knew you would come to him. I understand it now. I gave him his last Gifting.” The memory of it would never leave her. You will see her face before the end. “Even at the end, he was concerned about you. You were the one who drove a dagger into his heart, but he forgave you with his dying breath.”

“Be silent!” Jevin shouted, backhanding Sera across the face. The blow rocked her on her knees.

It must have cut Sera’s lip, for she tasted blood in her mouth, but she didn’t flinch. She turned her gaze back to Jevin. “You cannot abide the truth, can you?”

“It isn’t the truth!”

Sera turned back to Christina. “You are surrounded by kishion,” she said. “You’re too strong for them. They never meant for you to survive this day. Your part in their plan is ending. And you will be murdered just as they have murdered your sisters. Is that not the consequence of defying the kishion? Obey or die.”

Christina was staring at Sera, her mouth a frown. “I die either way,” she said. “I cannot expect mercy from you.”

“You can,” Sera said.

“It’s you who’ve killed my sisters,” Christina said. “Those you’ve caught.”

“I haven’t. All are imprisoned, yes. But I’ve not executed any. Any who say otherwise have lied.”

A quirk of a smile wavered on Christina’s mouth. “Imprisonment. Like our queen.”

Sera tried again to wrench free of her bonds. “There must be consequences, Christina.”

“There are,” Jevin said, looming over Sera with fists clenched. “You have a silver tongue, Your Highness.”

“Yours is forked.”

“You think to turn her heart? It’s not possible. She is one of us.”

“Only because you made her that way,” Sera said. “She obeys because of threats. Because you’ve warped her mind to obey your will. I will not yield, you black-hearted villain. You can make her kill her own daughter. And me. But what will that do? As long as Ereshkigal remains in her prison, I am content to die. I know the same is true of Cettie.” Then she turned back to Christina. “You are just as helpless as I am. I can prove it. Command them as you will, Christina. Watch the last illusion fail.”

Silence.

Jevin’s eyes smoldered with fury.

Christina looked up and saw what Sera did—the kishion were walking closer, surrounding her, their eyes full of menace. Cettie wept silently on the ground, the convulsions growing less and less.

There were too many of them, Sera saw. They had brought enough to best her.

Christina’s eyes looked haunted. If she’d tried to invoke her kystrel, she had failed. No power came to save her. No ability to sway emotions. No inhuman strength. She was alone, stripped of her power, in front of her foes who had presented themselves as friends.

“Do you understand now?” Sera said sadly, gazing at Christina. “They didn’t come to free Ereshkigal, only to bind her once again. To force her to do their bidding. You were their tool.”

Christina looked around in growing panic, watching the kishion surround her. No doubt the poisoner’s mind reeled at the prospect of facing so many enemies. There was no way she could win. No way she could survive the trap they’d set for her.

Sera watched Christina draw a dagger. No doubt it was poisoned.

“Kill her,” Jevin said flatly, unconcerned.

Christina whirled and threw the dagger at him. Sera watched the blade go straight for his chest, only to stop in midair a few inches in front of him. It hung, suspended, then struck the stone floor, making a jarring sound as it settled.

Not just a kishion—a Wizr.

Jevin looked indifferent.

One of the kishion fired a pistol, and Christina lurched forward. Blood stained the front of her gown. Smoke filled the room, and the echoes of the blast nearly deafened Sera as several other pistols were fired. Haze filled the space, bringing with it the stench of the fumes. Sera’s ears rang painfully.

When the smoke had cleared, she saw Cettie kneeling over her mother’s body. Christina’s eyes were still open. Blood oozed from the corner of her mouth.



Jevin walked over and grabbed a fistful of Cettie’s hair, yanking her back and shoving her toward Sera. Blood dripped from Cettie’s ear. She looked at Sera with grieving eyes, but she did not look surprised.

“I’m so sorry,” Sera whispered, her own ears aching in sympathy. She didn’t know what the poison had done, or if Cettie could even understand her.

“You haven’t ruined my plans,” Jevin said, pacing in front of them. “She was going to die anyway. As you said.”

Sera closed her eyes. The pieces were fitting together in her mind now. “You could never trust her. Not fully.”

“No,” Jevin agreed. “Hetaera cannot be trusted. But they can be controlled.”

“And what do you want to use that demon queen for?” Sera snapped. “Do you not see the risk in freeing such a being? Will she not turn on you next, Wizr?”

“Turn on us, you mean?” Jevin said, gesturing to the other kishion who had gathered around. “I think not. We have power over the kystrels, my dear. They cannot harm us. So yes, we wish to set her loose on the world. To remake it after our own order.”