The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch, #3)(37)
“They’re all in Knightscross, safe.”
“Good. What did—what did she say when Mykkie resurrected her?”
“Why don’t you raise her yourself, so she can tell you in her own words?”
Tea’s hands formed dainty fists. “I can’t.”
“You can’t or you won’t? Are you afraid of what she might tell you? Are you afraid to acknowledge that you killed her?”
“I don’t remember!”
“It doesn’t matter! She said you did it! I saw you! What other proof do you need?”
“What did you see?” Her voice was quiet, but the wind carried it anyway. “You never told me what you saw.”
He looked up at the sky, then back at the city. His voice shook. “I woke and realized something was wrong. Your mind was closed to me. Nothing I did could tear past the Veiling. I don’t even remember which one of us had set it up. I knew Kalen was on patrol, that he wouldn’t be back till midnight.
“So I returned to check on you. You weren’t in your cell, so I went to find Daisy—and arrived just in time to see you stab her. She…” Lord Fox’s voice broke. “She didn’t know why you did it. She died never knowing why. She was our sister, Tea.”
A fresh sob swelled from the dark asha’s throat. “I don’t know.”
“Does it matter?” The man sounded tired now, his anger exhaustible after all. “I should have told them about your black heartsglass. Mykaela might have found a way to prevent this. I should have taken you in back in Daanoris. Every time I hesitate, give you the benefit of the doubt, we wind up losing people we both love—Polaire, Daisy, Mykaela… Turn yourself in now, Tea. Let’s end this.”
“I can’t do that. It’s far too late for any of you to stop me.” A grimace shaped her lips, followed by a specter of a smile. “I told you in Daanoris that you would live, Fox. You will find your happily ever after with Inessa. Fate has different plans for me.”
“Enough, Tea!” Lord Fox stepped forward his hand outstretched, but a new figure emerged from the darkness, sword already drawn.
“Step away from her,” Lord Kalen said.
Lord Fox’s hand drifted to the blade on his hip. “Have you both come here only to sack Ankyo and visit Daisy’s grave?”
“And to warn your army not to attack Drycht.”
Lord Fox said, “Aadil is loose. The others have already agreed. We will eliminate his—”
“I will meet you in Drycht if you wish. But your army stays behind. Druj planted traps along Aadil’s borders. You will wade through your comrades’ blood before you reach his mountains.”
“Why not bring me there now?” he challenged. “Surely your daeva will be enough to overcome Druj’s traps.”
“Not yet. I am hunting.” Her eyes narrowed. “Druj prevents me from taking the First Harvest and hides from my thoughts. Even with my strength, the False Prince’s followers still have knowledge of runes that elude me. If I am to continue, I must kill the Faceless first.”
“Then maybe he does the rest of us a favor,” Lord Fox rasped, “if it keeps you from shadowglass.”
Then it was Lord Kalen’s turn to advance on the young general. Lord Fox tensed, his hand gripping his sword’s hilt.
“I will have none of that from either of you.” The Dark asha rose to her feet. “I am leaving, Fox. You can strike me down if you’d like, but I will not turn myself in to anyone from Kion.”
“You attacked Ankyo, Tea!”
“I spared as many of the citizens as I could. Even the elders.”
“Then why…”
“You can kill me, Fox. I would forgive you. Some days it would be so much easier to close my eyes and never wake… I know I’ve done little to earn back your trust. But I ask for one last chance. You will find peace, Fox. It may not be the serenity you expect, but you will be all the better for it. You will find peace, and so will Khalad, and you’ll all be rid of the daeva and the blighted and everything else you feared about me. I swear that I will never raise my hand against Kion again, no matter how many armies they send after me. I will save the kingdoms, and I will save you in the process, and maybe I will save the bits and pieces of myself that need rescuing too.”
Her eyes found mine and she smiled. “I am glad to see you safe and sound, Bard. You won’t have long to wait.”
She walked away, Kalen gravitating to her side. Lord Fox lifted his blade again, lowered it, raised it. Finally, it slipped out of his hand, and he watched her leave us, for the third time.
“I wouldn’t have forgiven myself,” he said out loud to the darkness that had swallowed up Lady Tea and Lord Kalen. “She could kill a hundred more asha, and I still couldn’t forgive myself for ending her. And she knows it.”
9
People talk about their minds shutting down in the face of hopelessness, but mine opted to travel through different sceneries in the days following Daisy’s death. I couldn’t recall being moved from my cell to the securest dungeon the kingdom possessed, one closer to the palace and tied with the most restrictive wards.
I had no recollection of being led to the palace, where I presumed people stood and gawked and hurled insults as I passed. I don’t remember the chains encircling my wrists, though I remembered their weight. I paid no attention when Empress Alyx announced my imprisonment before her court; I only saw a vision of the Kion monarch, visibly aged from stress and worry, and I felt sorry for the inevitability of what was to come. I turned a deaf ear to Princess Inessa’s fumbled explanations to me: how her mother had no choice, how they would do their best to explore another truth for my sake, how this must be a misunderstanding. In stark contrast to her mother, I saw the princess becoming fiercer, ceaseless, and more beautiful in the coming months, and I was glad for Fox.