Page 106 of Mother of Death and Dawn

I was getting better at reading faces. I knew he did not want to tell me.

“Threll,” he replied. “I have decided to grant the Zorokovs’ request and support them in their attack on the rebels.”

Shock nearly stole my words.

“Why?” I demanded. “Why would you offer your help to those creatures?”

“Their time for reckoning will come, but we can’t afford to lose the Threllians’ manpower. Not yet.”

Caduan’s tone was so careful, so calm. But the truth crashed over me all at once, bringing with it a tide of shame. I remembered the way that he had looked at me after our meeting with the Threllians.We have options.

I was the option. And I had failed. Now, he had no choice but to cede to the Zorokovs’ demands.

“I can still do it,” I said. “I can find Tisaanah, and the wayfinder— I can still find them.”

I pushed myself upright, and Caduan jerked forward a little, as if preparing to steady me. “I think…I think they were nearby,” I went on. “The soldiers mentioned a military base. Perhaps they are still there. Let me go back and search.”

Caduan’s face shifted. “There was a military base, but they aren’t there.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because nothing is there anymore.”

It took me a long moment to understand.

Therewasa military base.

Caduan’s expression was always so calm that, at first, I did not notice the intensity of the hatred lurking beneath it, sharp enough to cut the breath from my lungs. I realized this was exactly what he must have looked like when he killed the humans that attacked me.

This was what he must have looked like when he went back to that military base and wiped it off the earth.

The vengeance is for you.

Caduan turned away. “Rest, recover, and we’ll discuss what comes next when I return.”

I wanted to say something more, but I didn’t know what. Caduan offered me one final smile as he left with Iajqa.

The room was now very silent. I sat in bed alone, feeling foolish. I tethered myself to my heartbeat and whispered to my magic. A tiny black rose sprouted in my palm. I stared at it.

How had I been so pleased with this? How had this little flower earned Caduan’s proud smile?

This was a war. I needed to kill, and you could not kill anything with a flower.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX

TISAANAH

“Ididn’t know it was possible for a half-Fey to be a Valtain.”

The man laughed as he set down cups of steaming green liquid before me and Max. “I’m not half Fey, darling. Just have some blood from some distant great great grandmother or such. But the ears do make me look exotic, no?”

He looked expectantly at me, as if he was waiting for an answer, so I nodded. “Oh yes. Very.”

The man’s name was Klasto. He introduced us with equally bubbly enthusiasm to his partner, Blif, a middle-aged woman who sat in the back of the shop with a book perched in her hands and did not bother to get up as we arrived. She peered at us from beneath a blunt black fringe, gave a little wave, and let Klasto do all the talking.

That, it turned out, was not difficult, as Klasto apparentlyneverstopped talking. Even as he and Blif excused themselves to go gather some supplies, his voice still rose and fell down the hallway.

Max lifted the tea to his nose and frowned. When I went to take a sip of mine, he stopped me.

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