Page 105 of Her Cruel Redemption

‘You’ll execute him?’ I repeated, and Madeia forgive me, but I’d been so busy thinking about the offer that I hadn’t spared a thought for price. But ofcourse,Draven would be executed. And of course he deserved to be executed. I didn’t know why I was suddenly nursing a sharp sadness. Maybe it was just that there had already been so much loss, and I wasn’t eager to see more. Maybe I was just thinking of what Mae had told me, of how he’d crossed a battlefield with Rhi limp in his arms to hand her to someone who would look after her.

‘We’ll make a spectacle of trying him first,’ Esario said, running a thumb across his lower lip, gaze fixed on the window, now, a satisfied smile curling the edges of his mouth. Then his gaze swivelled to me. ‘Best to keep this from your bloody lightning wielder, though, Gwinellyn,’ he said, flicking a hand.

I felt myself icing over as I prepared myself to defend Rhiandra yet again. ‘She’s proven her loyalty over and over again now.’

‘And then she went missing for several days after we were all sure she’d drowned,’ Dovegni said, tracing a finger around the rim of his water glass.

I shot him a steely look. ‘She said she washed ashore.’

Dovegni offered an unpleasant smile. ‘Quite the stroke of luck. A storm like that, with the current pulling south, and her in the state she must have been in.’

‘She’s alive,’ I said stonily. ‘That’s what matters.’

He inclined his head, the picture of easy agreement. ‘Of course. But if I was going to guess at how she survived, I would have said that someone must have pulled her from the water. Miraculous that she managed it unassisted.’

His insinuation pressed in like a held breath, and it left me wondering as much as I was sure everyone else at the table was.

‘I’m not saying she would betray us,’ Esario continued when I didn’t speak. ‘I’m only saying that she’s rash and she refuses to follow orders. She marches to the beat of her own drum and we’re only in alliance because our needs align with hers. The moment they don’t, she’ll do what suits her. That’s not the sort of loyalty we need in wartime.’

‘And we’ve unleashed her on the world,’ muttered Dovegni. ‘Which will be our task to solve once this is over.’

Esario shot him a look, and he didn’t say anymore, but I didn’t miss the urgency in that expression.

And I suddenly I remembered that conversation Draven had paid three hundred lives for.When she ceases being useful to them, they are going to turn on her.

A chill traced down my spine.

I looked around the table, at those who sat in judgment of Rhiandra, weighing her worth, calculating how long she would remain an asset before she became a problem to be solved.

Esario sighed, rubbing his temple. ‘For now, we move forward with caution. We see what this faction has to offer. But as for Rhiandra…’ He levelled me with a measured gaze. ‘We watch her. Closely.’

A murmur of agreement rippled through the room.

I nodded as though I agreed. But beneath the table, my hands were clenched tightly together.

Because I knew what Esario and Dovegni didn’t.

Rhiandra wasn’t a weapon.

She was a storm.

And when they turned on her, I wasn’t sure they would survive it.

Chapter Forty-Nine

The cool, briny breeze was soothing after one of my episodes. It eased the tightness in my head, settled the gnaw of nausea, and the slow, steady rise and fall of the waves beneath me had a calming effect. I sat with my back against the mast, staring out into the dark night beyond the ship’s railing, elbows slung over my knees as I waited for the pain to pass. I thought I’d managed to keep anyone from seeing me struggle with it, but I’d been aboard the ship for a few days now, and I was beginning to track the watching eyes that quickly turned when I looked their way. Kestrel’s in particular. He wasn’t game enough to read me outright, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been able to sense the fractured, waning state of my magic with his own.

It didn’t help that I didn’t much care, though. Nothing seemed to matter much anymore.

When I heard the creak of boards behind me, the scuff of footsteps, I didn’t even turn around. Just kept staring out into the night, back towards the direction of Port Howl, imagining I could see flickers of light to mark out where the city was, even though we were too far away. What was Rhiandra doing now? Was she safe? Was she looking out a window somewhere thinking about me as I was about her?

When I could practically feel their presence behind me, I finally spoke. ‘Make sure it’s a killing blow. You won’t get a second chance.’

A few chuckles. ‘I think we both know you’re done for,’ came the reply. I recognised the gravelly voice of Khatar. The betrayal ran deep, then. I hadn’t even been told he’d come aboard. Smoothly, I rose to my feet.

The moment the first hand closed around my shoulder, I moved, twisting, driving my elbow back hard, feeling the satisfying crunch of bone as someone staggered away with a curse.

Idiots. They should have struck first instead of thinking they could simply take hold of me.

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