Page 116 of Trial of Thorns
If only I had known.
“It’s not like I went to him looking for power. He found me. He... trapped me. I was bargaining for my own life, but he likes to think himself generous, so he threw in the power as a boon. And it wasn’t... well, his terms were unclear. I used that to my advantage.”
“What does that mean?”
“He didn’t tell me to kill Reahgan. He didn’t even intend for me to kill Rheagan. He told me to kill the youngest son of Luminescent Court King.”
I blink. What? “But that would’ve meant... me.”
“Yes,” she whispers.
“So, you broke the bargain? And all you got was banishment?”
“No. Banishment was my punishment for outwitting him. He’d underestimated me. If I’d done what he’d asked, no one would have ever known I was the one that killed you, he made that clear. Since I killed the ‘wrong’ heir but still technically completed the bargain, he made sure I was caught and suffered the consequences. He probably expected me to be put to death. It was a blessing I was still years from adulthood, even months from my first rite of passage. He had to give me the power he offered because it was part of our bargain.”
“But how? How did you outwit him? And why? Why was killing Reahgan better than killing me?”
I stare at the silver hair flowing down her back. She doesn’t respond, not for a long while. “I don’t know if he knew it when he proposed our terms, if that was the reason he chose me as his assassin—because it would be the worst kind of torment to force me to kill my own...”
She doesn’t finish the phrase, but I still leap to my feet as if she did. I should ask, to be sure what she was about to say. But I can’t make my mouth form the words.
No.
I shake my head. I don’t want to know that. I... can’t handle facing it. I’m supposed to be seeking truth, but this one... this one might break me. So, I avoid it.
“I stalled once I found out. I learned that Reahgan was an asshole...” She shakes her head stopping herself. “And then, by another bitter blessing, I learned the one thing that could get me out of the fate he’d forced me into. Not that the alternative was all that much better—killing your brother, I knew, was still an unforgiveable crime. But still, at my worst moments, I’ve been proud that I won. Technically. I lost, in so many ways. But I beat him.”
“What was it? What was the loop hole?”
“It’s probably the same reason your father wants you killed now. He doesn’t want you to be his heir, because you’re not actually his son.”
Rev
My mouth falls open.
I blink. Well, that’s not what I had expected.
