Page 142 of Grim and Oro
“People, you see, just like your soldiers. Not mindless faces. Not faceless monsters.” He bares his teeth at me. “You killed them.You, with your sword. All of them.”
I swallow.
His people were attacking my land. “It was in defense—”
He tilts his face. “Do your intentions matter, when they’re all dead?”
“What was the alternative? Allow them to kill my own?”
Still, the names circle through my head. Children. Families changed forever. Lives lost. I never once thought about them. I never considered who they were beneath their helmets.
Grim looks pleased, sensing my turmoil.
He’s trying to confuse me. Trying to get me to sympathize with him.I will not feel empathy for my enemy.
“What game are you playing?” I ask through my teeth.
His grin is nothing short of poisonous. “Not a very fun one, since it involves speaking to you. And not one with any goal other than getting you to see that everything you hate about me is in you too.”
My nostrils flare. “You like being in here, don’t you?” I demand, changing the topic.
He shrugs as much as he can with the chains weighing him down. “It isn’t so bad when a boring second son isn’t tormenting me.”
Truth.
“Why?”
He leans his head back against the wall. “My father isn’t here.”
“You would rather be in a prison ... than around your own father?”
I did not have the best relationship with my father. But I would have preferred his presence over this.
He considers my words. “They’re not so different.” He sighs. “At least in here, my sword is clean.” His sword. The one bathed in blood after every battle.
I don’t stand down. “You love battle. You love killing. I couldseeit.”
He glares at me. “I don’t loveanything.” He’s telling the truth. Of course he is. “I enjoy turning it all off ...” he says. “Everything. My thoughts. My feelings. Everything becomes simpler.”
We stare at each other. Out of nowhere, he growls like an animal. “Your pity is disgusting. Do not pity me. I would rather be miserable than delusional, like you.”
“Right,” I say, laughing. “You think having friends, and loving my family, makes me weak.”
“Yes. And also, an idiot.”
That makes me laugh. And, I might be imagining it, but I swear the corner of his mouth turns up for just a moment. Then, he’s back to scowling.
“Why do you come here?” he asks. “Is it to torture me?”
Any hint of amusement leaves me. I remember again who he is. Why I’m here. I could lie. He doesn’t have my flair. I could easily keep my emotions in check.No. I try my best not to lie. He is not going to be the cause of me losing myself.
“I’m here to find out if you’re working against us,” I say, truthfully. “If you being here as a term of our treaty is part of your plan to overtake Lightlark.”
“Ah,” he says, apparently unsurprised.
“Well? Are you?” The words hang in the air between us, bookended by silence. I don’t dare breathe. One second passes. Another.
I don’t expect him to answer. But then he says, “Not right now.”
