Page 48 of Prince of Night and Storm
He shifts his grip, arm sliding around my back to hold me up as if shouldering my weight is the most natural thing in the world. “The result of our inability to change. Inertia met by chaos.”
Renaud grabs the sabre still clutched in my hand and tosses it aside, like snatching a wooden spoon from a child when tired of them banging it against a pot.
“Our enduring obstinacy and adherence to norms that almost caused our destruction once. I did not cross the Realms and seize this city only for it to bite my hand.”
The dizziness in my head mimics the effect of two good bottles of wine, plus the hangover the next morning. “There's a whole lot to unpack in that statement but do go on.”
“Let me tell you what you see. You see me, having stayed my hand?—”
My face is throbbing and my chuckle is raspy. He’s got jokes—oh. He’s serious.
“—do you really believe I could not have ended this fight in the first five minutes? I was sorely tempted.”
It takes me two tries to speak with a jaw that really needs to stay shut. The words I want to say are so much more offensive. “Did you want an adult response or my natural one? Right. Nevermind—that was a rhetorical question.”
The tone of his voice drops into a withering register. “I ask you what you want, but I'm aware your bloodline is almost genetically incapable of rational thinking.”
He sounds so much like someone I know. Maybe that's why I keep dropping my guard.
“You don't know us.” My head twinges.
“Uncouth? Rude? Reveling in your own banality to the pointwhere your betters wonder if you are little more than barking dogs?”
Realms, that’s the start of a rant. A familiar one. “. . .so maybe you know us a little. May I have diplomatic immunity before I utter my opinion ofyourHouse? All is fair in war and war after all.”
He lifts a shoulder. “You are clearly the stamp of your House. I will answer the question of what you want for you.”
Battlefield levity finally drains as I weather his offhand string of insults without expression, mostly because expression takes energy I spent on a sudden sense of humor. And Darkan always insists I have none. Where is he when he’s wrong.
“Why ask me a question you know the answer to?” I say.
“For you to admit the answer to yourself. What you want is peace. What you'll do with that peace, I don't quite know. But this—” his gaze travels over the battle “—this was never your ambition. It was never even your mother's.”
“Don't speak of her.” Another twist of pain in my head. I grit my teeth through the pulse.
His arm tightens around me. “I knew Muriel for far longer than you, girl. I'll speak of her if I wish, and you will listen.”
Anger gives me a jet stream of strength. “I may be hot-headed, but you're arrogant. You think you know our moves and will counter them all.” I push away from him and turn, one foot behind the other. “I won't listen to you.”
Eyes narrowed, “When have you ever, Rinne?”
If I had doubts before, I have none now. “You’ll pay for my mother, for a claim of kinship to which youforfeited the right.She ismine,grief is mine. Did you think I would share her with you?” My face twists. “You’re madder than they say.”
“Careful, my halfling. Your grief will excuse much, but not all.” His expression alters. “And you’ve dead of your own to answer for.” He pauses a beat as I blot blood from my nose—a bleed, not from a strike.
“I have no wish to watch you break under the pain of her loss. There’s no purpose to suffering I can easily alleviate when you stop this foolishness. I care for her still—let me help you, Aerinne.”
“Stop saying my name like that.”Restraint breaks, tossed aside like trash. “If you cared for my mother, Danon would be free! Keep your help, all I want from you is your blood. I’ll leave this field when one of us is dead,Renaud.”
Watchful, he doesn't move, the sword in his hand pointed down. “So you Vowed.”
Wind whips my hair in my face, a sudden steep rise of the night breeze. “I will fulfill my Vow, and not only because I must.”
I take another step back, defiant, uncaring of his anger.
Pause.
And bare my teeth. For a fleeting moment, I accept what I am.
