Haedeon Neván.
“No—”
There’s the sound of cracking stone.
I fall to my knees. Feel no pain despite the heaviness still wedged in my hand and chest.
I’m almost back in Dhomm when my emotions sprout like bladed feathers, slitting me from the inside out.
There’s nothing but pain and chronic grief, my gut knotting as I think of—
I scream for the carter to stop.
He doesn’t.
I jump—
Fall.
Wake in Pah’s office and beg him to cut my throat.
He just stands there, arms crossed, watching me break apart on the ground.
I reach for his blade—
He kicks me in the belly so hard I vomit, ordering two guards to retrieve Mior.
I see a pair of blue eyes ringed with gold. Tumble again … much faster this time.
Further.
Around me, things smudge so much that when I finally come to a stop, nothing looks right. There are pieces missing, I’m sure of it.
“Am I okay, Mior?”
Her smile doesn’t reach her eyes, a tear slipping down her cheek that almost reminds me of … something. “You are now, my friend.” She takes my hand, holding it more gently than it’s ever been held before. “I’ve hidden it somewhere safe and quiet. It’ll never hurt you again.”
There’s the glint of something slashing through the air. The only warning I get before blood sprays my face. Before Mior’s head falls off her shoulders and tumbles across the ground—
The world comes into focus, and I find myself shuddering on the ground, coiled amongst a scatter of bloody shards—bits of stone still stuck in me that I hardly feel.
It was me.
All this time, I thought it was Pah …
But it wasME.
Tyroth steps away, the pebbling skin at the back of my neck telling me his dragon’s nearly upon me. But it’s hard to feel any fear as the newly recovered memories flay me from the inside, one precise slit at a time.
I murdered them.
Took Elluin’s family from her.
Caused her to be torn from The Shade.
Caused Slátra to chase her to The Burn and allowed Tyroth to infiltrate her kingdom.
I turned her into an orphan …
