“I did what was expected of me,” she answered with her chin held high. “As will anyone in this palace from whom you seek wisdom.”
As steady as I could manage, I lowered myself until our eyes were level. “You will tell me where she is.”
But as she pressed her lips together, I knew the answer before she even spoke the words. “No. I will not.”
Letting out a deep sigh, I nodded. “Well…” I let my fingers slide down to the hilt and gripped the dagger tightly, “then, you are of no use to me anymore.”
Just as I pulled the dagger from its sheath, the old seer closed her eyes, and I pierced my blade through her chest. The priest behind her yelled out, and her body jerked in my hold. I didn’t condone killing innocents so casually, but in my eyes, she wasn’t innocent. Anyone who stood in the way of me getting what I wanted held no innocence. And if I had to go through every gods damned seer in this palace to get toMorrigan, I would.
“Kaiden,” Naaz whispered.
I was still holding the dagger, which now dripped in the old lady’s blood. The priest was gone. I didn’t know how long I had been standing there.
I felt his hand touch my arm and I jumped, releasing my blade and turning to face him. His eyes were glowing, and it made my heart begin to race. Before I knew it, flashes of Morrigan’s face appeared before my eyes, and I knew what he was doing.
I could even hear her voice, like a distant cry, in my ears.
“You once told me there was no redemption for you,” she had said to me one night. “But what if redemption isn’t what you need?”
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
With a sweet sigh, she propped her chin on my chest and stared at me with her glimmering blue eyes. “You’re an asshole, Kaiden,” she answered, so bluntly it almost knocked the breath from my lungs. She smiled before she continued. “But it’s your heart that makes you that way.”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “I think you’re a little too lust drunk right now. You clearly don’t know what you’re saying.”
When she laughed, I could feel its warmth settle into my chest.
“Say what you want, Kaiden, but I’ve seen it. In the way you held me at the palace that day. The way you washed every inch of my skin so that I wouldn’t have to.” She traced her finger along the center of my chest. “You don’t need redemption, Kaiden. I think you just need someone to fight for you as hard as you’ve fought for yourself for too many years.”
When her voice faded, I felt like I had been shoved back inside of my body, and I panted as I tried to catch my breath. “That was fucked up, Naaz.”
“You needed a reminder.” He stepped back, clasping his hands behind his back, just as the doors to the dining hall opened.
“A reminder of what?” I snapped at him.
His eyes landed on whoever entered behind me, his jaw stiffening as he answered in a low voice. “Of everything you risk losing if you don’t control yourself.”
When I turned around, a new priest had entered with another one of my seers. She was younger, closer to Morrigan’s age.
“…everything you risk losing…”His words echoed in my mind. But what he didn’t understand was that I had already lost it all before.Dezcould be her hero. He was always good at pretty words and reasoning. But me?Iwould do whatneededto be done.
The moment the girl approached, she glanced down at the chair beside her, and her eyes went wide. She was newer, her powers still fresh and unmastered. That also meant she was easier to influence. As I stared at her, I reached over and wrapped my hand around the hilt of the dagger, ripping it from the seer’s body and watching the young girl flinch.
I brought the blade to my sleeve and wiped it, her eyes followed my every movement until they finally rose to meet mine. “Do you know where Morrigan is?” I asked calmly.
She blinked a couple of times, remaining quiet. But as I brought the tip of my dagger to her throat, I placed it just beneath her chin, and felt her body shake against the cold steel.
“I’m going to ask you again. Do you… know… where Morrigan is?”
She quickly nodded with trembling lips. “S-She is… She is with death.”
“She’s dead?!” Naaz yelled, stepping up beside me.
The seer shook her head. “N-No! But she iswithhim!”
Him?
“What do you mean?” I asked, lowering the dagger just a little.
