“Come to sssurrender, Princcce?” The woman with a snake-like head and split tongue, slithers out from behind a tree. With the dense fog it’s impossible to tell what her lower half looks like. She dives into the dark grey haze and pops up only feet away from us.
“Cimmerians don’t surrender,” I say in a low, warning tone.
“Sssso then you must be here to die.”
Before she gets the chance to strike, my shadows slice her scale-covered head from her body. They both fall at once, disappearing beneath the crawling fog.
“I don’t like how open we are out here. Let’s move into the tree for now. We’ll still be able to hear if something is approaching from in there.”
Reign picks up the pack carrying the essentials and dips into the tree’s opening. Just as before, she lights a fire, and the orange glow immediately warms the dark interior.
“Has killing always beenso easy for you?”
Her question catches me off guard, but something about the way she asks it makes me think it’s been on her mind for a while.“No,” I answer simply, but she doesn’t appear satisfied. “Look, if I didn’t act first, she would’ve. I like my odds better when I’m on offense.”
The light flickers over her face.
“I don’t know how I’m going to do it.” She must notice my confusion because she clarifies. “How do you kill someone who is simply on the wrong side of history? The Throne Room attack was one thing, but it’s so much more complicated now.”
“I wish I could give you a good answer. One that would make you feel better about what is to come. But the truth is, it’s awful. To take an innocent life means sacrificing pieces of your own soul.” My words are brutally honest but necessary. “Each death chips away at you. Do it enough and you can try to convince yourself you’re numb to it but it’s a lie. You’ll feel every death.”
Her eyes drop to where she’s twisting the dagger’s tip into the ground. “The version of you that existed before you were banished…what was he like?”
There she goes again, demanding the truth of my past. Insisting on knowing the darkest parts of me. It’s in her nature to try to understand me. And as annoying as it may be, I’m the same way with her.
“You wouldn’t have liked him very much.” She sits up, eager to hear more. “You saw the memory of my father ordering me to kill the wolf cub. That was only the start. Cubs turned into people; people turned into armies. There is more to the Great Six Realms’ history than what you’ve been taught. The relics my father collected over the years came with a price that I cannever repay. There’s no way to explain all of the horrible things I’ve done in my lifetime.”
“You only did those things because of your father,” she says in an attempt to defend my actions.
“The why doesn’t matter, Reign. I hurt people. Good people.”
“How can you say that? It does matter.” She drops her head. “I have to believe that.”
“Why?”
“Because I hurt people, too. Maybe not directly, but I played a part.”
“It’s not the same. You didn’t kill people.”
“Didn’t I, though? When I set that fire in Nazrelia, it allowed the Royal Guards to capture those rebels. Their blood is on my hands.”
“Their deaths aren’t yours to claim. That was just a game my father was playing with you. They would’ve been caught and killed regardless of if you were there to help. My father’s plans for you were bigger than that. The things he needed you for were going to be far worse than setting a room on fire.”
“Fine, but if you didn’t send Artemus to save me, then I would’ve ended up just like you. Just like Kane. Still doing your father’s bidding because that’s how much power he holds over everyone.” She stabs the dagger in the ground and looks at me with an intensity that wasn’t there before. “We’re all just victims of your father.” I’m about to disagree when she holds a finger up to stop me. “I know you hate being called that but it’s true. Those people you killed and probably even tortured were his victims, not yours. If that rule applies for me, then it applies for you, too.”
“Tell that to the soldiers I tore apart. Tell that to the people I imploded, leaving nothing but their memory behind.” Myvoice is raised, but she needs to hear it. She needs to know the truth about what I’ve done and who I really am. “I left children without parents. I cut down innocent people with my shadows. I leveled homes and buildings with people still in them. Thousands, Reign. I’ve killed thousands.”
She’s silent, finally realizing the monster I truly am.
“You deserved better,” she says quietly.
“What? How can you say that after what I just told you?”
“Because,” she says, pulling the dagger out of the ground and sheathing it. “I know who you are. Despite everything you’ve done you’re a good person, Ryder. And you deserved a better life than the one you were given.”
She means it. Every word of it.
“You give me too much credit.”
