"And protect you?" Yuudai guessed. "Ailithir is a fool who clings to the ways of old, though he pretends not to. Perhaps I should do your nation a service and free Cierthine from your grasp. How many lords want your head, I wonder?"
The shatterblade behind me laid his sword across my shoulder. Steel brushed my neck.
My breath stopped. Would they kill me here, just like that?
"But I will not kill my kin," Yuudai said. "Paragon weapons can be refused. Youwillrelinquish it."
Diar gripped her blades tighter. "I will not."
"You will, by the time I am done with you," he said in a low tone. His turquoise eyes flicked to me. "Kill her. She died in battle. Perhaps that will prove to them that women should not outstep their bounds."
I gripped Cierthine's hilt. A sinking realization stayed my hand.
Should I fight back and kill these men, there would be no future in which anyone believed me innocent—a victim. The world would see me as a crazed woman who lashed out at her betters, who disobeyed and attacked—an unworthy fraud who deserved her fate. The minstrels would sing of my farcical story, a warning tale for generations of girls to come.
I closed my eyes. The blade at my neck moved.
"Tell me, Yuudai," Reese's voice shattered the silence. "Have your vaunted Shatterblades stooped to murdering injured women in the streets?"
The steel at my neck vanished. I opened my eyes to see the Shatterblade lowering his sword.
Yuudai's hands curled into fists. He slowly turned to face the Paragon marching down the street.
Fire blazed in Reese's eyes—though it did not match the burning fury I'd seen a few hours ago, in the glade. He retained control of himself. Control he'd lost in the glade, becoming something more feral, something I still did not understand.
"Lord Paragon," Yuudai began.
"Get the fuck away from her," Reese seethed, shoving past the general to stand by me. "Or you and your men will join these corpses."
Yuudai glared at him. "Are you threatening me?"
"Yes.” Reese leaned closer, hand tightening around his rapier. "Which of us is the Solheart? I'll tell everyone you died valiantly in battle. No one will believe it, but what will they do?"
Nothing. Those with power were untouchable. Lords could do whatever they wished to their lessers. Solhearts' orders were final in our kingdoms, no matter what they decided, no matter what they did.
Nobody would punish them.
Yuudai knew that, too. He stepped back. "Would you demand my daughter's life as well? Would you claim I have no charge over her?"
Reese glanced at Diar, seeking her answer. Waiting for her to ask him to save her.
She shook her head. "You already have a charge, Paragon Tiernan. I will handle my own fate."
I turned to her, worried her father was lying. Worried he'd kill her the moment we turned our backs.
"You only need to say the word," Reese said.
"I know," Diar said. "Your offer is appreciated. But I must decline."
Reese's eyebrows drew together, but he nodded. "If you refuse your own Paragon, Yuudai, that is your business." He laida hand on my back, pulling me to his side. "But you will not touch Aenir's."
"As you wish.” Yuudai added the next words with the barest trace of disrespect, "Lord Paragon." He nodded at his shatterblades, and they moved as one.
Diar did not look back at us as they led her away. Her father did—he gave me a long, hard glare.
But I could not discern the emotions hidden within.
Reese visibly relaxed once they'd departed through the gates. His hand slid down my back. "Thus far, you haven't been disobedient. I was surprised when I saw you climbing through the wall."
