“Sorry,” Raild drawled. “Was I interrupting something?”
“Are you trying to goad me into killing you?” Reese stepped between Raild and me.
Smoothing my dress down, I stumbled to my feet.
“Go ahead and try. I don’t think it would go well for you.” Raild smiled at me. “I’m reasonable, though. Run off now, little harlot, and I won’t tell everyone what I just saw.”
Saints, what was I thinking? I hid so much more than a forbidden affair. My magic, my allegiances . . .
I promised to help my mother. To be part of something that mattered. I couldn’t throw it away here.
So, I took his offer. Lifting my skirts, I turned and ran.
Reese called my name, but I didn’t look back.
Chapter 57
Reese
Islammed my half-brother against the tree, sword to his throat.
"What are you playing at?" I hissed.
"Nothing.” Raild twisted his neck away from the blade. "I'm looking out for my dear brother—just like when I warned you away from that whore."
I'd lost count of how many times Raild had called Bláth a whore. It wasn't an insult you could refute—she'd worked at a brothel for years.
And she'd always told me not to deny it. Bláth didn't think of her past as an insult. She wore the memories like a badge of pride—she'd fought tooth and nail to survive in this world, even when she had nothing and no one.
It was the kind of thing Raild would never understand, not when he had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
"If you do anything to hurt Mare," I warned. "They'll find your mangled corpse in a dirt crawler's back alley."
"Oh, poetic. So youcanbe creative with your kills." Raild smiled. "And here I thought you were a mindless butcher."
My right hand trembled, desperate to slit his throat. Golden veins snaked up from the prosthetic, and voices whispered at the back of my mind.
Silence him.
"What are you doing?" Father's voice cut through the garden.
Yanking my sword from Raild's throat, I stepped back. Lord Tiernan blustered toward us, fury burning on his face.
"Father.” Raild dusted himself off. "This mad?—”
"Silence," Lord Tiernan hissed. "You've brought this on yourself."
Raild fell silent, but he shot me a withering glare.
"And you.” Lord Tiernan pointed at me. "Ten years, and you still cannot behave in front of the Lecovair."
I shoved my sword into its sheath. "Maybe I'd have learned better if you hadn't thrown my mother onto the streets. So don't chide me," I snapped, turning away.
"I have news," Tiernan called after me. "News I would have shared, had you two kept your petty grievances in line."
Whatever his news, I didn't care. Brushing aside a low-hanging branch, I followed the path Mare had taken.
"The Archbishop and High Magister have come to a decision," Father called.
