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“I’m not done with you yet.”
Fear hammered inside my ribs with every heartbeat. “Will you hurt me like you hurt Wendel?”
He tilted his head. “Why do you say that?”
“He has the scars to prove it.”
“Wendel is one of our best assassins. By his own hand, he’s killed perhaps ninety. With his undead minions, the number is more like nine hundred.”
The ice in his voice chilled me to the bone.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
The Grandmaster’s face could have been carved from stone. His eyes gleamed with keen intelligence, as if he were calculating the best response.
“Wendel has been lying to you,” he said.
“Why would he lie to me?”
“To bend you to his will.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“He’s a dangerous man, Ardis.”
I twisted my hand, struggling to break free from his grasp. “You’re hurting me.”
He released me so suddenly I jerked back against my chair. My hand still ached from his crushing grip. He watched me with an unreadable expression.
“Why do you even want me in your ranks?” I asked.
“Because I have no other progeny but you.”
I leapt up, pushing the chair back, and bared my teeth. “You can’t lay claim to me. Not after abandoning my mother before I was even born.”
When he stood, he towered over me. “She never told me she was pregnant with you.”
His words sliced through me like a knife. “Why wouldn’t she tell you?”
“Because she knew I was dangerous.”
Chun Yi lay on the couch. Almost within reach.
“Take it,” the Grandmaster said.
Was that a threat?
The muscles in my legs tensed, but I held my ground. He handed me Chun Yi in its scabbard, his face blank and his eyes gleaming. When my fingers closed around the pommel, he didn’t let go of the sword.
“Come with me,” he said.
I clenched my jaw until my teeth ached. “No.”
“You remind me of myself when I was your age. Full of pride and righteous anger.”
“I’m nothing like you.”
The locket dangled, glimmering, in his other hand. He pressed it into my palm. Instinct urged me to fling it away, but it was all I had from my mother.
