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My body trembled as my arms hung in the air unsure of what to do. I had ended so many lives with my blade, but watching Nikolai was a life ending in a different manner.
“Mava?” He pressed his forehead to her own and two thick tears streamed down his cheeks and onto hers. It was as if Maerhal was crying with her son for all the years they would never have together.
But all I could see was an Elf caught between time. A timebeforethis moment and the timeafter. I pulled the spectacles he had made her from my pocket and placed them on Maerhal’s chest.
“I’m so sorry, Nik,” I whispered hoarsely, trying to hold in my sobs. “I’m so sorry I didn’t save her.”
Syrra dropped to her knees. Two rivers flowed down her cheeks and neck, covering her scars in the dew of her loss. Her gaze was locked on Maerhal’s burnt hair. Her entire body trembled. A wild, terrifying sound escaped her lips that sent the morning birds in a flight of panic. Syrra beat the ground with enough force that, had she been gifted the ability to wield magic, she would have split the world in two.
Nikolai’s bottom jaw trembled. He reached for something in his pocket but he couldn’t grab it while holding his mother.
I grabbed the handkerchief for him. He glanced at me with dead eyes before wiping the tears from his mother’s face. “And Collin?”
“Dead.”
Vrail fell to her knees and sobbed silently. Gerarda stroked her hair but her gaze stayed on me, ready to help in any way I needed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get there in time.” I didn’t know if I was trying to apologize to Nikolai or to Maerhal herself.
Syrra folded into herself on her knees, too exhausted from grief for any more tears. “Who did this?” Her hand curled dangerously around her curved blade.
Guilt lashed at my throat. That was a complicated question.
“Who did this?” Syrra repeated in a voice that was more dangerous than any weapon she held.
I gave her the easy answer first. “Damien.”
Her hand wrapped around the hilt of her blade so tightly the veins on the back of her hand erupted from her skin. She had a name but no one to strike. Syrra scowled and looked down the path behind me to where a portal waited that would take her to the one who killed her sister.
But then she tilted her head to the side and turned back to me. “Why would the false king want anything to do with my sister?” Her voice broke on that last word. “She was not a warrior.”
I glanced back at Killian. He was still staring at nothing, completely undisturbed by the torment playing out in front of him. I ran a hand through the top of my braid and fought the urge to scream. To take one of my blades from my hip and plunge it into my chest just to feel a reprieve from the guilt.
“Keera.” Gerarda took a slow step toward me, sensing the darkness burrowing inside me. “What did he do?”
I shook my head, wanting to run from the truth. I wanted to hide in the Dark Wood and never return. Telling my friends that their mother and sister was dead was scarring enough. How badlywould I ruin them if they knewIwas the one who had sealed Maerhal’s fate?
Gerarda lifted her hands to my face and gripped my cheeks, pulling my gaze to hers. “Hedid this, Keera,” she whispered. “This is not your fault.”
I shook my head, fighting to release myself from her grasp, but Gerarda held onto me with everything she had.
“He made me choose.” It was all I could say before I collapsed into Gerarda’s arms. She slowly lowered me to the ground and let my rasping sobs settle to slow breaths. We sat there until the suns had risen over the wood behind us—me against Gerarda, Nikolai laying in Vrail’s lap, and Syrra standing all on her own while Killian watched nothing at all.
Gerarda glanced up at him cautiously before tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. She asked in the most gentle voice I’d ever heard from her, “Are you ready to tell us now?”
I pulled myself onto my knees and stared at the ground while I spoke, too much a coward to look at Syrra or Nik while I told them the truth. “The rest of Damien’s Arsenal was in Silstra. Damien led Collin there to kill him. He didn’t want us finding out how much he had gleaned from haunting Collin’s dreams.” I shot a look at Killian, but he had still not moved once since we’d arrived. I didn’t know if he could hear me at all.
I took a deep breath and told them how we were ambushed and captured by the new Blade. My blood pumped through my veins with rigor as if I was reliving those moments again.
“When I woke, Damien was there. He was almost giddy.” Nikolai sat up though he still leaned against Vrail. Syrra lowered herself to the ground and sat as still as Killian.
“What did he want with you?” Gerarda asked with venom on her tongue.
“To play a game.” I turned to her, knowing she would understand the wicked way in which Damien played. She swallowed in revulsion before I continued. “He said I had to decide.”
Syrra’s hands turned to fists. “Decide what?”
My sorrow stung my eyes as I looked at her, knowing she would never forgive me. “To choose between saving Maerhal or saving Riven.”
