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“You wretched, lying, vicious bastard!”
Only three words would come. “I love you.” I kissed him quickly. “I’m sorry.”
A strangled sob tumbled from his lips. “I was dying, I was dying—”
“I know.” I pulled him to my chest again and his tremors tumbled through me. “I know, I’ve got you. I’m never letting you go.”
His fist thumped my chest, with no strength behind it. “I hate you, Lark!”
“I thought you might.”
He sniffed and shuddered a sigh. “You planned this—Draven is here, so you planned all of this together—and you didn’t say!”
I looked at Draven, at his forlorn face, and struggled to speak the truth. “Yes.”
Arin pushed away, stumbled some, then righted himself and his clothes, regaining some composure. “I hate the both of you.” His glare fell to Razak still thrashing and gurgling in the mud, then he strode over and kicked Razak in the side, once, twice.
I flung my arms round him and pulled him back. “Stop.”
“Why isn’t he dead?!” Arin screamed. “Kill him! Kill him now!”
“The boy…” Razak spluttered, lifting his cheek from the mud. “The boy… Kill me and he’ll die…”
Draven clamped his hand down on the back of Razak’s head. “You mean my son?”
“Kill me, and he dies!”
Draven’s expression turned desperate.
“It’s true,” I said. “He has him somewhere.”
Draven let out a soul-weary growl. “If we let him up, if he gets either of us in his sights, he’ll rip out our souls.”
“I won’t,” he gasped. “You have my word. Let me up and I’ll help you.”
“Your word is the most worthless thing in all the shatterlands.” Draven looked to me again; I was still holding Arin back. “Where’s my son?”
“He’s safe!” Razak choked. “Let me up, and I’ll tell you.”
Draven eased his hold but leaned in and snarled in Razak’s ear, “When I am done with you, you’ll wish for death.”
Arin bucked me off and stumbled free, catching his breath. “We can’t trust him. He’ll say anything to get what he wants,” Arin said.
I knew that. But weneededRazak. There had to be a way to cripple himandmake him compliant. This power had been wielded and defeated before. I’d seen it, hadn’t I? In the art all over War’s pyramid temple and the art below Justice… a clue to how this ended. I searched my memory of each scene, and then knew. “Let him up, but cover his eyes,” I said, turning away to search under the tree for the dagger I’d thrown.
The images on Justice’s walls of the kneeling figures with empty eyes… I knew what it meant.
Draven grasped Razak’s arms behind his back and hauled him out of the mud to his feet. He bucked and struggled. “I’ll kill you all!” Razak kicked, thrashing, but Draven had him.
Razak stilled as I approached. The power he wielded tried to slither its way inside. I slammed my hand over his eyes, forcing his crowned head back against Draven’s chest.
“Zayan, you love me,” Razak said, his voice turning soft and vulnerable. “I know it’s true, I saw it in you. Please, brother, don’t do this to me. We’re family. We only have each other. Nobody understands us.”
I spread my fingers, forcing his left eye open. Mud caked his lashes. His eye swiveled and locked on me. The dark pupil swelled, and within it, madness squirmed like a pool of eels. I raised the dagger.
“Wait! No, no!”
“For my fingers,beloved brother.”I thrust the dagger into his eye. His screams filled my ears, like the sweetest music I’d ever heard. He bucked, writhed, and twisted. He screamed and screamed, and I carved his eye from its socket. The orb came away and dropped into my hand. Razak slumped, now silent.
