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Draven didn’t rise to my bait. “She’s gone, Morgan. But I know you aren’t going to believe me. Still, you’re going to have to trust me.” He glanced at me and caught me shaking my head stubbornly. “Fuck. How do I explain everything?”
“Start at the beginning,” I suggested pointedly. “What did you do when she was dragged away?”
He looked at me quizzically. “Maybe we should start with whatyoudid. What exactly do you remember?”
“What I did...” I started. Then I stopped. What had I done? “I...”
I must have looked confused.
Draven cleared his throat awkwardly. “Vesper. Do you remember Vesper?”
“Of course, I remember Vesper. He... I...” I stopped. “He made me leave you. Leave her. He dragged me away.”
I watched Draven’s face harden. “I thought he was saving you. He had seemed so infatuated. What a fucking fool I was.”
A bitter laugh rang from my lips. “What a fucking foolyouwere? What about me? I was the one kissing the treacherous fuck.”
“And he turned out to be different than you had thought, I take it? What did you learn about him?” Draven asked carefully.
I could see what he was trying to do. Or trying not to do, I should say. He was trying not to rub it in. That he’d been right. That I’d moved to fast. Trusted too quickly.
And then been wrong. Dead wrong.
“He’s dead,” I said hollowly. “Does it matter?”
Draven met my eyes. “I know, Morgan. I saw the pile of ashes.”
Bile rose in my stomach as I remembered. Oh yes, I had killed Vesper. I had done more than that. I had fucking incinerated the man.
“He betrayed me. He tried to kill me.” I wasn’t sure if I was offering the words in my defense or as a horrid boast of some sort.
Besides, there was so much more to it than that. Vesper had already stabbed me. He hadn’t seemed particularly eager to finish me off though. I might have let him take the sword and leave. Then crawled away. Maybe I would even have made it.
But Vesper hadn’t been satisfied with just taking the sword and wounding me.
He’d wanted to lie in wait for Draven and the others.
Odelna, a voice in my head whispered. Draven and Odelna. There were no others. Even then, you knew that, didn’t you? But you couldn’t let him hurt Draven. You had to do everything you could to stop him. Everything, no matter what it was. No matter what the cost.
Shut up, I told myself. Lancelet might have been following behind. Anything had been possible then.
And now?
I could feel Draven’s eyes on me. “You turned him to ashes, Morgan. How exactly were you able to do that?”
I met his green gaze then averted my head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
He shrugged. “Fine. So, Vesper tried to kill you and instead you killed him. But he’d almost succeeded.”
I understood. “You found me. Was I...?” Did I even want to know?
“You were barely breathing.”
I gave a short laugh. “I’m surprised I was at all.”
I saw a tumult of emotions cross his face. Fury, regret, and something else. “What matters is that you’re here now. You’re alive.”
“But Lancelet’s not,” I retorted. “Or so you claim. Wherever here is.”
