Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“You’ve said your piece,” he said dismissively. “Allow me to say mine.”
“Oh, goodie. I always love a good monologue. Please tell the assembled audience how the murderer is their champion. I’m dying to see the spin.”
He pursed his lips at her words. “Dying is the operative word.”
“Sure is.”
“You’ve killed as well.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “And my heart will never know peace because of it. Tell me, Bastian, how do you sleep at night?”
“Like a baby.”
“Mmm,” she said as Fordham put a hand on her arm. A warning to remain steady, to not give in to his antics, to only push as far as she could handle.
Bastian didn’t want to just kill her. That had never been his aim. He wanted to make an example of her. He always had. That was why he’d raised her up at his side and tutored her as his pupil. He’d made her in his own image to be the best that she could be. And then he had countered that kindness with humiliation and suffering and blood.
He wouldn’t be happy until his own embarrassment had been rectified by her cleansing. That much she was sure of.
“I’ve been keeping tabs on you, Kerrigan Argon. The half-Fae who rose above her station, who got a place on a dragon’s back, who joined the council.”
“Partially in thanks to you.”
“Proof that half-Fae were capable of the insidious nature I had always proclaimed that they had. They want to usurp our great Society. They want us to pay for their deeds.”
“Projecting,” Kerrigan muttered.
Bastian rose to his feet, clasped his hands behind his back, and stepped away from his seat. He was in it now. The speech he’d probably practiced, hoping for her to be there to deliver it. Or maybe he was going to say it anyway even if she didn’t show. He’d want people to support his power regardless.
All the better that she was here for it to be delivered directly into her faintly pointed ears.
“You sent a Society member into our midst to spy on us. Gerrond was a good, upstanding rider who wanted the best for House Sayair. He came to me with your duplicitous actions, and you killed him for it.”
“I didn’t kill him.” Kerrigan’s brow furrowed, and Fordham’s grip tightened.
“He’s goading you.”
Kerrigan ground her teeth. “He had him killed.”
“Breathe. He wants you to lose focus.”
Kerrigan lifted her chin and met Bastian’s gaze. He was doing to her the same that she was doing to him. She just had to outlast him. That was all.
“You came into my mountain and killed your own traitor as he double-crossed you. You say that I have blood on my hands, but we all know that your hands are dripping.”
He was right. Not about Gerrond, but she had killed. It didn’t matter for what reason. And he would win people more easily if he painted her as worse than him. He’d proven that people wanted the familiar trappings of the Society and not a revolution.
“You kidnapped one of our riders, a noble in House Bryonica.”
Kerrigan breathed out heavily. Audria. He was still going on about that falsely.
“Kidnapped is such a strong word.”
“What would you say you did to her after killing the guard, knocking out one of your own friends, and her disappearing?”
A roar sounded outside the arena, and Kerrigan smiled. “That’s probably her right now leading the eastern front.”
Bastian waved his hand away. “A pretty story. You’re a killer. You had your own friend killed to take over a petty human rebellion.”
“That one I’m confused by.”
“What was your friend’s name?” Bastian said. “The human one.”
Kerrigan tilted her head to the side. “I have a few of those. I don’t hate humans like you so you’ll have to be more specific.”
“Clover,” he said as if pulling the name out of a hat.
“Oh, right,” Kerrigan said. “Clover is fine.”
Bastian’s eyes turned to Isa. “You told me that Kerrigan had her killed.”
“You mean you sent Isa to kill her,” Kerrigan said with a smirk. “Yeah, she killed Thea instead. Guess you should have been more specific.”
Bastian hadn’t been prepared for that. His eyes were still locked on Isa, who lifted her chin defiantly. The woman who wanted to die in the mountain finally had fire back in her expression. This one defiance led to Bastian breaking character. He balled his hands into fists and looked like he was going to send one swinging into her face.
“You liar.”
“I did exactly what you commanded,” Isa said, jumping back onto the platform. “I killed the leader of the resistance. That’s all I do for you, isn’t it? Kill people.”
A titter of shock went up around the room as if they didn’t know that Isa was his assassin, as if her mere presence didn’t keep people in line.
“You knew who I meant,” Bastian said, slapping Isa across the face.