Chapter 39 #2
Her throat burned at his remoteness. “You were a child,” she repeated. “You shouldn’t have left. You should have stayed at the castle.” With me, she added desperately in her mind. You should have stayed with me. Aloud, she said, “You should have stayed where it was safe—”
“I left to find Father.”
A jolt went through her at the unexpected pronouncement. “You—Why?”
“To kill him.”
Her heart thudded at those words, stated so simply. So emotionlessly. “Did you . . . find him?”
“Yes.”
Her breath caught. “He’s dead?”
“No.” Tiras’s head cocked as he studied her. “I can’t decide if you’re disappointed.”
She didn’t answer. Mostly because she didn’t know the answer.
Her emotions were barbed and chaotic, and she didn’t know if she had any desire to make sense of them.
“Where is he?” she asked. She hated the waver in her voice.
Hated how Tiras’s expression sharpened, because that meant he’d sensed her fear.
His chin lowered, and for the first time, his words were edged. “He cannot hurt you ever again, Ryn.”
His words made her heart pound. An intense stab of relief warred with new fear. “What does that mean?”
Tiras watched her in silence. She knew even without feeling any emotion from him that he wasn’t going to answer.
Frustration burned inside her. “Why are you here, Tiras? Why seek me out now, after all these years?”
The skin around his eyes tightened infinitesimally. “Because I made a deal with Rix, and he reneged. Once I know you’re safe, I’ll kill him for his betrayal.”
Everything inside her went cold. “You can’t kill Rix.”
Tiras smiled faintly, his thumb sliding against the smooth edge of the fan. “I assure you, I can.”
Suddenly, all she could see was a room full of blood. Their mother dead. Those knights scattered in pieces across the floor. The metallic tang in the air. Her stomach cramped. “Please don’t,” she whispered.
“Why not?”
“Because he’s . . .” Our uncle. Important to me. The only one who didn’t leave me behind. But appealing to Tiras’s emotions would never work, so she simply said, “I’m asking you not to.”
His dark eyebrows tugged together, as if she were a complex puzzle he could not figure out. When he grew bored, she knew she would lose his focus—and their uncle would most likely lose his life.
“What deal did you make with Rix?” she asked, hoping for more information so she could find a way to argue for Rix’s life. She knew instinctively that logic was the only persuasion her brother would understand.
Cold intelligence gleamed in Tiras’s eyes. “I promised to leave you with him—to disappear and never return—and he promised to keep you safe.”
She reeled with the revelation. Rix had ordered Tiras away? He’d never told her that. Not even when she’d been a young girl, terrified and unable to sleep, but still missing her brother.
Then the rest of Tiras’s words landed. “Rix did keep me safe,” she said.
“No. He sent you to Esperance.” Tiras’s expression darkened, just a little.
It was the only hint of his underlying emotion, because his words remained flat as he said, “I learned of that too late to stop it, but I know what he did. He forced you to marry a man who would kill you without hesitation if he learned of your magic. I also know you’ve nearly died as one of the Chosen.
Rix will pay for all of this with his life.
” His gaze swept over her. “Would you like me to kill Vincetti as well?”
Her stomach dropped. “No! Please don’t hurt Carver.”
The hint of a frown crossed his face. “You care for him.”
I love him. It seemed wrong to give those words to Tiras before she gave them to Carver, so instead she said, “Yes. Very much.”
“That is . . . unexpected.”
Amryn bit the inside of her cheek. She didn’t know this man in front of her. Didn’t know how he felt about her. But he was here, apparently wanting to protect her. That had to mean something. “Please don’t take Carver or Rix from me.” She paused, then added, “Don’t take me from them.”
Tiras watched her, silent and inscrutable.
She held her breath, her pulse racing, her fingers twitching.
She had no idea how she would fight back against Tiras.
Didn’t know if she could use the bloodstone somehow to shield herself if he tried to take her emotions from her again.
Because if he tried to take her—if he tried to hurt Carver or Rix—she would fight him. Even if she had no hope of winning.
“You’re happy here,” Tiras murmured. “With him. Your husband.” Again, his words emerged stilted, as if it was difficult for him to comprehend them.
“Yes,” Amryn said, barely daring to breathe.
Her brother continued to stare for a long moment before he said, “I will leave you, then. If you’re happy.”
Shock blasted through her. “You will?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.” Relieved tears blurred her vision, but she tried to hold them back.
Tiras watched her. For just a moment, she swore longing rippled inside him. Then his emotions went silent once more. He straightened. “I have things I must do.”
Amryn pursed her lips, struggling to fight the unexpected wave of emotion that hit her. He was leaving. Again. “Tiras—”
“I will return.”
She wasn’t sure how to feel about that smoothly spoken vow.
Her brother took a single step back, his eyes fixed on her. “Goodbye for now, Ryn.” And then he was gone, slipping into the crowd and disappearing from view.
As if he’d never been there at all.