Chapter 42
‘Tell me this is a dream, Thorn. Tell me this is just another fucking nightmare,’ his voice rumbles, far more menacing than the thunder growling above us.
I spin around, finding myself face to face with the man who, only hours ago, told me he loved me. Who held me in his arms and promised to protect me.
Yet now, there is nothing but hatred in his eyes as he drops everything in his hands to the floor, freeing them up to attack.
‘I d-didn’t,’ I stammer. ‘I didn’t know.’
‘You’re shaking the hand of the man who murdered Zelle,’ he growls darkly, nostrils flared. His hands open and close.
‘No … no, I promise you. I swear on Kay’s life. On—’ I manage to catch myself before my brother’s name trips off my tongue. ‘I swear. I’ve never met him before.’
He believes me, I see it in his eyes, but then they shift to my friend behind me.
‘You …’ The ice in Kyor’s gaze is all gone. Nothing but the promise of death fills his eyes as he looks at Benny.
Benny lifts his chin. ‘You’ve always known I’m no fan of your father.’
‘You’re the money,’ Kyor whispers.
I have less than a split second to act, and I use it. Before Kyor can take a breath, weeds grow out of the cracks between the flagstones, wrapping around his ankles and holding him locked in place.
I shove myself into his line of sight. ‘Look at me. Kyor, please? Just look at me,’ I beg.
Rage pulses through him. I can feel his power humming beneath mine, but to use it, he’d have to hurt me, so he hesitates.
‘Did you know?’ he asks, and his voice is terrifyingly quiet and even. ‘Did you know Benny was the one funding the rebellion?’
‘No.’ I shake my head. ‘No, not at first.’
‘Not at first!’ Another crack of thunder blasts through the air, and it’s terrifying enough for all the other patrons in the pub to suddenly remember they have an urgent appointment anywhere but here.
‘How long have you known, Rose?’ Kyor spits out once the stampede has stopped.
I lick my lips and tell him the truth. There are already too many lies between us. ‘I overheard him and Ruben talking together on the road.’
‘Ruben, too?’ There’s a flash of hurt there that I don’t miss. Despite himself, he’s grown to like Ruben.
‘No!’ I say hastily. ‘Ruben hasn’t done anything. They were just talking. That’s all it was. Kyor, please. You have to listen to me.’
‘No,’ he says darkly. ‘I don’t. I’m going to kill Benaris. He has to pay for what he has done. To the king, to Zelle, to me.’
His static burns through the vines with such force that I feel the shock resonate through my bones. I gasp and stagger, but he doesn’t reach out to steady me. He has locked Benny in place with his earth static charge, and my stomach lurches.
Above us, thunder rumbles.
Benny’s head tips up to the roof, and only then does his gaze shift from Arle to us. His skin turns ashen, but his expression is calm. Accepting.
Sorry, he mouths to me, and genuine regret shines in his eyes.
A bolt of lightning sears down through the roof of the inn, scorching the air as it cracks the very stones beside Benny’s feet.
Arle lets out a shout and scrambles backward.
His eyes dart to the door behind Kyor, as if he plans to flee, but Arle has barely taken two steps when another bolt blasts down, and this time it hits straight into the top of his skull.
A fern-like pattern spreads down his face and neck as he drops to the ground.
Dead instantly.
Fear fills me. Not for myself, but for Benny – one of the few friends I have left in this world. When I had nothing – when I was nothing – he stood by my side.
He may be accepting of his fate at Kyor’s hands.
But. I. Am. Not.
I step between Kyor and Benny, breaking their eye contact. With my arms outstretched, shielding Benny as best I can, I plead for my friend’s life.
‘Please, Kyor! Please don’t kill him. If you do this, we will never recover from it. I will never forgive you.’ My breaths come in gasps, and I realise I’m close to sobbing, but I cannot break. Not yet.
‘Forgive me?’ he snarls. ‘You kept this from me! You kept this from me, Rose!’
‘To protect him, Kyor. Please. I know you’re angry and hurt, and grieving. I know you loved Zelle, but killing Benny won’t bring him back.’
‘No, but it’ll make me feel better,’ Kyor hisses, sparks igniting between his fingers.
‘It won’t.’ A sob does escape now. ‘And Zelle was never the intended target. It was the king.’
‘You think that makes it better?’ he spits. ‘He’s my father!’
It is my turn to snarl. ‘That man is anything but! He raised you with torture and pain, and how you can still follow him is beyond me! He is vile.’
He doesn’t deny it. Instead, he says, ‘He made me stronger.’
‘Stronger?’ Anger burns through me. ‘He’s a fucking monster.
’ Tears threaten to glaze my eyes, but I blink them away.
‘You chose the crown over me, Kyor. That’s what you said.
It wasn’t about your father – it was about the kingdom.
Well, these people, the people the rebels are fighting for, are your kingdom.
They are the ones you should be fighting for. ’
‘I’m fighting in ways you cannot imagine,’ he fires back at me.
‘Really? Because right now, it looks like you’re fighting exactly the same way your father would – by killing anyone whose opinion doesn’t match his own.
’ My chest is heaving and I reach out a hand, softening my voice.
‘But you’re not your father, Kyor. You’re so much more than him.
You will be the most amazing king, and you will do what is right. You’ll stop the wars and the mining.’
Kyor’s teeth grind. ‘The wars are necessary, and the mining is essential. There is more going on than you know.’
‘Maybe,’ I snap, ‘but I know right from wrong. Killing Benny is wrong, and it won’t stop a rebellion. If anything, it will just make more people rise up. But being lenient, being compassionate … Please, Kyor, if not for your soul, then for me. Spare him for me.’
Kyor’s chest is rising and falling rapidly, his eyes fixed on mine, and I can see the battle raging within.
‘Please choose me,’ I beg him. ‘Choose me. Let him live. Please. Choose me, Kyor!’
Kyor looks at me, the moment drawing out so long that I can scarcely breathe. Finally, after what feels like a millennium, he shifts his gaze to Benny.
‘We worked together. I fucking helped to keep you in the Retterheld.’
‘I’m grateful for that,’ Benny says evenly. He takes a deep breath and squares his shoulders. ‘But I wouldn’t have needed to be in the Retterheld if it weren’t for your father. None of my people would have needed to be if it weren’t for him.’
Kyor’s brow pinches. ‘Bullshit,’ he snaps.
‘It’s not,’ Benny says, eyes unblinking.
‘Your father has killed thousands of my people. He has ripped our lands to shreds and drained them dry. Ask yourself why there are rebels at all. You don’t get rebellions when people are happy.
You don’t get protests when no one is starving.
You’re a fucking prince, Kyor. Kill me if you want to, but open your eyes and see the suffering of my people—Godsdamn it, your people. See us.’
Benny’s chest is heaving from passion, his hands opening and closing into fists, ready to die if that’s what it takes to open Kyor’s eyes.
I can hardly see Benny now for the tears, and I feel Kyor’s rage, even from here.
Four forks of lightning fly down simultaneously, yet none of them strike Benny.
‘Kyor,’ I whisper. ‘Please.’
A single tear falls down Kyor’s cheek, yet his mouth is set in a grim, determined line. ‘He needs to pay for what he did. What he cost me.’
‘We have all cost someone something, Kyor. I cost Oke’s parents.
Zara’s. You cost mine. Remember?’ I tell him desperately.
‘Benny has paid a price you can’t imagine.
He’s paid with Llinos’s life. With Jai’s and Saun’s.
With Coulter’s freedom. With Loch’s sanity.
Every Rettling who came from the Eastern Isles came for the same reason: to free the Isles from your father.
And now they’re all gone. Benny’s suffering just as much as you are, believe me.
You’re not alone in your grief. We’re all burdened with it.
But all we can try to do is the right thing. ’
For the first time, Kyor’s face flickers away from anger into something different. Not forgiveness. Not mercy. Something rawer.
‘That’s what all of you entered for?’ he asks Benny, tone tinged with disbelief. ‘All of you were going to ask for the same gift?’
Benny nods. ‘Yes,’ he says simply.
Kyor’s forehead crumples into lines as he shakes his head. ‘You risked all those lives … because of a couple of mines?’
‘A couple of mines?’ Benny lets out a disbelieving laugh. ‘Have you even seen it? Do you have any idea what your father’s done to my land?’
Kyor’s jaw clicks and a muscle twitches along the side of his neck. ‘My father may not be the greatest king, but there are pressures on a ruler. Things that even I can’t fathom.’
‘Not the greatest?’ Benny scoffs and his anger spikes.
‘He’s the worst thing to happen to Morathka since the plague, and you know it.
Grow a fucking backbone, Kyor! Do you think he has your interests at heart?
Because if he did, he’d want you to be happy.
He’d want you with Rose! Instead, you may have lost the love of your life because of his orders. ’
Kyor flinches.
‘Why do you refuse to admit what you know is true? He is a dictator who cares only for his own power. People in the Isles are done being bound by his laws, and I know we’re not alone. If we were, the rebellion wouldn’t have people coming together from all around the country.’
‘You’re lying,’ Kyor argues.
‘No, I’m not. I don’t need to. The raw, unvarnished truth stands for itself.
And deep down, you know it too.’ Benny continues, a sad smile rising on his lips, ‘When we found out you were in the Retterheld, Llin thought it might be a good thing. She thought that maybe we’d discover that you weren’t like your father.
That we’d be able to come up with some sort of arrangement.
But then you were as arrogant and abrasive as he was.
We were losing people, slipping further away from winning the gifting, so I made the call. ’
I consider the enormity of what he’s telling us. They came for the gifting, yes, but also to try to broker peace between the two future leaders. And yet Benny never said a word of that to me.
I drop to my knees in front of Kyor. On my knees, like he once said I’d never need to do. ‘Please,’ I beg. ‘Please believe him. He’s paid enough.’
‘For what it’s worth, I regret it,’ Benny adds.
‘I do. But you know what’s ridiculous about all this?
You’re angry because of Zelle’s death, but you’re also standing here defending your father.
Your father, who was only too happy to let people dance over the ground where your friend and mentor died, mere minutes after his death.
Pick a side, Kyor. And pick the fucking right one for once. ’
Kyor stares at Benny for a long moment.
Then he looks at me, kneeling on the ground as tears roll down my cheeks, and something breaks across his face. Not mercy, not forgiveness, but agony.
Sharp and unmistakable.
I know, in that instant, what it costs him not to kill Benny – and that he’s going to pay it anyway.
For me.