Chapter 59 #2
Kienna shuddered at the affectionate nickname as he coursed his way through her memories. Ruva’s words didn’t belong on his lips. She couldn’t bear the thought of how she used to look at him like a father.
But he killed her father. She couldn’t forget that.
Vaerin continued while Danek and Baila struggled behind her. She wanted to check on him, but she knew the minute she took her eyes off the king, he’d punish her for it.
“Every blow you took in the arenas. Every lash of failure you endured. I gave you the spine to stand and spit it in my face. You owe me.”
Kienna scoffed, her anger sparking into wild, unfocused steps as she sliced her knife between them.
He parried easily, shoving her back like she was a child. “And what would you have been without me?” he snarled, voice rising. “Another lost girl, rotting in the gutters of River Storm.”
Kienna stumbled, catching herself as rage and grief burned in her chest. Without her role as Starborn in River Storm, she would have been nothing.
Vaerin would have made sure of that, too, as he did with Connak.
Without him, would she have stood a fighting chance in the realm?
She’d never be sure because Vaerin stole that from her. He stole everything.
“I would never have stepped foot in River Storm without you.” She said it with certainty, gaining more assurances as she continued. “And I’d rather be forgotten than belong to you.”
Vaerin’s control slipped. His eyes flared, and the illusion of fatherly affection burned away.
His voice came in like a whisper of steel.
“You belong to me. You were made because of me. Every beat of your heart. Every flicker of your power. You think you can tear yourself away now?” He took a step closer, his voice dropping low and lethal.
“I know you better than you know yourself. I always have.”
Kienna couldn’t refute him. Vaerin lived inside his own meticulously placed bond. If it hadn’t been for the charm, he would have continued to walk each step of her path. She managed to hold her ground, even as her hands shook.
Vaerin didn’t want to help her. Kienna saw it in the constant snares of his eyes, flashing between rage and tactical grace.
He would tear the world apart to drag her back because he wanted to own her, to control the magic in her veins for the rest of her life.
That had to be the only reason he was desperate for her.
He didn’t know how to harvest that magic for himself.
“This has gone on long enough,” he scowled, grabbing hold of Kienna’s wrist again.
She glanced at his long, bony fingers. They trembled against her skin, the glimmer of magic holding him in place. Kienna smiled. “You’re still sick, aren’t you? You tethered yourself to me, and I’m keeping you alive.”
Vaerin shrugged. “Many things are keeping me alive, but I did not ask the Shades to bind us for the sake of my life. It’s only a perk.”
Baila bumped into Kienna from behind, Danek swirling her away with a gush of wind.
Baila controlled herself, and they were back at it again, as if in a sparring session in the River Storm battle room.
The breeze pushed Kienna’s hair uncontrollably over her shoulders.
She tried to keep her thoughts steady and harbor the information King Vaerin shared.
Only the ones who bond can break the bonds. Shades.
She brushed the thought away. There was more she wanted to accuse him of, but only one that mattered. “You killed my parents.”
King Vaerin rolled his eyes. “How amusing that you think that. Whatever the Elvish Queen told you is a lie.”
Splints of magic shot from the edges of the city.
The ground rumbled beneath them, Broan’s voice carrying beyond the walls.
They were getting closer, despite the Umbrin flooding the city.
Danek and Baila shot their own magic. Wind and illusions followed by the ever-flowing nature, moving and twisting.
“I saw you in a vision,” Kienna snarled.
“You saw what she wanted you to see. My sister means everything to me, and I was gracious enough to keep her with you in River Storm.”
Kienna shook her head frantically. Maren couldn’t have been Avenna.
She lived in River Storm her entire life…
hadn’t she? And then there was Jacob. It didn’t add up.
Jacob was Maren’s son as much as Kienna was Avenna’s daughter.
Avenna wouldn’t have lived with King Vaerin through his atrocities, not if he killed Galric.
All the stories she heard indicated as much. They were deeply in love.
“I don’t believe you,” Kienna yelled. “Otherwise, my father would be here!”
“Ah.” Vaerin’s lips couldn’t curve up any further. “Come, my child. I can show you the truth if you’d like.”
Vaerin waved his hand, and time stood still. A swirling light appeared behind him. Kienna’s breath caught in her throat, the stillness of those around putting mortar in her bones. The immense power the king displayed… She couldn’t tell if she feared or revered it. He could kill them all with ease.
“Kienna, no!” Connak yelled, bursting through the clearing.
He couldn’t control Connak. So, Vaerin couldn’t kill everyone, which brought her comfort.
Vaerin held his arm out to her. “The truth awaits.”
Kienna’s gut turned. She heard so many lies from both sides that she believed Queen Elira would lie to her.
The rubble around her spun as frantically as her mind, the dizziness of hearing multiple sides of half-truths and lies.
She needed Ruva. She needed Connak. She tried to pull them into her mind to help her through the spinning and grinning, but Vaerin blocked it.
Behind him, his portal flickered with an image of Maren.
Kienna’s thoughts raced. Maren had pushed her out of River Storm.
She helped Connak escape the barrier. Maren knew about the woodcarver and the letter.
Maren knew too much, and she was never punished for it.
And the smell of her home growing up—berries and pine.
A scent she could never quite place when she read Avenna’s letter.
But now that she thought back, the letter reminded her of home.
Home with Maren.
Home with Avenna.
If she was to fight this war—to stand as the Ashborn and decide who deserved her defiance—she needed to know the truth.
Not the kind handed down by queens or carved into doctrine, but the truth that had raised her, hidden in plain sight.
And if drawing Vaerin away fractured the battle he brought to M’Ran, if it eased the pressure on the others even for a moment, then perhaps this choice served more than herself.
Or perhaps it was another lie, neatly webbed and waiting.
Kienna wasn’t certain of anything. All she knew was that she couldn’t turn away without knowing. She glanced back at Connak, apology flickering in her eyes as his shoulders sank. Then she reached for the king’s hand and let him pull her through.