39. Eshe #3
“Don’t you fucking lie.” The veins on Ezra’s neck bulged, but I could tell he was trying to contain himself. He was angry. I could feel the heat coming off him from where I stood. Even I trembled lightly from the protectiveness he had over me.
“I—I did it for her,” Targon explained, lifting himself higher. He glanced my way, “For you, Eshe.”
I saw the truth in it, no matter how much I wanted to hate him. And I did. My stomach began to churn, and suddenly there wasn’t enough air in here to breathe.
“Kavid found out something he shouldn’t have, and the next thing I know, he was attempting to kill Eshe, my daughter.
Because he couldn’t stand knowing his own mother was unfaithful,” he explained as he took a step toward me.
Ezra sidestepped, seemingly putting himself between Targon and me.
“Kavid couldn’t stand another moment knowing the lie that was walking around the palace as the child of a great Qahl. ”
I could see so much of him in me. It made me sick. My throat threatened to choke me. It felt like a thousand sand ants crawling over my arms and neck, suffocating me.
“I killed them all,” Targon admitted quietly.
“I killed them all for you. I couldn’t have Kavid running his mouth when I was leading something so much greater than the Qahls.
When something like that could ruin the very thing I have spent years and years building.
Where I was behind the rulers, able to make the difference I’ve always wanted.
Where—when I was gone—my name would remain powerful.
No matter where I decided to go, my name would be in history, and I could not have my reputation marred.
But your brother threatened everything because of a choice I made with your mother.
I couldn’t have my position be known in the palace.
When I saw the opportunity for the world to think Zyriah’s enemy had killed them on the night of the engagement between the two families, I took it. ”
The world began to shift in place.
“You killed them for you,” I hissed, taking another step forward. My arrow pointed to the middle of his glistening forehead. “I never would have wanted my family dead, even when Kavid tried to kill me.”
“Yes, and that’s because you’re a woman. It’s in your nature to forgive and to love when wrong has been done to you. But if the truth came out that you were my daughter, they would have killed you,” his words were quiet. “I would have lost you.”
A cold chill ran down my spine, knowing that what he said was true.
“Lies,” I whispered anyway.
“It’s the truth, my child.”
“Don’t.” That word clawed at my mind. “You killed Yonam…” My voice was quiet, but it grew stronger with every word I spoke.
“He barely had time to live! You took his life away. You took his future away. He’ll never know what it’s like to hold his child in his arms, to have a family, and he’ll never know what it’s like to laugh and to smile and to love again.
You took everything from him.” I shook with burning fury.
Without another moment wasted, I released another arrow, but this one straight into his chest. He tumbled over his legs.
The loud fall caused every noise in the Atrove to fade. It was just the three of us up here.
The gurgling of his breath and blood sounded in the air.
“You don’t deserve her, and you don’t deserve the Atrove,” Ezra said as he strutted forward to Targon.
Targon held his breath where the second arrow pierced his skin. His eyes met mine, wide, shocked by what I had done. With who I had become.
I dropped the bow and grabbed a fallen knife nearby.
The column of Targon’s throat moved. “Don’t do this, Eshe. I’m your father,” he croaked. I pressed forward. “I raised you, taught you everything I knew—I believed in you—”
Ezra lunged forward, gripping Targon’s tunic in his hands. He hissed words I couldn’t hear into Targon’s ears as I approached him silently. I felt the winds settle down in my mind. They didn’t whisper anything to me now.
Nothing did.
The blood within me stilled as if it were no longer warm but winter cold instead. As if the Silver Snake had bitten me and the cold poison entered and weaved itself through my heart.
“Eshe—” Targon began, but was cut off by the pressure of the dagger Ezra pressed against his throat. Ezra now had Targon’s arms pulled behind in a tight grip.
Think of nothing.
Nothing. Emptiness.
I sucked in a breath and breathed out, the weight of the knife feeling light in my fingers.
I finally felt a sense of peace.
“I will never forget what you did for me as a teacher,” I whispered in the midst of the acrid smell in the air. “But my family deserves justice. And so do I.”
Taking another step forward, I saw Targon’s eyes filled with fear. I reached him and raised the blade under his jaw.
“I will never forgive you for this, not in this life. And not in the next.” I saw Targon’s life flash before his eyes. “And I swear to you, Salazar, Targon, Father, I’ll be searching for you in every life. You will never be able to run from me.”
The blade slit like a half-moon across his neck, and I held his eyes until there was no more life in them. Until all I saw in them was pain, and my eyes reflected that pain tenfold.