Page 54 of While the Dark Remains
His lips thin.
“I agree with Saga,” I say. “This was never a part of our plan. If you would have told us this from the beginning—”
“Then what?” Vil snaps at me. “You wouldn’t have come along?”
Hurt burrows deep. I don’t understand what happened to the Vil who kissed me in the moonlight, who told me to trust him, who promised to keep me safe. “I would have advised you against it.”
Saga isn’t finished. “How did you find out about the weapon in the first place? What, exactly, do you think it can do?”
Vil rubs at his forehead, irritation roiling off him. “When the reports came that you were dead, I dedicated myself to destroying Daeros. I researched everything I could get my hands on: maps and generals’ reports, ancient records of the time when the Daerosians first came to our peninsula and the Iljaria fled east. In one of those records was an account of the weapon, said to be a power greater than the sun itself, bound in rock and ice, meant to be buried, forgotten.
“I thought that if it existed, if it could be found ... Skaanda would never want for anything, neverfearanything, ever again. It’s a miracle from the gods, Saga, meant to be wielded by Skaandan hands alone:the means to at long last right the wrong the Iljaria did us so long ago. A chance at true peace, true freedom. No more darkness, no more fear.”
My heart is beating too fast, too hard. I pace along one side of the room, trying to calm myself down.
Saga huffs out a breath, not mollified by her brother’s speech. “Do you think yourself agod, Vil, that you imagine banishing the dark? Will you even be content ruling only Daeros?”
He towers with sudden rage. “What thehellis that supposed to mean?”
Saga stares him down. Both of them seem to have forgotten I’m even here. “You know exactly what it means. You have envied me ever since the priestess marked me as heir, and not you. I thought—I thought we had worked past all that. I guess not.”
“Saga—”
“I have trusted you all this time, Vil,” she says quietly. “Don’t give me a reason to stop.”
I’m unwilling to remain in the middle of this festering sibling rivalry. “I’m tired,” I announce. “I’m going to bed.”
I climb up into the vent before either of them can object, although I’m not sure they even heard me.
A little while later Saga joins me in our room, where I’m already tucked into bed. She crawls in and pulls the blankets up to her shoulders. “You knew about the weapon, too,” she accuses.
“I didn’t know it was part of Vil’s plans.”
“You still should have told me.”
“I’m sorry, Saga. I should have.”
She sighs.
“Are things all right? With you and Vil?” I ask her.
“I don’t know. I can’t stop being angry at him. I don’t want to be afraid that he resents me enough to seize Skaanda for himself ... but ...”
“But you are.”
She takes a slow breath. “I am.”
“He’s ambitious,” I say. “But he loves you. He was ready to tear apart all of Daeros for you.”
She huffs out a laugh. “So he was.”
I blink up into the dark.
“In any case,” she says, “we can’t let Kallias wield that weapon. It would be better in Vil’s hands.”
“Or yours?”
She shifts on the mattress. “Is there anything else you haven’t told me, Brynja?” she asks me quietly.
