“I’m so sorry.” Emotion thickens my voice as I continue. “I never wanted any of this to happen.”
“If you had stood with us, none of it would have happened.”
I know she’s hurting, but it doesn’t make the accusation in her words any easier to bear.
My voice wavers as I try again. “I love you, and I love our family.”
“No.” Asha rubs her clenched fist across her mouth, her knuckles white with tension. “If you truly loved us, you never would have left Bakva. You never would have left me.”
My bottom lip trembles before I catch it between my teeth.
Bitterness twists Asha’s mouth into a hard scowl. “You abandoned me for acrimson. You do not love me. You love him.”
“That’s not true,” I choke out. “I love you both.”
She turns away from me and hunches her shoulders.
I want to reach out to her, to pull her into my arms and hold her until her pain subsides, but I know she won’t let me. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Sadness strikes deep inside me as I turn away. Away from my sister. Away from the pain in her eyes. Away from all the shattered pieces of her I cannot pick up and put back together.
I hurry from the dungeon and toward the upper levels. Maybe someday, she will forgive me enough to talk to me the way she used to.
ChapterFifty-Nine
ANNORA
The rest of the day,I cannot stop thinking about Asha and the words she spoke. They follow me to the Great Hall, where I try to eat something, but I cannot force the food past my numb lips.
How can I eat and drink wine, as if my sister isn’t locked below the palace?
I cannot.
When I retire to our bedchamber, I try to muster an ounce of happiness, but it refuses to be mustered. It’s as elusive as the sun on a stormy day.
Jasce holds me as I lie in bed that night, and even though I cling to him, I cannot get the image of her battered face out of my thoughts.
Grief has made Asha this way, and I hate to see her so broken. Everything in me wants to mend things for her, but there is no fixing what she has done. At the end of the day, she attacked Sharhavva.
Jasce cannot just let Asha go. His people would never allow it.
Besides, it would be exceedingly dangerous to release her. Especially, considering how much her men adore her. They would follow her to the ends of the earth without question if she asked them to.
If Jasce let her walk free, she could easily rally support and spark an uprising. One loose flame could ignite a wildfire of rebellion.
I slide closer to Jasce and lay my head against his chest. He draws me in tight against him as I close my eyes and push aside my fears.
There will be time for worries later. For now, I just want to be a woman clinging to her husband.
ChapterSixty
ANNORA
I kickwith all my might, my arms reaching for the surface of the water, that glimmer of light that promises life. Just as my fingers brush against the rippling surface, a force slams against my head, pushing me back down into the murky depths.
Asha’s face looms above the waterline. “You’re too weak,” she hisses as her hands clamp on my skull like a vise.
I try to scream, but only bubbles escape my lips.
