“I am no one’s lord.”
“Have I not been good, Overseer Stellos?”
This brave woman was not scared of Vallan in the slightest. It was admirable to see, if not foolish.
The lumbering vampire said nothing for a long, tense moment. My heart beat heavily in my chest as my eyes swiveled between the two. If they’d been the same height, they would have been standing chest-to-chest, but Vallan was tall and Ethera was not.
“You’ve done your part,” Vallan finally said, giving what I imagined was his version of a compliment and high regard.Ethera gave a weak smile in response. The vampire continued, crossing his arms. “Her name is Zefyra. She works the Tanmount in Berrigen Square. Managed to get out from under silver two years ago.”
Ethera’s smile widened at Vallan’s recited words. They sounded like gibberish to me. To this woman, they sounded like the world. Like everything that mattered. Ethera’s eyes were noticeably brighter as she nodded profusely, tears making them dewy.
“My bond is shatterproof.” Vallan’s words hung heavy in the air. Then he did a strange thing: He put out his hand as a measure of respect.
Ethera took Vallan’s huge paw with both hands and shook his gloved knuckles. “Thank you,” she said in a soft voice.
Vallan grunted.
Ethera took a step back, closer to the wall behind her. She stood straight-backed, raising her chin in defiance.
Vallan reached behind him, confusing me as he grabbed the handle of his axe near his shoulder.
I was still confused when he yanked the massive weapon off his back and slashed it across Ethera’s throat in one blurring, precise motion.
Ethera let out a sickening gurgle as blood sprayed from her neck against the wall. She collapsed, dead, and a sharp intake of breath rushed through me as I faltered back a step in sheer shock.
Despite Vallan’s precision with his axe, the curved blade was simply too large and created a ragged wound that nearly decapitated the interfolk woman.
Without a word, Vallan turned and strode past me and Garroway.
I was left standing there, gawking at the dead body of Ethera and the blood pooling around her corpse as she lay slumped against the wall.
Fingers curled around mine at my side and I snapped out of it, blinking wildly as Garroway took my hand. “Come, little badger. It’s over.”
“W-What . . . just happened?”
Outside, Vallan was already ten paces ahead.
I ran to catch up. “What the fuck did you just do?!”
“A favor,” he answered, continuing to walk.
I shoved him in the back, hard, unable to control my anger.
He hardly moved, yet it was enough to warrant a pause in his stride. Slowly, menacingly, he turned toward me.
“You’re lucky that wasn’t my sword in your back,” I growled, baring my teeth. My knees bent, ready for a fight. I wasalwaysready for a fight.
Vallan eyed me up and down. Crossed his arms, waiting for me to make the first move. When I stayed still, waiting for the same thing, he nudged his chin over my shoulder. “That human’s sacrifice saves her family’s life. She is twice as honorable as any other human I’ve met.”
The anger ran out of me in a huff of breath. “What did she do to deserve such a brutal end?”
“We struck a deal, silverblood.” His finger pointed past me, tone rising slightly as something like anger mixed in his voice. “Her life for her lover’s. Now, Zefyra will be turned and allowed to rise above her station as a perpetual slave in Olhav. Ethera agreed to the sacrifice. Don’t forget, I lost a good worker, too.”
His words did nothing to quell my rage. I threw my arms up, yelling, “Why did she have to sacrifice herself for her partner’s future?! The mad camp you have here”—I swept my hand to the mine in the distance—“it’s entirely operated by interfolk miners! Why?”
Vallan seethed. He was showing much more emotion now than when he’d executed Ethera. “Blame your own kin for that. Nuhavian dogs call halfkeepers useless. The halfer women can’t birth, and the men can’t fight. So they give them to us, freely, and we find a use for them. They work the mineral we can’t touch.”
My brow knotted, confusion joining my hurricane of pity and rage. “Nuhav just . . . gives the people to the vampires?”
