“Nothing is ever certain,” was the growled reply. Édouard scowled at his mate. “It could be an ambush, or it could be luck. Can we afford to ignore it?”
It was too much effort to plaster a pleasant smile on my face. So I didn’t. “But why? Don’t you—is this loop getting us anywhere? What have wegained?”
He stood, broad shoulders stiff. “Have you given up on avenging your mother so easily? Ready to consign Lord Danon to rot in his cell?”
I stilled, slamming the brakes down on my instinctive reaction to leap across the desk and throttle him. I picked up the report and began shredding it into pieces. Baba had a copy. “My mother wanted—”
“Don’t tell me what Maryonne wanted, girl. She wasmy Lord.” Édouard turned away, striding to the lone window in the office. He looked out, probably struggling to restrain his violent urges the same as I.
Tereille watched him, resignation and patience in his half smile. Then he glanced at me and shrugged, leaving the desk to approach Édouard and slide an arm around his shoulders.
“We don’t stop, we don’t question. Not until her death means something,” the commander said finally, not relaxing in his mate’s embrace, but not pushing him away either. “Not until they pay.”
“And if the Prince comes, what then?” I strode to the door and jerked it open, pausing to look back. “That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.”
I slammed it closed behind me, fuming.
Hypocrite. Tortured, guilt-ridden,hypocrite.
Sometimes I wondered how much of my relentless drive to punish Montague at all costs was my own, and how much was Édouard's insidious influence. He’d trained me since I was a child after all. Chances were I’d picked up on some of his crazy.
Alone in my room, I sank onto my bed. There I didn't have to maintain a pretense for my House.
Realms, I was tired. My mother's words when I was eleven rang in my ears more of late.
“Our people have forgotten we left the old realm to find peace, mon chéri,”Maman had said.“This endless conflict wastes the sacrifice we made in coming here. It shames us.”
She'd dreamed of establishing peace I'd abandoned after her murder. But today we would shed more blood, disrupt Montague brokering a potential alliance with a neutral House.
Is this what you want?Darkan asked.
I stiffened. He hadn’t spoken to me since the power concussion days ago. “No, I don’t want the feud anymore. I want to live my life. I'm tired of fighting. Maman wanted it to end. Danon's capture would have broken her.”
Thenstop. You are Lady of your House, and the true unacknowledged Regent.
I pushed off my bed and began to don my leather armor, biting back a retort. “Thank you for the advice. I'll enactthatright away, since it'ssosimple.”
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.Don't try to lie to me. What is the real reason you don't demand peace?
“Becausethatbastard has gone unpunished for killing my mother.”
I strapped on a back scabbard custom built for my torso so the hilts of my blades didn’t dig into my breasts. Another around my thigh held a second set of knives. Light, matte black to absorb light, and spelled to return to the holster.
“Until I feel Renaud's blood pumping through my fingers, there will be no peace.”
Édouard was right. We couldn’t let the death of our Lord go without blood or recompense. I just. . .gods, I was tired of this. We never seemed to gain ground.
But yet. . if given the opportunity to fulfill my mother's wish, would Ireallydishonor her by refusing it? And ending the feud wasn’t the same thing as letting the Prince live.
Accidental slaying is not the same as murder,Darkan said, exquisitely neutral. Normally he didn’t bother hiding any of his emotions from me, but when we discussed my mother’s death, or brushed against discussing Embry, it was as if a wall came down between us.Intent matters.
And yet she’s just as dead. Maman went to waken the Prince to help her end this feud but he lashed out.I wrapped my fingers around the hilt of a dagger, grounding myself by the faint burn of the iron.Intellectually, I know she understood the risk. We don’t disturb the Old Ones when they’re between deep sleep and awakening.
Do you understand why?
I bit back an unfriendly retort. I hated when he went professor on me.Really, Darkan?
He’d beenfununtil I turned fourteen, then it was teach, teach, teach. Everything a lesson like he was on some kind of timetable.
