Page 98 of This Dark Descent
A smile curled her lips at the worn rug by the fire, where they’d once sat together while her father told them about the sea serpents supposedly descended from Lyzairin, or about the great instruments off the Yaroyan coast that made music with the sea winds.
“Your father knew so much,” she said. “I remember—”
Mikira rounded on her. “Enough.” She couldn’t listen to her speak of the past. The past had teeth and claws, and it would tear her apart if she let it. “What lie did you come up with to get that warrant?”
Hurt flashed briefly across Talyana’s face, but she recovered quickly. “Not a lie, per se.” Her eyes drifted to a sketch of a pair of desert lizards, the pouches of their throats bright red with growing flame. “I suggested you might have evidence in the case I’m building against Damien Adair.”
“Which is a lie.”
Talyana looked back to her, her face half cast in shadow. “Is it?”
Mikira shook her head, unable to find words. Talyana was putting her family in danger by asking this.
“What does he have on you?” Talyana asked, and Mikira nearly laughed. All Damien had was what she’d willingly given him. The truth of thatnearly broke her. To free herself from one noble’s grip, she’d tied herself to another, and somehow during the last two months, she’d actually grown attached to the damned man. Was she that desperate for connection?
“Like you care.” Her voice was a low rasp. “You lied to me. You used me.”
“I didn’t mean to, Kira.” Talyana bit her lip. “You were a casualty I didn’t intend.”
“Is that what this is to you? A war?”
Talyana closed the space between them. “This city is a cesspool of corruption and greed. Did you know just last month, Lady Dramara evicted a family for refusing to work in her factories? And the Kelbras have begun targeting refugees with verillion? So yes, I am waging war on this city’s elite, Kira.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. She wasn’t against what Talyana was doing, but when it came to Damien, she couldn’t just divest herself of the situation. They were bound.
Mikira peered at Talyana, the glow of the moon lighting her from behind, and saw a person who had changed. All this time, Mikira had been treating her like the girl she’d grown up with, but Talyana wasn’t that person anymore, and neither was Mikira.
Talyana took her hand, her palm rough with calluses like Mikira’s own. Her heat ate away at the ice settling in Mikira’s veins, and she wanted so badly to lean into it, to let Talyana’s arms encircle her, a barrier against the breach.
“Give me the ring, Kira,” she said softly.
Mikira’s lips curled in grim satisfaction. “I don’t have it.”
Talyana’s eyes widened, and then Nelda’s frightened voice called from the doorway, “Kira? Kira they’re tearing everything apart.”
Mikira ripped her hand free. “It’s time for you to leave.”
“Kira—”
“Now!” Her fingers found one of her knives, and Talyana recoiled, but Mikira didn’t care. She’d torn a hole in Mikira’s carefully constructed armor without caring that she’d made her bleed.
Talyana retreated into the foyer. “People like the Adairs are rotting this kingdom from the inside out. You could help me stop them.” Something cold and hard settled in her gaze. “Or you can go down with him. Because I will bring him down, Mikira, and I’ll take everyone on his side down with him.”
Talyana slipped out the front door along with her constables, the rush of rain against the gravel drive swallowing up the sound of their departure.
CHAPTER 35
ARIELLE
ARI KEPT HERpromise to herself—she didn’t tell Rezek a thing.
But she did scream.
Kyvin knew the most sensitive places to cut, the pain making her so dizzy that she couldn’t tell if she was still screaming or if it was just the echoes of her shrieks inside her head. But she kept their secrets.
They’d left her alone in the dark. Kyvin had released the chains so that her toes brushed the ground. Pain radiated through her, blood sliding down her skin. Her throat felt ragged from yelling and her head pounded.
You will survive, promised the voice.You will rage.
