Page 34 of Lies That Bind
No. No. No. I did not think that through. Finn seeing me use that power could ruin everything.
Without a second thought, I left the red dragon rider and ran after Kohen. The cord connecting me to the rider snapped and sucked back into me as we pounded through the woods.
“Seargent Finn! Stop! That’s an order!” I yelled, watching him fly through the trees in a blind panic. He didn’t stop, which meant he feared me and was no longer loyal. He’d tell everyone what I could do, and then I’d be?—
Kohen threw a fireball at Finn’s retreating back and it crashed into him, knocking him forward, covering him in flames.
I skidded to a stop, in shock at what Kohen had just done. Finn screamed a horrible shrill of pain as Kohen pulled his knifefrom the sheath at his side and ended Finn’s agony quickly by dragging it across his neck.
No. No. No.
Kohen had just killed one of our own in order to protect my secret. I stood there in shock as Kohen wiped the blood off his blade, sheathed it, and came to stand before me. He reached for me and I tensed, so he withdrew.
“Aisling, if you hadn’t used your power, we’d all be dead,” he said.
I knew that. But did I need to make the dragon rider jump off? Break her legs? And maybe her back.She killed Nikhil. What was I thinking? Of course, I didn’t care what happened to her. It felt like I was going insane, a war going on inside my own mind.
I looked at Finn’s smoking, lifeless body. “But he was one of us,” I croaked, feeling on the edge of losing it. Too much death, too close together, too fast. I needed to process it, and I needed more sleep.
Kohen shook his head, and this time, pulled me into his arms. I let him. He cradled my jaw and forced me to look at him.
“My love, it will always just be you and me, not us and them.”
Those words sounded romantic in a way, but I knew he didn’t mean them to be. He meant it was he and I who knew about my gift, and then everyone else. Us against the world.
“The red dragon rider knows,” I told him.
He nodded. “Let her. If she lives, she will take that information back to Prime Leader Vlek. He will fear you. It might end the war. You could force him to surrender.”
I could? Why hadn’t I thought that? Why didn’t Idothat?
“But only for a little while. We don’t know how long your powers last,” he added.
True. When I lost concentration, they broke. I couldn’t end the war forever, but I could change it drastically.
“What do we do?” I looked at Finn’s dead body, feeling a tidal wave of guilt wash over me. I was supposed to protect him, I was his empress, and I’d just led him to his death.
“We go to the meetup spot and see if Jade is there?—”
“And if she is?” I asked, unable to tear my gaze away from Finn’s dead, still-smoking body.
Kohen directed my chin so that I met his eyes again, and I finally looked away. “Aisling, he didn’t follow your command. He would have told Commander Ledger, and you’d be put to death.”
I knew that was true. Iknewthat, but… it didn’t make it any easier to take. How many people had Kohen and I secretly killed together? First, the imperial soldiers in the Wilds, then the ones who were holding Liana hostage and keeping us from bonding. Now… this. It was too much.
“If we see Jade, we tell her of the red dragon rider. Finn died a hero trying to save you,” Kohen declared.
I nodded. That was a good cover story, and his family would get extra pay for him dying in battle. “Okay…”
I needed Liana. I couldn’t process this. I needed to know more about my gift, the one her grandmother had. I didn’t want it anymore. I wanted to give it back.
“I wish I didn’t have my power,” I told Kohen.
He nodded, chewing at his lip and peering down at me anxiously.
“What? I asked.
He said nothing, but there was a look of compassion in his gaze.
