I turned and left, and heard not a shuffle nor a whisper in my wake.
It was the second time in less than an hour I had perpetrated a sham.
Maybe.
Because in a brief cold second, I saw every one of them hanging from a rope.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
I sat on a wooden bench near the servants’ stables, staring at a feather stirring on the ground, my feet and fingers numb, my thoughts jumping from rage to disbelief. Secrets at home, secrets in the caverns. Deceit knew no boundaries.
Secrets. That was what I saw in Argyris’s startled eyes and felt pressing on my chest when I passed through the cavern. A dangerous secret.
Movement in the distance caught my eye. He walked toward me.
The ultimate betrayer.
He stopped several feet away, noting that something was off. “Where are your escorts?”
I didn’t answer.
“I’ve looked everywhere for you,” he said. “What are you doing out here? It’s freezing.”
So it was.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
I studied Kaden, his eyes warm and searching. Kaden wanting a truce. Make everything better, like we were walking in a meadow after one of his drunken tirades. Kaden bringing me a basket of crabapple dumplings. Kaden holding me as I watched my brother die, saying how sorry he was. Kaden with his steady eyes. His deceptive calm. His devastating betrayal.
He stared at my jiggling knee.
It wasn’t I who had betrayed him.
“Lia?” he said as if testing the waters. Lia, is it safe to approach you?
“You knew,” I said. My knee bounced. My hands trembled. “All along you knew.”
He took a cautious step forward. “What are you—”
I flew at him, slapping at him, beating at him as he retreated, step after step, trying to dodge my blows. “Don’t pretend you didn’t know! All along you played games, telling me you were trying to save my life while you planned to exterminate every last person I love! Walther and Greta weren’t enough? Now it’s my other brothers? Berdi? Pauline? Gwyneth?” I stopped advancing on him and glared. “You want to kill every last person in Morrighan!”
His shoulders pulled back. “You saw the army.”
I returned his passionless stare. “I saw the army.”
He was quiet for only a moment and then he lashed out, his hand sweeping the air as if that could dismiss my accusation. “What of it? Morrighan and Dalbreck have their armies too. Ours isn’t going to kill everyone. Only those who suppress us.”
I looked at him in disbelief. Did he really believe that?
“And I’m sure that includes your father, a highborn lord. He’s probably first on your list.”
He didn’t answer, but his jaw clenched.
“So that’s what it’s been about all along. Vengeance. You’re so consumed with hatred for your father that you want to kill every last breathing person in Morrighan.”
“We’re marching on Morrighan, Lia. We’re removing those in power, and that includes my father, and yes, he may die.”
“May?”