Enjoy your journey straight to hell.
Everything sank inside of me, dry and dead. Hell. It had finally caught up with me.
We all have fantasies. Even Jase and I had them. Fantasies we fed. It will all work out.
But sometimes it didn’t.
Sometimes life and fantasies and family all went completely wrong.
Finally, I heard something.
Footsteps. Faint. Even. Steady.
Montegue was coming.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
JASE
My wife.
I had promised Kazi we would tell them together when they were all gathered round. At the dinner table, I suggested. I had imagined what it would be like. Everyone full of expectation, knowing something was brewing. The table would be full with all our favorite foods, braised rabbit with fool’s sauce, fish stew, and sage cakes, and there would be toasts. Multiple toasts circling the table twice. Hugs. Happiness. Teasing. Laughter. We would tell them together. That was how she wanted it. How I wanted it.
Instead I had screamed the announcement without her. There was no happiness in it. It was a murderous declaration. How many promises to her had I broken? It was probably a small thing to worry about now, but it burned
through me like acid. It was just one more thing that had spiraled out of control.
We headed toward the waterfall. I had been ready to jump on my horse and race down the mountain after Kazi, but Wren, Synové, and Paxton had held me back. “We need a plan. A good one to fix this botched mess,” Wren growled, glaring at Gunner. Paxton said it would be a few days at least before she was hanged—as if that was good news that would comfort me. The king would interrogate her first, and knowing Kazi, she would hold out. Only when he was sure he could get nothing useful from her would he hang her. Banques would announce it first too. He always wanted an audience, witnesses to justice, he called it. But his true purpose was a message: Defy us, and this will be your fate too.
My stomach turned inside out as I asked the question I wasn’t sure I wanted an answer to. “What will he do to her in those few days?”
“I don’t know,” he answered, but I heard the worry in his voice.
I walked briskly ahead, leading Mije beside me.
Priya caught up with me, grabbing my arm, trying to explain. Mason stood behind her. “Good people do bad things, Jase. They make mistakes.”
I wrenched free from her grasp, not slowing my pace. “Don’t defend him!”
“Jase.” She stepped in front of me to stop me. Her eyes glistened. “We helped turn her over.”
I stared at both of them, the betrayal stabbing deeper. “Then you’re both dead to me too. You let hatred rule your head.”
I stepped around her.
“What do you think you’re doing right now, Jase?” she called after me.
I kept walking.
As we approached the falls, Gunner doubled his pace to intercept me. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“The vault. We came here for help. I will get it from someone I trust.”
“They are not family,” he said, shaking his finger at Wren, Synové, and Paxton. “You cannot show them—”
“I am the Patrei, and I say they are. Step aside.” My hand went to the dagger at my side.
“Gunner,” Mason whispered, trying to get him to back down, maybe nervous about what I might do. He had good reason to be nervous.