Page 27 of Blood Tribute

“They allowed him to do that to you?”

“It wasn’t their fault. Sir Virtus must have persuaded them it was necessary.”

“They asked it of him!”

“They were trying to help me.”

“The night they died,” Dav said, “they didn’t come here to rescue you.”

Nora clutched her arm, Sancti dangling from her other hand. “They were coming to join him. But then Father saw that Sir Virtus had taken Arceo. He was angry about the theft of the relic.”

Her parents had cared more for this dagger than their daughter. Even as Dav’s hand tightened around Sir Virtus’s throat, he knew Nora’s first enemies were already dead. And they had left her with scars so deep, she could not even bring herself to acknowledge that what they’d done was wrong.

Dav fingered Arceo’s hilt in his free hand. All of Hespera’s sacred tenets faded from his mind under the red haze of his rage and grief. He wanted to drive the blade into Sir Virtus’s heart. Once for Rahim. Again for Nora. Over and over for all the blows he could not deal her parents.

While Dav had been writing research treatises in the placid halls of Orthros, Nora had been here. Every day of her life had brought suffering. When Dav had begged his brother not to waste his power on ungrateful mortals, Rahim had come here. He had risked everything to save this one life.

It took all of Dav’s Will not to tear Sir Virtus apart with the dagger. But the memory of his brother’s gentle aura stayed his hand.

Vengeance was not a word his brother had known, nor a word Queen Soteira had taught Dav.

Revenge was different from justice.

Dav swung the dagger with all his immortal might. He listened to Sir Virtus scream and heard the blade point crack the shield. He left the man pinned to the shrine, Arceo embedded in his shoulder, his heart still beating.

Nora stared at Dav. “Don’t you want your revenge?”

“I didn’t come here for that. I came for you. What do you want?”

She spun toward Sir Virtus, her knuckles white on Sancti’s hilt. “I want him to know how I felt.”

At last, her anger and her dagger were aimed at the same target. The whites of Sir Virtus’s eyes showed as he watched his judgment approach.

Nora plunged the Blade of Purification into Sir Virtus’s other shoulder. The magic of the two daggers collided in a glare of light. Memories flared across the surface of his thoughts, coming to Dav in glimpses. Nora’s parents, falling dead. Nora, weeping, begging him for compassion. He began to sob, muttering confessions.

Nora staggered back. “What’s happening? Sancti never did this to me.”

“It must be the combined magic of both daggers. His own transgressions are flashing before his eyes, over and over.” Dav mustered his power to shut out Sir Virtus’s thoughts.

With his senses clear, he heard the heavy footfalls in the corridors and the voices of men rising through the fortress. He slammed the door shut with his Will.

“Dav, what is it?” Nora asked.

“A large party of warriors is approaching the shrine.”

Nora swore. “The other knights have arrived.”

“What will they do with him if they find him like this?”

Nora’s lip curled. “The Grand Master will hear his confessions and strip away everything he ever worked for in the Order.”

“That sounds like justice to me.”

The voices drew nearer. Nora hesitated.

“They can’t find us here,” Dav said.

Her eyes beseeched him. “You know you must bring me back.”

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