Page 100 of The Flame and the Forsaken

She ignored the guards who tried to stop her outside of Rylahn’s office and stormed in, flinging the doors wide. An irritated frown was etched his face, deepening into worry as he took in the state of his daughter-in-law.

“Mariel. I know you’re?—”

She stormed in, Erran hot on her heels, and slammed her hands onto his father’s desk. “You cannot hold him. You cannot, because it’smeyou really want, Rylahn. Me.Iam the Flame, and I can prove it.”

“What’s this about?” Rylahn demanded.

“She’s mad with grief, Father. Let me take her to our apartments,” Erran exclaimed. “Mariel, come on. Please, we can talk about this somewhere quiet.”

“Nay, we’ll talk about this here.” She pulled herself erect and met her father-in-law’s disordered gaze. “What my brother knows, he learned from me. He learned it all from me, but he has nothing to do with it. I kept him safe because he wasn’t built for a life like mine, and I’ll tell you...” Pausing to catch her breath, she glimpsed the horror in Erran’s expression, and she nearly regretted what she was about to say. “I’ll tell you something I did not even tell him. About Banner. So you know I’m not just trying to save him.”

Rylahn blinked at her. He turned his attention on Erran. “What’s this? Huh? What is this, Erran, a jest? This isn’t the time.”

“Your son has nothing to do with this!” Mariel boomed.

Rylahn recoiled in his seat.

“I married him to get close toyouso I could take back every last feckin’ thing you’ve stolen from me and mine and every other last feckin’ person in your fiefdom! I lied and pretended and schemed and all the while loathed every last one of you. Every...” Her restless gaze landed on a horrified, pale Erran, and for a moment, everything around her slowed to a crawl. Her heart caved deeper into her chest, knowing she’d already said so much—and would say more.I’m sorry.

“Mariel, I’m trying to be reasonable here, but what you’re saying is uttermadness.” Rylahn stood. “Erran is right. You’re upset. You’ve had a great shock, and?—”

“Destin didn’t know about Banner because he was in jail. He knows only what I told him. Ask him what Banner’s wife looks like. Portly, with a hairy mole just at the corner of her chin. What she was wearing. A violet gown laced with yellow daisies. Ask him! See if his answers match!”

With each word, bits of her happiness flaked away. The contentment of Erran’s scent after he’d exerted himself to provide for them. The pride in his eyes as she became adept with his makeshift spears. The way he grinned every time she’d said something they both knew was ridiculous. How beautiful he’d made her feel, when she hadn’t known how wonderful it could be.

“Mariel.” Erran sank onto a chair and buried his face in his hands.

But Rylahn just stood there. Staring. Calculating. “Is there anything you wish to recant?”

Mariel pinched her shoulders back and shook her head. “Not a word.”

Rylahn flashed an inscrutable look at his son and marched around the desk, passing them both. He muttered something to his guards.

“Why?” Erran looked as lost as she felt. His elbows were on his knees, his hands open in surrender. “Mariel, I asked you to trust me.”

“I do trust you, Erran,” she said, but her eyes were focused on the door, on whatever future awaited her now that she’d outed herself to save Destin. “But my brother will never hang for my crimes.”

“You’ll both hang,” Rylahn said. Boots thundered in the halls. “Consider it a kindness, for it’s far more merciful than either of you deserve.”

“Rylahn, he has nothing to do with this!”

“Guards,” he said, so calmly she half expected attendants to appear through the door and not the twelve burly men who did.

“Father, you donothave to do this. Let me talk to her. We’ll explain?—”

“Erran, if you knew about this, I will never look at you the same.”

“Justwait! You cannot take her away!”

“I can,” Rylahn said calmly. “And I will.”

“She’s mywife!”

“Would she say the same? Did you hear a word she said, or were you listening with your cock once again?” Rylahn snapped once, and the guards swarmed around her in a storm of thunder, blocking her from Erran.

Mariel stepped forward and held out her hands to be tied. Instead, she was thrust forward into motion, dragged on both sides so her feet lifted off the stones. She’d been preparing for the moment for most of her life. Had imagined it, including how she’d comport herself. The words she might say.

How bold she’d been in her fantasies.

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