Page 103 of The Flame and the Forsaken

To do so would start a war. Son against father.

One that, after two months of his wife being locked away, he was ready to fight. To bleed for.

To die for.

“Did you hear me?”

“Aye,” Erran murmured. He cleared his throat and said it again louder, knowing his father loathed mumbling. “I heard you.”

“You’re nay going to ask me?”

Erran suppressed everything he should have said, for it had all already been tried and had failed. “I have no questions unless the answer involves mywifereturned to me, safe and unharmed.”

Rylahn groaned with an exasperated look at the ceiling. “Have you not learned from the Yesenia fiasco? Can you not see how a woman might use what the Guardians gave her to confuse you?”

“You look down upon me for loving someone who deceived us, and I understand why you might.” Erran released the chair and brought his aching hands to his lap. “But I have tried these weeks to tell you why, and you have refused to hear.”

“That your wife was a vigilante who married into our family to take from us? Aye, I heard you.”

“Nay,” Erran said slowly, breathing steadily out. Whatever had happened between his father and Mariel had been a turning point. The restraint Erran had been channeling all those weeks no longer served any need. Either his father released her or Erran would call upon every person Mariel had ever aided to help him do it himself. “That she was righting wrongs done upon her people. That her heart is bigger than the White Sea, and her intentions pure. Her actions should spark reflection, but instead they draw threats and retribution. You ask me if I can learn from my mistakes, but respectfully, Father, can you?”

Rylahn’s face distorted in irritation. “Is this your mother’s doing? Has she coddled you too much, made you soft?”

“Did you hear anything I said? Mariel only sought to return to her people what rightfully belonged to them! Do you ken she asked for a life as an outlaw? Always on the run? Always looking over her shoulder? Can you not see how we bear responsibility for creating her?”

“Oh, aye, and how she’s indoctrinated you!”

“Nay, Father. What she’s done is open my eyes!” Erran sprang to his feet and dropped over his father’s desk. “Withlove. You can turn your nose when I say it, but Mariel loved me, and I love her still.”

“Erran, a woman like her is incapable of love.”

“A woman like her is afraid of love, for how can she know that, too, will not be taken from her?” Erran sucked through his teeth, suppressing the fervor raging so hot within him, his face was a blazing mess. But he’d already gone too far to stop. “What would you know of love, Father?”

“Think with yourhead, son. Not the one between your legs. Sheusedyou. And because of your lack of cunning, she nearly won.”

“If you believe that...” Erran pushed angry breaths through his nose. “Why have you not killed her? Or her brother? It’s not like you to spare someone who has wronged you.”

“Do I have to make it so clear?” Rylahn thrust a hand toward the door. “Your harlot bride and her ne’er-do-well brother were the only ones who could reveal the others. Unless you already know their names?”

“Have you given heranyof my letters? Even one?”

Rylahn laughed. “You know I haven’t.”

“There,rightthere.” Erran slammed his palm onto a stack of paper. “If you didn’t believe she loved me, you wouldn’t isolate her so! You would allow her to see me. But you know she would not turn me away. Youknowshe wants me there, and this scares you! It scares you that she’s right, and that you’ve caused all the harm and suffering. I’ve never seen you so scared. Because if your own son would...”

Rylahn’s jaw clenched. “Would what, Errandil?”

“You know, Father, even Sessaly believes this has gone too far.” Erran wiped the fresh sweat from his face. “She sits outside of Mariel’s room and knits, hoping her presence might bring Marielsomecomfort. Doesn’t say a word. No one knows she’s there. Does that sound like our Ses?” Erran laughed bitterly. “Nay, I ken this is a revelation to you as well, for if you thought she was in any danger of helping Mariel, you’d have barred her from the wing just as you have me.”

Rylahn’s unsettling calm didn’t make it to his eyes, two dilated balls of rage. “You have a fortnight to make peace with her end. By then I will have what I need, and I will watch, knowing I wasmorethan fair, as she and her mates swing from the scaffold I will have built with my own hands. Now leave me!”

“If you harm her, even a hair on her beautiful head, you will never see me again,” Erran warned. The dark, boiling pressure had risen into his neck. Spots troubled his eyes. “I will raise an army?—”

Rylahn threw his head back and cackled. “And who would follow you, son? What man would go against their steward to save athief?”

“The same men who lost everything because of you,” Erran said and shoved away from the desk.

Rylahn’s pause was icy. “How long have you known?”

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