Page 104 of A Broken Promise

I pointed Heart Piercer at his throat.

“Speak,” I commanded.

“Do we have a deal,mage?” he countered, and I could hear agony in his words.

“Tell me what you know of the Rock Quarry slaves and I shall decide then.”

“I will take you to the Rebels and tell them everything I know of the Rock Quarry slaves and what’s been happening to them. You have my word. I know where and what she is doing with them. Give me the antidote and you have my word; I shall do no harm to you.”

My heart dropped. Viyak’s face flashed as I tried to blink. Praying, hoping that he was still alive.

The Destroyer plummeted to the ground. He clenched his teeth tight until the white foam was now spilling through. Hesitation ran through me.

But it didn’t matter now.

“I have no antidote, Destroyer. Let Fate decide. Survive the poison and we have a deal. You die and I hope you burn in Hell for eternities.” I said to him bitterly. “I’ll see you on the other side,” I spat as I kicked his sword away.

“You...” He withered through clenched teeth. “I… D-D-deal,” he rumbled, closing his eyes shut and letting the white drool pool beside his mouth.

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Istood there staring at his motionless body, at the glass arrow piercing his skin. I wished for that hate to fill my blood, for that anger that I felt the day I escaped from him, but it wasn’t there. Now I just felt disgust and pity.

A well-known ruthless Destroyer General now laid dead in the middle of nowhere, taken down by not even a mage, but by a human, a runaway slave.

Fate was indeed a funny thing. I picked up his sword and dropped it immediately. It burned, yet my hand was not even red. The sword was heavy; I could feel its power from within, as if the sword itself captured all the souls it slayed, keeping them locked in.

The fog was getting thicker by the minute, and the sun was making its way towards the horizon. I glanced around again and again, realizing that I wasn’t sure which way to go. I was so preoccupied with vengeance that I refused to pay attention to anything else.

I growled in frustration, though refusing to feel regret for my decision.

I killed a Destroyer General. Surely, I could find my way to the damned forest.

I wasn’t sure how long I stared at his lifeless body until I finally tugged on the arrows from his thighs, snow turning bright red with his blood. I reached for the Basalt arrow when I saw a slight twitch of his arm.

He was alive.

Alive.

Somehow, he was still breathing. Barely. His lungs raised so very little that my eyes couldn’t catch it. I lowered my ear to his chest. A small thud thud thud ran through me. I shuddered and took a few steps back.

No, it couldn’t be.

That poison was deadly, and the arrows were covered in it.

Deadly.

Yet there was no doubt as I watched his chest rise subtly. He was indeed alive.

I pulled my dagger out. I could end it. Right now, right here. Slice his throat. End it all for good.

His words came back to me as if a parasite poisoned my mind. Rock Quarry slaves, Rebels… were they all more important than my vengeance, than vengeance for all those tortured kids?

I felt nauseous.

A defeated chuckle erupted from me.Live a better life.This was a twisted way of doing that.

I pulled a thick rope and started tying his hands together. One of his palms was covered in brutal scars, burn marks. Scars he didn’t have the last time I saw him.

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