Page 177 of Grave Situation

“For Tia,” he says, then turns to meet my shocked gaze. “What?Ididn’t say I wouldn’t kill him.”

The priestess screams, slides off her horse, and runs. Peiris shakes their head. “How far does she think she can get on foot?”

“It doesn’t matter. Her life is in pieces now, anyway. Let her go.” I watch her run away, knowing she doesn’t yet realize that there’s nowhere for her to go anymore.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

“What does that mean?”Arimen asks. “That her life is in pieces?”

I turn to face him and the others. His face is still paler than usual, and there’s a very slight tremor to his lower lip. He looks exactly as young as he is, and not for the first time I regret that he’s been dragged into this. “You did an amazing job,” I tell him. “That was really quick thinking, and you might just have saved the day.” He definitely made it a lot safer for us.

He flushes, a pleased expression chasing away the rest. “I’ve been watching Coryn and Peiris spar, and they always go somewhere that has plenty of space. There wasn’t enough space in those trees for them to do their best work,” he explains earnestly. “I thought it would be better if we went somewhere else.”

“You thought exactly right,” Peiris agrees. Coryn finishes wiping off his sword, sheathes it, and then walks over to give Arimen a hug.

“You kept your head and did the smart thing. I’d have you at my back any day.”

Stars dance in our young friend’s eyes. “I just tried to do what you all would do,” he mumbles, but it’s impossible for him tohide how happy the praise has made him. Then he stubbornly repeats his question. “Why is her life in pieces?”

He’ll soon find out anyway, so I go with blunt honesty. “Did you hear what I said to them?”

He nods. “That was Wasianth, right?”

“Yes.” Technically, we’re the same person, but I was using god power, so yes. “Everybody she meets will immediately know she’s not a priestess any longer. They won’t know how they know or why, but they’ll know deep inside. They’ll know she’s been outcast by the gods. That applies to any priest who knew about this and was willingly involved.”

Coryn’s eyes widen, but Arimen seems to be mulling it over. “That’s a good punishment,” he says finally. “They betrayed the oaths they took and led people astray in the names of the gods. People should know that the gods no longer recognize them.”

“Do you actually have the authority to speak on behalf of all the gods?” Jaimin asks curiously, and I flash him a smile.

“In this case, yes. I can’t exactly talk to them while I’m human, but the part of me that’s Wasianth still has a channel of communication open with them. If they’d disapproved, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. Not to Malna’s priestess, anyway.”

Before anyone can say anything else, a shadow falls over us, and we look up to see two dragons sweeping in, one of them Leicht. They land between us and the house, and even though the front lawns are expansive, it suddenly feels a lot more crowded here.

“Problem?”I ask Leicht, and he snorts and shakes his head.

“No. But I assumed you’d want to leave soon, so I brought one of the riders to help the others take control of the estate back.”

I never thought I’d love this dragon, but he’s my brother now.

“Thank you.”I turn to Jaimin as the rider slides off the back of the other dragon. “I’m going to find someone in the house who knows me and tell them you speak on my behalf. Make sure they’re all healthy and help them start getting things back in order, would you?”

“Where will you be?” Coryn asks, but I can see from Jaimin’s face that he doesn’t need the answer.

“You know who?” he asks, and I nod. It’s so simple, I’m kicking myself for not having guessed before. “Be careful.”

“I’ll be back in two days,” I promise. There’s a lot of work to be done here, including finding a steward for the estate, because I don’t want to run it. And I should probably be present for Father’s execution.

The blond woman in green leathers who approaches is familiar to me, and I smile at her. “Hello, Sarsheena.”

“Talon. I’m so sorry about Tia. We all miss her.”

“Me, too. It’s been hard without her.”

Sarsheena looks around at the zombie corpses. “She’d be proud of the work you’ve done here today. I hear you need some help with cleanup?”

“If you don’t mind. Have the other zombies moved?”

She shakes her head. “Zolan is still watching them, but they didn’t react at all when the others died. There are bodies strewn all over the estate, though.”

---