Page 26 of The Endless War

“And then she sailed her fleet into a typhoon to try to come to your aid.” His voice cracked. “Would have fought for you to the bitter end, if she’d been given the chance.”

“But you took that chance from her, despite knowing it was what she wanted.”

Keris’s mouth was dry as sand, his chest hollow, because he didn’t want to answer. Didn’t want Lara to know the truth, for it would only make her think worse of him, which wouldn’t help Zarrah’s cause. Yet confession rose to his lips. “Every person I’ve ever cared about has died a brutal death. A violent death.”

His mother. Raina. Coralyn. Otis.

His father.

“I …” The truth strangled him, but he forced the words out. “I couldn’t let it happen. Not to her.”

The wind had risen, and it drove droplets of rain against his face. Just as well, for it hid the tears burning in his eyes.

“Yet you could let it happen tome,” his sister whispered, the wind stealing the words the moment they were spoken.

But not before he heard. The accusation ripped the veil from his eyes, forcing him toseepast the warrior to the woman beneath.

Grief. Exhaustion. Hurt. Though it hadn’t been so very long since he’d seen her on the beach outside Nerastis, Lara was painfully gaunt, her bare arms stick thin and her face hollow.

Don’t look,some awful part of him shrieked.She’s a liar and a traitor. A murderer who deserves no one’s pity!

She was his sister.

You don’t know her! She’s a stranger! She’s nothing to you!

Except every time he blinked, he saw her as a child running through the harem gardens. Chasing butterflies and picking flowers when she thought their mother wasn’t looking. A tiny blond girl who sat at his elbow while he read and who’d sneaked into his room at night when she’d been scared by shadows. His sister, who’d screamed for their mother when the soldiers had taken her away.

Who’d screamed for him.

“I—” He bit down on his tongue, silencing explanations. Justifications. “I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t enough, not after what he’d done, so he added, “You deserved better from me.”

No one spoke, the only sound the wind and the rain and the roar of his own pulse.

Her eyes searched his, then, slowly, Lara lowered her knife. “I already caused one war,” she said. “I’ll not start another.”

Without another word, she turned and walked away, her stride marked with a limp that hadn’t been there before. Ahnna glanced at her brother, then followed Lara into the city.

Aren stood unmoving, arms crossed and expression unreadable. Close enough to have heard the entire exchange. To have intervened. Yet he’d kept silent throughout. Keris met his stare, uncertain what to expect.

The King of Ithicana said nothing.

The rain intensified, falling in great sheets, and Keris expected his ship would soon have to retreat to calmer waters, if it hadn’t already. Not that it mattered. He wasn’t returning to Vencia.

Finally, Aren cleared his throat. “You look like you need a drink.”

He needed a whole goddamned bottle. “I need an answer, Aren. Because if it’s a no—”

“If it’s a no, you’re fucked,” Aren interrupted. “Valcotta executes traitors, but instead of taking off Zarrah’s head, Petra put her on an island as bait for a trap. She wants war with Maridrina. Wants to defeat you. With most of your fleet in ruins on the bottom of the Tempest Seas and a third of your army in the bellies of Ithicana’s sharks, if you go head-to-head with her, Maridrinawilllose. I know you know this. But I also know you’ll do it anyway.” Aren gave an exasperated shake of his head. “Defeating Maridrina won’t be the end of Petra’s ambition, so it won’t be long until she shows up at Southwatch with all the information I provided Zarrah’s sailors about how to get in.”

Keris’s hands balled into fists, his pulse thrumming with anticipation.Yes or no,he wanted to scream.Give me an answer.

“There are reasons for and against helping you. Reasons that a good king would think long and hard about.” Aren exhaled a longbreath. “But what it comes down to is that Petra Anaphora once tried to blackmail me into killing my wife, and I think it’s long past time she paid for the offense.”

Relief flooded Keris’s veins, nearly driving him to his knees. “What makes you a shitty king also makes you a good man.”

The King of Ithicana lifted one shoulder in a shrug, gesturing for Keris to follow him up the path. “I’m not a good man, Keris. And if you insult Lara again, you’ll find out just how bad I can be.”

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