Page 88 of Artemysia
I’m met with silence by the Syf guard on the other side.
“Is Riev really Syf?” Ivy asks me.
“Are they lying, so he goes without a struggle?” Throg suggests. He lowers his voice. “We all know how many Syf he’s killed.”
They could execute him for his crimes against Syf.
“How do they speak our language? I’ve only ever heard them scream or shriek.” I slap the large rock blocking our exit. “We need to pursue them. What do they want that we could use to negotiate for Riev?”
“Why didn’t Riev put up more of a fight? He listened to you,” Ivy points out.
“Very uncharacteristic of him,” Throg agrees.
Ivy avoids my gaze. “Do you think on some level hewantedto go with them?” she says, subdued. A rare glimpse of concern. Ivy doesn’t give a second thought to much, so her words send a prickle down my back.
She toes a rock, overturning it. A beetle scurries out from under it and madly dashes for a nearby shadow. Ivy moves her foot to stomp on it, but at the last second, she hesitates and changes her mind. “He always told me he wanted to escape the life he had.”
Escape the life he had?My eyes narrow in on her. “What do you mean?”
“I think…he was planning to escape to the other side of the forest and not come back. He tried with the last two guys. I knew them. They wanted to leave too.”
Bile rises in the back of my throat. “What?”
I can’t believe it.
Ivy nods. “He didn’t want to be an assassin anymore. Wished to never see King Galke again, he said.”
“No. He never told me he wanted—”
“To ditch us once we got there?” Throg asks. “Sneaky bastard. Clever, but he absolutely had secrets. I could smell it.”
My heart tumbles to my feet as I feel myself pale; I don’t even try to hide the shocked expression I know is splashed across my face.
For all the honesty Riev proclaimed to me, he concealed his greatest lie.
This mission was his cover to escape the military forever.He doesn’t let anyone into his cold, vicious heart—except to manipulate for his own gain, King Galke said. No loyalties.
Riev’s words surge in my mind, flooding me with anger, confusion. Regret.
I’m a savage beast.
Heart of a Syf.
Don’t involve yourself with someone like me.
Don’t you want out? To escape it all? I do!
It all comes crashing into me.
He didn’t lie. I was just too stupid to see the truth. Simply because I’d allowed my affections for him to blind me.
Logically, he had no choice today. We were backed into a corner. He had to leave, or we all would have died. My sensible, strategic side recognizes that.
But if King Foss hadn’t found us…
Would he have seen this mission through? Or would he have deserted us once the opportunity to go his own way presented itself?
These thoughts break my heart in two.
