Page 97 of Stormvein
Sacha’s features harden further, shadows gathering at his fingertips. “Who else is part of this?”
“No one.”
“I want the truth.” The command is quiet.
She seems to shrink further. “No one in Stonehaven. Sereven has a captain … a courier who carries messages between us.”
“And?”
She lifts her chin, some remnant of pride or defiance surfacing through her fear. “That’s it. There is no one else!”
The assertion rings through the room, desperate in its insistence. Whether it’s true or not, I can’t tell. Is she protecting others? Or is she truly the only traitor within Stonehaven’s walls?
“The same captain the scouts captured?” The words leave me before I can stop them.
“Yes.” Her reply is a whisper. “Once you left for Glassfall Gap, I released him and sent him to inform Sereven of your plan.”
Sacha doesn’t speak immediately. Instead, his gaze shifts to me. And in that moment, I can see what he’s thinking. This isn’t about personal vengeance for him. This is about the Veinwardens. About trust and betrayal.
“Find Varam. Bring him here. Say only that it’s urgent.”
My gaze moves from him to Lisandra and back again. I don’t need to voice my concern. I’m confident he can see it in my face.
Are you going to kill her the second I leave?
He gives a slight shake of his head. The gesture is subtle, but I understand the message. He won’t kill her. Not yet, anyway.
“I’ll be quick.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
SACHA
The tower falls, but the silence it taught lingers.
Reflections on Captivity — Sacha Torran’s Journals
I turn back to Lisandra.Her back is already flush against the wall, and her eyes keep darting toward the fallen sword, measuring the distance, the odds, the seconds she doesn’t have.
But it’s too late for her to do anything. As soon as the door closes on Ellie’s back, I move. My hand closes around her throat. I don’t squeeze … but I could. Shadows rise, eager for retribution. They coil around my forearm, dark tendrils pulsing with my rage.
Twenty-seven years of imprisonment.
Twenty-seven years of planning vengeance against the one who betrayed me.
Only to find that he wasn’t the only one.
Her pulse thrums against my palm, fast and frantic, like something dying. Prey caught in a predator’s jaws, knowing escape is impossible but trying anyway. The rapid flutter travels through my hand and up my arm, a reminder of how fragile life can be.
How easily it can be snuffed out.
“Twenty. Seven. Years.” I speak each word as if I’m chiseling it from stone. Each syllable is filled with the accumulated rage of darkness spent trapped for decades. “While I rotted in that tower, you led Stonehaven. You spoke with my voice. You took my place. Itrustedyou.”
Voidcraft darkens the veins in my hand until they turn black, traveling up my arms. But it doesn’t stop there. It continues over my shoulders, across my chest, and up my throat.
Dangerous. Deadly. Barely contained.
Her lips part, but I’m already pressing my thumb against her windpipe … just enough to make her fight for every breath. Just enough to remind her of what it feels like to struggle for air. To feel life balanced on the edge of a blade. To experience a fraction of what I endured because of her betrayal.
