Page 186 of The Shattered Rite
Malric turned, slowly. The corridor was so narrow she could feel his breath now.
“Kill you.”
Her heart cracked in her chest.
“I’ve known for since the beginning,” he said, voice low. Almost tender. “Thalen told me long before the trials began. You’re part of the prophecy. The last dragonrider. The one the Flame marked.”
“You couldn't know,” she rasped.
“I know everything,” Malric said softly. “Thalen showed me. Told me what you’d become. That the sheer weight of your power would eventually break you.”
She shook her head, body trembling. “I’m not—I’m not dangerous.”
“You are,” he said simply. “Not yet. But soon.”
She tried to step back. His hand slid to her wrist. Not brutal. Just… final.
“I didn’t want this,” he whispered. “When he gave the order, I tried to resist. But then I watched you. I listened to you.”
“Malric,” she pleaded.
“And I realized: this would be a mercy.”
Tears pricked her eyes.
“I could make it gentle. Not a public execution. Not some stranger’s blade. But me. Someone who…” His voice cracked. “Someone who cared.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“I am,” he insisted, pleading now. “I didn’t fall in love with you, Eliryn. Maybe I could have. But I fell in love with the idea of sparing you.”
She froze.
“I watched you on that stage, and I knew I couldn’t let you live long enough to break.”
His hand cradled her face, thumb stroking her cheek like a lover’s caress.
“I can end it before you suffer. Before the Flame tears your mind apart. Before your power bleeds you dry.”
Her voice cracked like glass: “You’re wrong.”
“I’m merciful.”
She shook her head, but he leaned in close, forehead almost touching hers.
“You should thank me, Eliryn. No one else would’ve cared enough to do this quietly.”
Vaeronth roared in her mind:RUN
But Malric’s voice was the one she heard, steady as a dagger poised at her throat.
“I’ll make it painless.”
And his next words shattered her:
“This is the kindest thing I’ve ever done.”
Because in his mind, he wasn’t betraying her.
