Page 115 of House of Embers
Kerrigan had heard this story before. Well, parts of it at least. Bastian had been burned horribly in a fire and had used that to issue reform across all of Alandria. No one had mentioned if others had been in the house when it was burned—certainly not a wife and child.
“You’re his daughter?” she whispered. “His real daughter? That’s why you’re not dead.”
“Yes. And she is the reason he does all this.”
Kerrigan’s mouth hung open as the pieces clicked together. “Bastian saved you and not his wife, and he is destroying the world because of her. One wrong does not allow for a lifetime of atrocities. It does not absolve you either.”
“I do not seek absolution.”
“Then we’re back to death,” Kerrigan said, thrusting her knife forward.
Isa sighed. “Are you going to kill me, Kerrigan Argon?”
“If I have to,” Kerrigan snapped. She could feel the thread of her shadow magic back to Fordham. If she tugged just a little, she could jump behind Isa and destroy her. It would finally be over.
Isa put her arms out to the sides. “Do it.”
Kerrigan hesitated. “What?”
“Kill me.”
Kerrigan waited for the trick. “I won’t fall for this.”
Isa tipped her head back and laughed. It was a loud, manic sound, as if she had lost herself. “Please, Kerrigan. No one else will do it. I have nothing left to live for. I am an instrument of the Father. If you do not kill me when he has not ordered me to take your life, you will never have the chance again.” She strode forward.
Kerrigan tensed, waiting for the moment when Isa would flip the script.
But she just leaned into the tip of Kerrigan’s knife. “Do. It.”
“This is a trick.”
“Does it look like it is to you?” Isa asked, sad and desperate.
Kerrigan opened and closed her mouth. This was not the Isa she had thought she would be fighting. Isa was defeated. Killing her would be a mercy, but still…could she do it when there was another option?
“I could try to remove the collar,” Kerrigan said.
And for a moment, that made Isa pause. “You cannot remove it.”
“Fordham wore one. My mother was able to get it off. I could try…”
“Try,” Isa said hollowly. “And what would I do with it gone?”
“You could run away. Get out of the mountain. Escape him and take on a new life.”
“There is no new life for an assassin,” Isa said. “There is only death.”
And the words were so final that there was no sufficient response.
Isa waited. She stood there expecting the blow from Kerrigan. She met her gaze and nodded once with finality. Still Kerrigan couldn’t do it. She should. After all Isa had done and all Bastian was doing to her, she still could not kill her—not if she was no longer an enemy.
“I would prefer death, and even you will not give it to me,” Isa said on a sigh. “Listen to me, Kerrigan Argon. Take your own advice. Flee this place. Take the greenhouse exit. It is the least guarded. I don’t know how you got in, but it is time to leave. He will find you, and then he will send me after you, and I will not stop until I have your blood on my hands.”
Kerrigan stepped back. “Until then.”
She watched until Isa disappeared down the hall. Maybe it was the wrong call. Isa was a monster. Bastian could control her. But maybe they could find a way to get the collar off. Maybe that would change everything.
She jogged back to Fordham, who had subdued Roake and found something to tie him to a chair. But he did not look okay.
