Page 169 of House of Embers
A smirk came to her face at his arrogance. Oh, how she loved it.
“Thank you so much for joining us today, Kerrigan,” Bastian said, holding his hands wide. “It’s always a good day when the prey walks into my trap.”
“I bet it is,” Kerrigan said. “You’ve been walking prey into traps for a while, huh?”
He narrowed his eyes at those words. Almost like he could hear the underpinnings of what she wasreallysaying through it all, but then his face cleared, and the facade returned.
“Yes, well, you have done a spectacular job so far with this little rebellion.”
“You really think so?” she asked. “I’ve always wanted your approval.”
Bastian cleared her throat. “As entertaining as your insubordination is, it pleases me that we can end this the way that we started it.”
“With lies?”
“Justice.”
She snorted. “Oh, that’s rich. You think that you can still hand out justice. Your hands are so red that you’ll never get the blood out from under your nails. There is no amount of justice that could be served to cleanse the world of what you’ve done.”
“You’ve said your piece,” he said dismissively. “Allow me to say mine.”
“Oh, goodie. I always love a good monologue. Please tell the assembled audience how the murderer is their champion. I’mdyingto see the spin.”
He pursed his lips at her words. “Dying is the operative word.”
“Sure is.”
“You’ve killed as well.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “And my heart will never know peace because of it. Tell me, Bastian, how do you sleep at night?”
“Like a baby.”
“Mmm,” she said as Fordham put a hand on her arm. A warning to remain steady, to not give in to his antics, to only push as far as she could handle.
Bastian didn’t want to just kill her. That had never been his aim. He wanted to make an example of her. He always had. That was why he’d raised her up at his side and tutored her as his pupil. He’d made her in his own image to be the best that she could be. And then he had countered that kindness with humiliation and suffering and blood.
He wouldn’t be happy until his own embarrassment had been rectified by her cleansing. That much she was sure of.
“I’ve been keeping tabs on you, Kerrigan Argon. The half-Fae who rose above her station, who got a place on a dragon’s back, who joined the council.”
“Partially in thanks to you.”
“Proof that half-Fae were capable of the insidious nature I had always proclaimed that they had. They want to usurp our great Society. They want us to pay for their deeds.”
“Projecting,” Kerrigan muttered.
Bastian rose to his feet, clasped his hands behind his back, and stepped away from his seat. He was in it now. The speech he’d probably practiced, hoping for her to be there to deliver it. Or maybe he was going to say it anyway even if she didn’t show. He’d want people to support his power regardless.
All the better that she was here for it to be delivered directly into her faintly pointed ears.
“You sent a Society member into our midst to spy on us. Gerrond was a good, upstanding rider who wanted the best for House Sayair. He came to me with your duplicitous actions, and you killed him for it.”
“I didn’t kill him.” Kerrigan’s brow furrowed, and Fordham’s grip tightened.
“He’s goading you.”
Kerrigan ground her teeth.“He had him killed.”
