Page 170 of House of Embers
“Breathe. He wants you to lose focus.”
Kerrigan lifted her chin and met Bastian’s gaze. He was doing to her the same that she was doing to him. She just had to outlast him. That was all.
“You came into my mountain and killed your own traitor as he double-crossed you. You say that I have blood on my hands, but we all know that your hands are dripping.”
He was right. Not about Gerrond, but she had killed. It didn’t matter for what reason. And he would win people more easily if he painted her as worse than him. He’d proven that people wanted the familiar trappings of the Society and not a revolution.
“You kidnapped one of our riders, a noble in House Bryonica.”
Kerrigan breathed out heavily. Audria. He was still going on about that falsely.
“Kidnappedis such a strong word.”
“What would you say you did to her after killing the guard, knocking out one of your own friends, and her disappearing?”
A roar sounded outside the arena, and Kerrigan smiled. “That’s probably her right now leading the eastern front.”
Bastian waved his hand away. “A pretty story. You’re a killer. You had your own friend killed to take over a petty human rebellion.”
“That one I’m confused by.”
“What was your friend’s name?” Bastian said. “The human one.”
Kerrigan tilted her head to the side. “I have a few of those. I don’t hate humans like you so you’ll have to be more specific.”
“Clover,” he said as if pulling the name out of a hat.
“Oh, right,” Kerrigan said. “Clover is fine.”
Bastian’s eyes turned to Isa. “You told me that Kerrigan had her killed.”
“You mean you sent Isa to kill her,” Kerrigan said with a smirk. “Yeah, she killed Thea instead. Guess you should have been more specific.”
Bastian hadn’t been prepared for that. His eyes were still locked on Isa, who lifted her chin defiantly. The woman who wanted to die in the mountain finally had fire back in her expression. This one defiance led to Bastian breaking character. He balled his hands into fists and looked like he was going to send one swinging into her face.
“You liar.”
“I did exactly what you commanded,” Isa said, jumping back onto the platform. “I killed the leader of the resistance. That’s all I do for you, isn’t it? Kill people.”
A titter of shock went up around the room as if they didn’t know that Isa was his assassin, as if her mere presence didn’t keep people in line.
“You knew who I meant,” Bastian said, slapping Isa across the face.
A red mark bloomed on her cheek, and for a second, Kerrigan thought that would be the breaking point for Isa. But she just said, “Then you should have been more specific.”
The end of their standoff was a cataclysmicboomthat rocked the entire arena. More screams sounded as the precarious new build rumbled and broke apart again down the center, running like a vein through the arena.
Kerrigan grinned as Bastian’s face returned to hers. “I think Clover’s fine.”
“You,” he said, pointing his finger at her.
“Me,” she said cheerfully. “And while we’ve disproven one of your lies, why don’t we start at the very beginning, hmm? I think everyone deserves the truth.”
“Your truth is irrelevant.”
“Oh yeah? The fact that Isa is your actual daughter is irrelevant?”
Bastian’s eyes widened in shock as the revelation rocked the arena.
