Page 172 of House of Embers
“Can we bust out of this then?”
“Suppose so.”
Fordham took her hand in his. “I love you,” she breathed as shadows enveloped them.
There had been some debate about whether they’d be able to escape a trap like this with their shadows. Was the magic actually a shield? Because Fordham couldn’t jump through shields into another place. That was why he hadn’t been able to get into the mountain.They had thought that if he was able to get underground, he might have been able to jump them into the mountain where it wasn’t being shielded. They hadn’t had a chance to test that at the time, but it had felt worthwhile afterward.
The good thing about this particular trap was that there was no bottom. So instead of jumping forward and onto the stage, which was what Bastian would expect, Fordham jumped down.
They landed in the underground tunnel system that they had both used when Fordham had been in the dragon tournament. It was mostly storage for all the aspects of the arena but was used as staging for the contestants as well.
Fordham laughed. “Wasn’t sure that’d work.”
Thankfully, they’d had a backup option. Since Alura was on the council, she could have let them out. But it was nice to know they didn’t have to do that.
By the time Fordham made his second jump, Isa was stalking across the platform to her father. The council members were scurrying as if to escape the stage. Collectively they had just woken up to the reality that they could lose.
Fordham pulled a sword at the same time as Alura did. She might have been disabled, but the woman wasferocious. Fordham and Alura wrangled the council into the center of the stage, holding them at sword point and the promise of death.
Kerrigan stalked toward Bastian as he was speaking swiftly in low tones to his daughter. “It’s over, Bastian. It is time to surrender.”
“Never,” he snarled.
He opened his mouth to say more, but Isa was faster. A blade slid into her hand, and she drew it across his throat.
“No more lies from you,” Isa said flatly.
He shot out a garbled noise that sounded like Isa’s name, then fell backward onto the platform, blood flowing freely from his throat.
Isa stepped over him, flipping the blade in her hand as shecaught his chin and forced him to look at her. “This is for my mother, Dionnet.”
Then she stabbed him through the eyeball, embedding the blade in his brain. She released him and he fell backward, dead.
Kerrigan stood firm, refusing to feel anything about how Isa had ended it. It was her kill. Bastian had hurt her most of all. And in the end, Kerrigan was not an assassin. She would never be what Isa was.
Isa plucked the Ring of Endings off Bastian’s finger and slid it onto her own. The only treasure she would take for her victory.
The two women squared off on the platform as chaos continued to reign, the person who had hurt them most in the world dead between them.
Kerrigan held her hand out. “Thank you.”
Isa nodded once and then took her hand. “He earned that.”
“I don’t know that I could have done it.”
“You could have,” Isa said honestly. She glanced back down at him. “But I wanted it to be me.”
“What are you going to do now?”
Isa met her gaze, her hand fluttering to her neck. “Is that not up to you as the victor?”
“I believe that you have been commanded long enough in this life.” Kerrigan gestured to Bastian. “That earned your freedom.”
“They won’t like that.”
Kerrigan shrugged. “Some won’t.”
“And you? You’re okay with it?” Isa asked. “I tried to kill you multiple times.”
