Page 175 of Upon Buried Embers
“See to it she’s bleeding at least.”
Sigrid nods, then grabs Darcia by the hair and drags her over to the horse, kicking and screaming.
“You can’t do this—Rhett, Rhett help me! You know she has to go.”
Rohan freezes, then slowly, very slowly, he turns to Rhett.
“What did she mean?” Rohan asks.
“Listen, Rohan.” He holds his axe up and begins to back away. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Elf?” Rohan asks, eyes still on Rhett.
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Is he involved?”
I say nothing.
“Is one of the members ofmycouncil involved?” he growls.
“Yes.”
In the blink of an eye, Rohan has removed his axe from his back, and he’s throwing it through the air, sinking it into Rhett’s thigh.
He screams, falling to the floor.
“Don’t take it easy, Rohan,” Kaldar says, eyes hard.
“Fucking traitor!” Calian shouts.
“What a pig.” Adora glowers at him.
“I was thinking of the clan!” Rhett blubbers, trying to stop the bleeding. “I was helping!”
Rohan stands before him, body tense.
“He hurt you, Elf?”
“No, he just… watched her hurt me.”
“I see.”
I swallow, tasting his fury as if it were my own as he stares Rhett down.
“You didn’t report to me or stop the hurting of what’s mine. You betrayed me, your clan.”
“Dragonbond, I was helping. Let me explain and then you can let me go, you can let Darcia go.”
“No,” Rohan replies, tone ice cold. “Elf let her go, and I allowed it because it happened toher.It should be her decision, as much as I loathe her choice. But you, however, have been an advisor, allowed at my table and still betrayed me…. I won’t be lenient.”
“I can explain.”
“There is no explanation for what you have done.”
Rohan reaches down and grips the handle of his axe.
“I’ve been by your side for years. You would kill me?”
