Page 30 of Path of the Dark
Elias inclined his head, his gaze narrowing. However, he didn’t reply.
Drawing in a steadying breath, Ryana continued. “Ikilled him.”
Elias stared back at her, his body going still. “What?” There was no mistaking the edge to his voice.
Ryana swallowed. “He was about to murder a friend of mine … I had no choice.”
Silence stretched between them. Elias’s face was impossible to read. However, those dark eyes glinted. When he took a slow step toward her, Ryana’s heart started to pound. Instinctively, she backed up, beckoning the shadows that lay sleeping nearby. She would likely need their help in a few moments.
Ryana’s back hit the wall. She’d backed up farther than she’d realized. There was nowhere else to go. Elias was looming over her—so close she could feel the heat of his body enveloping her.
“How did you kill him?” he asked softly, his voice steel cloaked in mink.
“I gathered the Dark,” Ryana whispered back, her gaze never leaving his. “I threw a garrote and strangled him.”
Long moments passed, and all the while, Ryana’s nervousness increased. His stillness, his lack of reaction, made her instincts scream danger.
“What did you do with his body?” Elias asked finally. Once again, his voice was low, barely above a whisper.
Ryana wet her lips. She felt cornered. “I killed him in the foothills of the Shadefell Mountains,” she replied. “Once the battle was over … we retrieved his corpse and burned him on the pyres with those of The Shade Brotherhood.”
It sounded terrible—worse than in her head. Ryana wasn’t trying to enrage him, but she was well aware that she wasn’t helping her case.
And yet she wouldn’t apologize. She wasn’t sorry for killing Saul of Anthor.
“I think,” she eventually managed, her voice now husky with fear, “enough has been said … we should bid each other goodnight.” She started to edge along the wall, in an attempt to get past him.
However, she’d only traveled a few inches to the right when his hand shot out, blocking her path.
Ryana stopped abruptly, her pulse fluttering.
Stupid wench … you should have kept your mouth shut. Around her the Dark began to whisper, but Elias was standing too close for her to wield it properly.
She was trapped.
