Page 151 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
All the anger and blood and anything remotely life-giving drained from Kase’s face all the way down to his toes. “Hals, if this is about the card game, I can explain…”
“So it’s all true?”
“How did you even find out?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Hallie threw the rest of the cloth strips down.
“It does.”
Hallie played with a small hole in her blouse sleeve, her arms crossed, pinning them against her body as if keeping her from lashing out at Kase. “I thought I knew you. And it seems like I was wrong.”
“I would’ve told you.”
“When?”
That gave Kase pause. His eyes darted around the small tent, trying to think of any way to explain what he was thinking and how to say it in a way that made sense and calmed her down.
Probably expecting too much.
“Well, I’m not sure, but—”
Her face twisted. Oof, wrong thing to say. Really wrong thing to say.
Her voice was tight with anger. “You’re telling me you would’ve continued dragging me along until you’d had your fun?”
“I would never do that to you.”
“Then explain Lavinia Richter.”
Kase opened his mouth and closed it again. He ran a hand through his hair. He wouldn’t have any left if things kept up at this rate.
Hallie crossed her arms again, which was rather distracting even with her throwing daggers with her eyes. He forced his gaze to meet hers. “Listen, Eravin roped me into a game of Hanged Man’s Nebula the other night, and…well, I wasn’t planning on playing, not with everything…but I couldn’t get out of it.”
Hallie stayed silent, so he continued. “And I got to drinking, trying to get Eravin to lower his guard…losers had to spill secrets, which is ridiculous, but I was stuck.” Kase fell back onto the bucket and rubbed a hand down his face. “I drank too much, and when I finally lost, Neville asked about Lavinia.”
“Neville?”
“Old friend of mine. Or at least I’d thought he was.” Kase stared at Hallie’s boots. “Obviously, I was oblivious to how he felt, because he lit into me about her.” He swallowed. “But he asked about her, and then…”
“Who is she?”
Kase looked up and instantly regretted it. He gritted his teeth. “She was Stradat Forrest Richter’s eldest daughter.”
“No.” Hallie’s voice held no trace of the tears threatening to fall. It was sharper than a knife and laced with frustration. “Who was she to you?”
Kase’s eyes glazed over. He hadn’t hit Neville hard enough, clearly. He briefly wondered if he could find him and do so. Shocks. But it wasn’t Neville’s fault. Kase was the one to blame. “We were involved a year or so back.”
“And you used her to get back at your father?”
Kase’s heart felt like someone was cutting it slowly, as if savoring the deed. “Yes.”
He couldn’t look at her. He didn’t think he could bear the hurt in her gaze. Instead, he focused on her boots. Her feet seemed to make the decision for her, and she grabbed the piles of folded and unfolded bandages and made toward the entrance. Kase caught her hand. “Look…it was mutual. She was trying to get out of an arranged marriage to some dignitary from Tev Rubika. If given the chance, I’d do things differently. I’m…not proud of it.”
“And am I just the next pretty face? The current pawn in your game?”
Kase shook his head, unable to believe that she could think that and also angry that he’d somehow allowed that line of thought to even enter her head. “How can you ask me that after everything we’ve been through?”
Hallie waited a moment, her arms full of crudely cut bandages, the tears in her eyes waiting in the wings. “And the fighting?”
