Page 36 of Magick and Lead
“No!” he said. “Not until you listen to me. I’m sorry.”
I spat in his face. He recoiled, blinking, but didn’t loosen his grip on my wrist.
“I will burn your apology along with your corpse,” I said. “You killed my mother!”
“I…?” he gaped at me, then some revelation seemed to wash over him. He shook his head emphatically. “Essa, no. I wasn’t flying the Silver Wraith the day of the attack. I was in theotherplane. The one that rammed him. I tried tostophim.”
“You lie!” I snarled.
“Essa, I swear!”
He seemed sincere. But I was by no means softened.
“And the rest?” I said. “Are you truly the Silver Wraith? Did you kill my sister?”
He blinked, hesitating. “Essa…”
I pressed on, holding back tears. “Were you feeding your intelligence agency information the whole time you were withme? Did you help me win the challenge and become Irska because you thought I was weak, and making me the leader would weaken all the Skrathan?”
“Essa…”
“Answer me!” I commanded.
The breath seemed to fall out of him. “Yes,” he said in a low voice. “All that’s true. But you have to know that?—”
“There’s nothing more to know!” I shouted.
I thrust my hips against him, feeling him still hard against me. The force made him wince.
“Do what you will with me,” I said. “But know I will fight you every second.”
He shook his head. “Essa. I would rather die than hurt you.”
“You will die,” I said. “I will not leave this place until my dagger has drunk its fill of your blood.”
He blinked at me.
Then, he laughed. Then laughed harder.
I felt blood rising to my face as my anger mounted. “Oh, you think I’m joking?”
I writhed against him, trying to break free of his grip. I even bucked upward, trying to get my teeth onto his face, but he pulled back just out of my reach, still holding me fast.
“God, Essa. Did you honestly come here to kill me?”
“Why else?” I demanded.
“Well, I thought… perhaps…”
If he thought I came because I was in love with him—I’d kill him twice.
“You thoughtwhat?” I demanded.
“I thought you were here for Kortoi.”
At this, I suddenly stopped fighting him. Those were the last words I’d expected to hear.
“Wait. Kortoi is here?”
