Page 45 of Riftborne
The guard looked between us, confusion draining from his face. He finally turned back towards the General and reached out a hand. “Absolutely, a tragic accident.”
Watching this for another second was going to break me in half. I wrapped my arms around my middle and closed my eyes, begging the tears not to surface. It shouldn’t hurt like this. I had always known who he was. Manipulator. Predator. Liar–
A metallic clang shattered the room's stillness in an instant, the sound of a sword unsheathing. I jerked my eyes towards the two men just as the scratch of a blade hitting hard metal rang through the room. It wasn't a clean slice, but a brutal spear straight into the heart. The blade sank deep, a sickening thud echoing as it met flesh. The guard's gasp choked into a strangled gurgle.
My own breath caught in my throat before it could reach my lungs. A crimson arc erupted from the wound, through the mesh armor, splattering against my work uniform, and tinging the ends of my white curls. The guard slumped over, and his armor hit the floor in a final, horrifying thud.
Ashford wiped the blade on his black trousers and hummed something to himself.
"Apologies for the mess," he said, cracking his neck.
I opened my mouth to speak, but only stammered confusion tumbled out of my lips.
“What did you–?”
A moment of stillness slipped by before he looked up at me and cocked an eyebrow.
“Your reward,” he said, a smirk playing on his lips as his gaze lingered on me a beat too long.
I found my balance despite the trembling of my limbs, and tore myself from the ground, stumbling back a few paces. But I couldn’t look away. He stared back at me, unreadable.
The General finally sighed.
“I told you to trust me.”
CHAPTER 17
No matterhow much I scrubbed, the blood persisted, spattered atop the years-old herbal stains marking my cream blouse. I couldn’t tell where the hibiscus ended, and his blood began.
With a groan, I tossed the blouse aside and slumped against the chipped cabinets. The cold wood seeped into me. Our apartment was quiet, and I prayed Osta wouldn’t be home anytime soon.
My mind was still reeling, warring with the emotional whiplash that the General had unleashed upon me just hours ago. The memory was a fresh wound. I hated him. For his manipulation. For turning me into a pawn in his twisted games. Trust? He’d demanded it, drenched in blood. Did he think killing that guard would earn mine?
The man thought murder was areward? The absurdity churned my stomach. He was delusional, lost in his own warped world. Was this the fate of the Guard? Did they all become numb to the act of taking a life?
But it was worse than that. What the General did was a deceptive kind of slaughter, reeling the guard in and making him feelcomfortable, only to plunge a sword straight into his heart. A hint of the predator I’d always known lurking beneath the surface.
The creaking of a door cut through my thoughts, and I bolted from the floor, sidestepping to block the pink soapy bucket that filled the sink.
“Fia?” Osta said, rounding the corner. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me, eyes going wide.
“What happened to you?” She yelped, dropping her garment bags and rushing over to me. She pulled at the tangles in my hair.
Not tangles. Dried blood.
“I–I’m okay,” I said, gently pulling her hand down from my hair. “It’s not my blood.” Her eyes darted between the tips of my hair and my face before finally falling on the bucket behind me.
“Whose blood is this?” She whispered, clawing me from my blockade and peering into the sink. “Did you… Did you hurt someone, Fia?”
I opened my mouth to respond but could only muster a small shake of my head.
“No,” finally broke from my lips.
Osta tugged me over to our worn-in couch and forced me to sit. Only golden light from a flickering candle on the table lit the room.
“I’ll be right back. Stay here.” She gave me a stern look before rushing to her room.
Moments later, she was crawling back onto the couch with a cup of water and a hair pick, “I’m going to try to get this… blood out.” She swallowed hard as she spoke. “Tell me what happened.”
