Page 46 of Riftborne
“The General,” I choked out. There was so much she didn’t know, but my mind was still racing.
“This is General Ashford’s blood?” Her hand suddenly ripped through my hair with the pick. “Sorry,” she murmured, returning to her gentle, yet shaky strokes.
“No. He came to the Apothecary as Ma and I were closing up. He said he wanted to try something new.” I gulped, taking a deepbreath. “A part of me wishes I never told him that emotions triggered my focus. I should have known he would take advantage of that. I’m an idiot.” My voice was more confident now, tinged with irritation as I recalled the memory.
“You’re scaring me, Fia. Whose blood is this?”
I could nearly feel her trembling despite her attempts to seem strong and collected. The tiny breaks in her voice were a dead giveaway.
“He brought me to the training gym, and when I opened the door… the guard from the dam was there.”
Her hand stopped, and I felt her arms drop to her side. I turned to face her. Her lashes blinked rapidly, seemingly holding back the mist in her eyes, but her mouth was calm, nearly unreadable.
“Theguard?” was all she asked.
“Theguard,” I repeated.
My hands found hers. We were both shaking. We never talked about what happened at the river. It was too painful in the aftermath of the funerals, but then too much time passed, and it became a secret we both kept locked in our minds. Whenever I tried to broach it with her, she quickly diverted the subject.
“He’s dead?” She asked, staring into my eyes with a foreign intensity.
“Yes.”
Osta took a deep breath and tucked her hair behind her ears.
“How did it happen?” She asked.
“General Ashford had a new idea, as I said before,” I began, getting comfortable on the couch. She needed to hear it all. Every single detail. We both deserved that.
I spent the next hour explaining what had transpired earlier that night. How I had discovered my focus, found its access point, unleashed it, and reeled it back without killing the guard, just for the General to plunge a sword into his chest.
Osta was speechless once I finished.
We stayed in that quiet moment for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, her shoulders slumped.
“I’m glad he’s dead.” Her voice was just above a whisper, but something in her tone surprised me more than her words.
Relief.
“How do you feel?” She asked.
“I don’t know. It’s complicated,” I murmured. I wasn’t sure yet if I wanted to tell her everything his death made me feel. I didn’t even know what any of it meant or what was even real. How to separate the shock from genuine emotions.
I wouldn’t shed a single tear over the man’s death, but a hollow emptiness gnawed at me where a sense of justice should have been. The General had slain the person who killed our friends and brought so much pain into our lives, but what would his death serve? They wouldn’t string him up above the Compound to make an example of him. No one would know the crime he committed. Or why he died. Nothing would change for the Riftborne.
I shifted, pressing further into the sinking couch, and wrapped my arms around myself. When I watched the life drain from his eyes, something terrifying sparked within me. As much as I hated to admit it, a dark part of me felt satisfaction. Maybe even revelry in his death.
Was it already happening? Was I becoming one of them? Would I soon be able to kill with cold efficiency, my actions devoid of remorse or hesitation?
“So the General killed one of his own… for you?” Osta asked quietly. She pulled her legs onto the couch, tucking her feet behind her.
“I won’t speak to his reasoning. The man is clearly mad,” I murmured, shifting on the couch.
“But Fia, do you realize how big of a deal this is?” Her eyes narrowed on me as she grabbed my hand.
“Osta, I think you’re the one reading too much into it. Ashford is unhinged. He didn’t do any of it for me. He manipulated me intogoing with him tonight so he could force my focus out, and once I decided to show that guard the mercy he never showed Riftborne, the General killed him in cold blood right in front of me. Nothing about him makes sense.”
“Maybe it doesn't make sense, but one thing is glaringly obvious. I don’t think you’re understanding the weight of the situation.” Osta swallowed hard. “A General in the Sídhe Guard used an officer in the Sídhe Guard to bait you, and then… seemingly… killed him as punishment for his actions.”
