Page 70 of Vengeance Becomes Her

Samara’s father—who hadn’t bothered to introduce himself—snapped at her. “I was asking what business you had with my daughter.” He gestured for Samara to take a seat next to him while they spoke.

“My name is Rhiannon. I’m here because I fell victim to the same man as your daughter. I’m here because I want to bring Silas to justice for what he’s done to us, and otherwomen like us.”

“As you can see, my daughter is fine. We don’t need any of your…help.” He spat the last word out as if it were a rotten piece of food.

Rhiannon ignored him, directing her attention to Samara now. “I don’t want to cause you unnecessary pain, but if we could just talk about your time with Silas, it would mean a lot. Maybe you know something about where he’s gone since he left here?” Rhiannon tried to keep the eagerness out of her tone.

Samara’s father reached out and gripped her hand tightly, pressing it into the couch. What may have seemed like a comforting exchange sent off warning signals in Rhiannon’s head. The aggressiveness of his gripwas all wrong.

Samara’s throat constricted, there was hesitance before she straightened her shoulders and raised her head. She cleared her throat. “I don’t think I have anything of importance to tell you. As my father said, I’m fine.” She kept her eyes downcast and there was sweat blossoming on her furrowed brow, further setting off all of Rhiannon’s alarm bells.

Rhiannon tried another approach. “You seem healthy enough, but as you likely know, some wounds aren’t visible on the surface. You can trust me. I’m not goingto judge you.”

Her father gave her hand another squeeze. Rhiannon could hear the faint sound of her finger popping from the force of it. She was overcome with the sudden urge to grab her dagger and cut his hand at the wrist. Fortunately for him, she’d left it by the front door as requested.

“I think you should go.” Shedidn’t look up.

Rhiannon knew she would never get another chance to come back into this house, so she did the only thing she could think of, even if it wasn’t quite proprietary. She stood up, offering her hand to Samara’s father. He had the decency to shake, if only for his own pride and preservation of manners. Then when Samara rose, she wrapped her in a hug. It was the only thing she could think that would give her a chance to try to get through to her. She took the opportunity to whisper, “If you do want to talk, and I really hope you do, meet me at the Brookside Inn tomorrow afternoon. You’ll be able to find us in the dining hall.” Rhiannon had to speak so quickly she wasn’t entirely sure she heard her clearly, but it was all she could think of. When she released her from her embrace, Samara didn’t so much as a nod. Either she was very good at not drawing attention, or she hadn’t heard her message. Either way, it was out of Rhiannon’s hands for now.

“Thank you for stopping by, but as you can see, we’re fine here,” Samara’s father said as he guided Rhiannon toward the door.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” It was all she could manage because her annoyance with the man had reached its limits. He was clearly trying to keep his daughter quiet, which seemed ridiculous since she was a grown woman. But she did still live under his roof, so apparently, that gave him full control over her actions, or lack thereof. All they could do now is hope she wanted help and took the risk to show up tomorrow.

She walked away from the home in silence, back down the path she came. Rhiannon was still in shock by the time she reached where Tristainwaited for her.

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“They wouldn’t listen to me. But Tristain, it was the oddest thing. She looks almost normal. Like nothing ever happened. How can that be?”

Tristain stepped closer, using his finger to tilt her chin. “I don’t know. His magic must affect everyone differently. But you know this doesn’t mean you’reweaker, right?”

Rhiannon flicked her gaze anywhere but Tristain’s, quelling the confusing emotions that were rising within her. Of course, she was relieved that Samara hadn’t suffered the same fate as she had, but she couldn’t help but feel inferior. Like she’d been an easy target for Silas. It made her feel bitter that she’d let him take somuch from her.

“Stay with me. We don’t know why Silas left her better off, but that says something about him, something about her maybe, but nothing about you.” He hooked a large hand around the back of her neck, pulling her into his chest.

At first, she was stiff, but then she let herself relax into him. Taking what he was trying to give, comfort she desperately neededin the moment.

“You know Rhi, you don’t always need to be strong with me. I know who you are. I know that you’ve come so far from where you were when we met. You don’t need to prove that to me, you can let your guard down.” His hand smoothed up and down her back as they stood there in the silence at the deserted edge of town.

Rhiannon leaned back looking up into those sincere eyes that seemed to look past her exterior directly into her deepest desires and darkest thoughts yet held nothing but empathy. She reached up, stroking his cheek, the gritty texture of his stubble somehow grounding.

The words pressed against her closed lips, beating against the column of her throat.I love you.

Those three words sat heavily in the forefront of her mind, coated her tongue in their sweetness, made her heart flutter back to life—but like everything else, she would stomp them down and smother the life out of them. She had no right to say them to him, no matter howtrue they were.

She swallowed thickly, stepping back out of his grasp. Confusion and hurt dragged down his features and, like the selfish coward she was, she turned around and started walking back toward town.

She took in a deep, stinging breath, allowing the cold to coat her lungs and shock her out of her moment of sinking self-pity.

The only sound was their boots scraping against the gravelly trail as they walked without saying a word, both reeling from the emotional whiplash. But in Rhiannon’s head, her guilt was far too loud.

“We should wait a few days to see if she comes around. She might surprise us tomorrow. If she does, I think we should train together with Samara for a bit. See what she’s really made of.”

She could feel the weight of Tristain’s inner battle behind her. Did he maintain his silence, letting his frustration rule him, or did he do the mature thing and answer her?

He only held out for a few more steps. “I think that’s a good idea, but we don’t have much time to spare. A week or two at most, we need to keep moving.”

“We can always keep training as we make our way north. It’s not like Silas is going to be easy to find.”

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