41. Aiden

Chapter 41

Aiden

“Fucking Four, Nikella,” I snarled, plucking the green-feathered dart from Kiera’s neck. “You could’ve killed her.”

“Don’t be a fool,” Nikella said coldly. She put the empty whistler back on its shelf. “I saw Ruru load it with a sleeping dart when Maz was telling him how to clean it earlier.” Her eyes narrowed. “You let your heart rule your head too much, Aiden.”

Words I’d heard from her throughout most of my years.

Ruru burst out of his room, holding one of the little knives Kiera had given him. When he saw her limp on the floor and the dart in my hand, his eyes widened. “What did you do?” he cried, rushing forward.

I caught him around the chest. “Easy, Ruru. You don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Do you, Aiden?” Nikella shook her head.

I stared at Kiera—was that even her name? The princesses were named Emilia and Delysia. The knife drew my eyes like a crack in a mirror.

Memories assaulted me, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to fight them off. I couldn’t succumb to them now.

You killed my mother.

Gods, it couldn’t be true. But how else would she have Brielle’s knife? When had Kiera gotten it? I’d never seen her with it before, and I would’ve noticed by now.

So many questions.

This didn’t feel real.

Nikella pulled a rope coil from the wall. “Bind her first. Then we talk.”

I almost stopped her, my first instinct to protect Kiera dying under the weight of her lies.

Why? Why did you lie to me? Why did you betray me?

The pain hit me all at once, and I shoved away from her as Nikella bound her wrists and legs.

Ruru watched with an open mouth, until he spotted the knife too and reached for it.

I kicked it away. “Don’t touch it!” I snapped.

He stared at me.

I sighed, rubbing my hands over my numb face. “Have you ever seen that knife before?”

“Only her throwing knives,” he said, nodding to where Nikella was unbuckling Kiera’s knife brace.

Nikella dragged the unconscious Kiera into her room. She came back out with the rest of Ruru’s knives and shut the door. She handed the knives to Ruru. “Keep these close.”

“Gods damn it,” I muttered. “Why did you put her to sleep, Nikella? Now I can’t ask her any of the thousand questions I have.”

Nikella sat in the chair Kiera had vacated moments ago. “I heard you two yelling from the bottom of the stairs. I heard what she said.” She leveled me with an eerily calm look. “She was going to kill you, Aiden.”

“No,” I said, righting my chair and sitting in it. Ruru retreated to a far corner of the room and sat, watching us. “She was angry and in shock. I had no idea...”

“Who she was?” Nikella bit out.

I glared at her. “I told you how we met, the story she gave me. That must’ve been a lie as well.”

“Was she sent by Renwell?”

My heart was falling, crashing, breaking all over again. This was what happened when I trusted. She’d stabbed me in the back as surely as her father had stabbed mine.

“I don’t know,” I whispered, staring at my hands. Murderous hands. “Probably. She said Renwell knew I was attacking tomorrow night. She told me not to.”

“She must’ve informed him,” Nikella said grimly. “My gods-damned brother and his manipulations.”

How had Kiera, a princess , become entangled with that monster?

You forget you’re a monster, too.

I’m not.

I’m not.

Nikella steepled her fingers and stared at me over them. “What did she know about your plan, Aiden? What could she have told him?”

It struck me then how much trust I’d given her so quickly. Telling her my secrets about Pravara and the mine. Telling her about my past. She must’ve picked up a few tricks of manipulation from her master.

“Gods,” I breathed. “She really was eavesdropping that day.”

“What day?”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. She knows my past. She knows my identity. As for the plan... she only knew her part. And yours,” I said, nodding to Ruru.

Ruru rubbed his only thumb over his knife, his face wrinkled with confusion and exhaustion. “But I haven’t run into any trouble on my routes. Everything is still set up and ready to go. Why would she train as hard as she did to protect me if she was planning to betray us? Why would she save me from the Wolves?”

“To earn our trust,” I said bitterly. “A gamble that clearly paid off.”

Ruru scrambled to his feet. “But she admitted what she’d done, didn’t she? Warned you about tomorrow? Why would she do that if she didn’t... if she didn’t care?”

My heart broke a little more at the crestfallen look on Ruru’s face. And gods, what would Maz think? I’d never wished so hard in all my life for Maz to have been right.

But he’d been wrong about Kiera.

We all had.

“That’s not what matters now,” Nikella told Ruru before she looked back at me. “Did she know about the Den? The warriors? The other bombs?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t tell her. I didn’t want her to try to come along.” Or maybe, deep down, I still hadn’t trusted her.

“But she could’ve told him about Librius and the Temple,” Nikella said. “She knows about Maz’s ship.”

“You’ve been to the Temple. Librius is safe. And she would never hurt Maz.”

“You don’t know that.”

I slammed my fists on the table, making Ruru jump. “Gods damn it, Nikella! I know I made a mistake trusting her. I know she’s the enemy, but all I care about is killing my true enemy. And I am not letting a little traitor get in my way.”

Nikella’s eyes darkened. The shadows from the lamp made her scar look deeper than ever. “You could be leading us into a trap.”

“Renwell doesn’t know everything. He can’t unless either of you, Maz, Librius, or Melaena also betrayed me.”

Ruru laid his hand on my arm, his brown eyes sincere but still fearful. “Never, Aiden. I swear on my family’s souls.”

Nikella simply stared at me. The tiniest wisp of pity flickered in her eyes. She knew how deeply this betrayal cut. She knew everything I’d been through over the years. She knew I trusted her.

But gods, I needed to unleash the agony stabbing its way through my body. It was devouring every bit of light I had left.

I shoved back in my chair and stood up. My hands shook, and I curled them into fists. “Keep her asleep. Don’t let her out.” I jabbed my finger at Ruru. “Don’t go near her. I don’t want her exploiting you.”

“Where are you going?” Nikella asked, her fingers curling around her staff.

“To see how deeply I was betrayed,” I growled. “Stay here.”

Then I fled. I ran faster than I ever had, desperate to get away from her and her lying mouth. Her beautiful, lying mouth. Gods.

Climbing to the rooftops, I pushed myself harder, not caring for the pain that blossomed every time I landed roughly.

I raced for the Temple, memories rising from their graves, unwilling to stay buried. But this time, they shimmered against newer, livelier memories. Of Kiera. Of our time on the roof.

I checked on Librius. Safe and well. I didn’t tell him why I asked.

Then I pushed on to Melaena’s, my lungs burning, excising the demons that writhed beneath my skin.

I charged into her room as I had the night I’d been searching for Kiera. The night of the heist. Gods, had she told Renwell about that too? But then why had he let us go through with it?

Too many questions. Too many knots to unravel.

Melaena shrieked when I barged into her room, and guilt pinched me when I remembered her fear over the last intrusion she experienced.

But I was nearly feverish with desperation.

I demanded to know if she’d ever told Kiera about my plan, the little Melaena knew about it. And she said no.

“What’s going on, Aiden?” she gasped, clutching her dressing robe around her. “I thought she was trying to save your life. She loves you!”

“No, she doesn’t!” I roared. I shoved my hands through my wild hair. “It was a lie. It was all a lie. She betrayed me.”

I rushed out the door with Melaena calling my name. I hurried back through the tunnel, hardly noticing the crushing fear I usually felt in dark, cramped spaces.

On a whim, I quickly inventoried all the items in the warehouse—the ones Kiera had been so interested in—but they all seemed to be there.

“What was your game, little thief?” I muttered, slamming the door and locking it behind me. “And did you win?”

I ran down the street leading to the main road, turned a corner, and barreled into two Shadow-Wolves. That thing that had been snapping and snarling in my chest, pushing against the bars of its cage since Kiera had leapt at me with her mother’s knife, suddenly broke free.

I whipped out my knives and slashed at the Wolves. They ducked and evaded, unsheathing their own knives. That damned black sunstone.

I roared again, with rage, with heartbreak, and attacked again and again. They kicked me, adding more pain on the outside to equal the inside.

I stabbed one in the chest, but the other kicked the back of my knee. I fell. But I blocked his downward strike and slammed my knife into his gut. I shoved his body off my blade. I didn’t even stop to see if they lived or died. I simply moved on, covered in blood and bruises.

Limping my way down the cliff road, I spied Mynastra’s Wings still in the harbor. That was a good sign. I got close enough to the ship to ensure all was well before turning around. I couldn’t face Maz. Not like this. Not with Kiera’s betrayal. It would cut deeper than Korvin’s knife had.

I froze, placing a bloody hand on a wall to steady myself. Gods, had she known about that too? Was that her fault?

No, she’d been devastated by what happened. Or was it guilt?

Fucking Four, I was going mad.

I stumbled to the Docks room I rented. The first one I’d brought her to after our escape. I collapsed into one of the hammocks, closing my eyes, reliving every moment with her. Searching for more lies. Had she felt anything for me? Or was I simply a mark?

My doubts chased me into my dreams.

When I woke, at least a few answers had revealed themselves. I rose, washed myself, and sent a note to Nikella via messenger.

It was near noon by the time she showed up. She entered the room with her staff. “Aiden.”

“Nikella.” I swallowed hard. “Did she wake?”

Nikella gave a curt nod. “I gave her food and water like you said but kept her tied up. I gave her more dreamdew before I left. I gave the whistler and the knives to Ruru and made him fetch these for you.”

She slung a pack off her back and pulled out my twin swords, the ones I usually kept in the underground training room of the Temple. She had smuggled them in a few years ago, but I never used them outside the Temple because they were too hard to hide.

But I wasn’t hiding tonight.

I rested the long, slightly curved swords in their black leather sheaths next to the crates of bombs Librius and Nikella had made.

“Are you sure about this, Aiden?”

“Yes. She didn’t know enough about my plan to destroy it. I checked everything and everyone last night. We’re secure.”

“What will you do with her?”

My jaw tightened. “I’ll go back for her when it’s over. I’ll set her loose to return to her brother when he wears the crown.”

Nikella pursed her lips. “You won’t just be killing Weylin anymore, Aiden. You’ll be killing her father. Right after she found out you killed her mother.”

My vision hollowed out to a memory—of wide, panicked blue eyes. Long, golden hair. Lips forming a desperate plea.

Please, Aiden.

I jerked my head with a growl, shaking the image away. “I don’t have a choice.”

“Strong minds know there’s always a choice.”

“Weylin needs to die for what he’s done. Even if that means she loses both her parents as I have. I will ask forgiveness for the first death. But not the second.”

Nikella studied me for a long moment in the same way she’d studied me when I fell or skinned my knee as a child. Or when I insisted on helping lead a rebellion of farmers in Pravara. Or when I finally crawled out of that gods-forsaken mine and into the light.

Or when I told her I’d killed the queen of Rellmira.

She was looking to see how deeply I was wounded. Not just on the outside, but the inside as well. She wanted to see how the pain had changed me.

When I was little, I used to think she could see my soul with one look. She always seemed able to read my mind, why not my soul too? Later, I learned it was just her way of surviving. And helping others to as well.

At last, she spoke. “So be it. Shall we load the ship?”

I nodded but hesitated while picking up a box. “Did she... say anything to you?”

“Not a word.”

I ground my teeth together. “Don’t say anything to Maz. Or anyone else on the ship. Understood?”

“Yes.”

We silently carried the crates of explosives and our hidden weapons on board Mynastra’s Wings . The docks were fairly quiet with only a few ships in the harbor. All seemed quiet and normal on deck but below?—

Belowdecks housed almost fifty Dag warriors and twenty sailors polishing weapons and armor.

Readying for battle.