Treason: Book Two of the Grimoire Saga (a Young Adult Fantasy series) (53 page)

He sighed, and in that breath disappeared from the door and reappeared beside her. She flinched, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Kara, I’m sorry I was so arrogant as to force you to do things my way. I wish I could take back my threats. I would never have hurt Braeden. But if I’ve learned anything in all my time in this life, it’s that the past can never be undone. We must simply learn from our mistakes, however grievous, and swear to never repeat them.”

She nodded and suppressed the urge to hug him. He wrapped an arm around her, though, and pulled her closer. She rested her head on his shoulder, surprised that she didn’t fall through him. Frost spread across her skin wherever he touched her, but the hug was nevertheless comforting.

“Do you remember Aislynn’s memory?” he asked.

Kara shuddered at the images that had flashed across her mind when she’d read the queen’s most influential memory. The pain had taken Kara by the throat, making it difficult to breathe. It seemed as though days had blurred into a single, painful moment Aislynn could never let go. She was broken because of her time in Carden’s torture room, and she would never heal.

The Vagabond pulled Kara tighter. “Her memory told you that she hunted drenowith, even though she denied it when you made the accusation.”

Kara sat up straight. “But why? Was she scared about her guards knowing?”

“Do you think she lied?”

“I was in so much pain, I can’t honestly tell you.”

“I believe she spoke the truth as far as she understood it,” he said.

“That doesn’t make any sense. How can her memory tell me one thing and she honestly tell me another?”

“We often distort our memories, churning them to benefit us and vilify others. But the memories you see with your gift are always the truth. They will never lie to you.”

Kara’s shoulders drooped as yet another mystery of her life as a vagabond came to light. It was as if she would never learn close to what she needed to know to survive.

Cedric—
ugh,
Kara wished he’d let her call him that—lifted her chin with his finger. “Have faith in yourself. You are the strongest vagabond I have ever met in my life.”

She grinned and looked down at the floor. The ice on her chin disappeared, and the room warmed. She looked around, but the Vagabond had disappeared.

She laughed and stood. It was fine; he didn’t need to say goodbye when he faded out like that. He never really left.

Kara debated a nap, but she couldn’t resist the prospect of a house so large she could get lost in it. She walked to the door and opened it to the creak of squeaking hinges. Stone obviously didn’t entertain much.

Braeden charged through forest after forest on Iyra, racing for Stone’s mountain home. Stone was his last hope for finding Kara, but the pit in Braeden’s stomach brought on an unwarranted sense of dread.

Wherever Kara was and whatever had happened to her was completely Braeden’s fault.

Kara walked through a few dozen hallways, explored twenty-seven rooms, and discovered a small indoor waterfall before she began to wonder how much time had passed. It had to be at least four hours. Stone really should have returned by now.

After a half-dozen wrong turns, she managed to retrace her steps to her bedroom. She continued past it, though, and walked down a stairwell to a den. Moonlight inched through the open cave entrance visible nearby, while a small hallway in the back of the room led to the kitchen. Stools sat beneath an open counter. Even though Stone had centuries to build his home, he must not have slept during its construction. The house went on forever.

Paintings of places she’d never been and people she didn’t know lined the walls. One particular painting of a familiar blond man caught her eye, but she couldn’t place who it was. As she examined it, she heard the crunch of gravel underfoot.

Stone must be back.

“Stone!” someone shouted from just beyond the cave.

Kara paused. Maybe not.

The man yelled again. “Where is she? Stone, you backstabbing son of a—”

Braeden rounded the corner and stopped in his tracks when he looked her way. Kara held her breath as she took him in. His black hair sat at an odd angle on his head. Dark circles under his eyes meant he hadn’t slept much lately. Whatever Stone did had royally pissed him off, but Braeden’s face went blank when she caught his eye. He swallowed so hard she could hear it from across the room.

Her heart fluttered, but not out of joy. Braeden hunted isen. That’s what he did best. And Kara was now an isen.

Would Braeden kill her for that?

“Kara?”

“Hi,” she said with a weak smile. Where could she even start?

“Kara, I’m so sorry,” he said in one rushing breath. He started walking toward her, but she backed away.

She wasn’t quick enough.

“What—?” He paused, probably smelling the telltale lilac and pine scent that only mingled together in such a way for one creature: isen.

His chest froze, as if he wasn’t breathing. His eyes narrowed into a glare that made her shudder, and he reached one hand for his sword.

She took a quick breath. “Braeden, let me explain.”

“What did you do?” he asked, but it came out more like a breathy growl. His words grated against the air, loud and commanding. His form flickered, and for brief seconds of his rage, Kara could see the smoking gray giant that was his true self.

“I—”

“Answer me, isen!”

“Don’t use that tone with me!” she snapped. She didn’t want to fight him, but she would.

He drew his sword. “What did you do to her, Stone?”

Wait—Stone?

She hesitated. “What are you talking about? It’s me. I’m an isen. I was born an isen. Stone just—”

“Don’t lie to me!”

He stalked closer. Kara inched backward. Her magic pulsed at her fingertips, itching to break free, to
fight!
but she couldn’t hurt Braeden. She wouldn’t. She bumped into the couch and inched around it, slowly backing away from him at the same rate he came closer.

His glare sent a shiver down her back. She didn’t want to hurt him, but he sure looked like he wanted to hurt
her.

“Braeden, I mean it! It’s me!”

Before Kara could react, he grabbed her neck and pinned her against the wall. The grip held her in place, just loose enough for her to breathe. Inwardly, she kicked herself for not seeing that coming.

Tension pressed against the wrist guard. Anger brewed in her gut, bubbling and hissing with a foreign rage she didn’t understand. Every fiber of her being screamed for her to rip the wrist guard clean off, but she tensed her jaw instead. Stone had been pretty clear about leaving it on, and probably for good reason. She just needed to keep Braeden busy until Stone returned, which would prove Kara truly was an isen.

Braeden leaned in close. “I gave you the Grimoire to
protect,
but that wasn’t enough, huh? No, you found her. You stole her soul because that’s what you demons do. You destroy every good thing in this world. She was my one good thing, Stone!”

She tried to correct him, to point out that she certainly hadn’t gone anywhere, but Braeden set the tip of his sword on her heart.

Isen were hard to kill, but she was pretty sure getting stabbed would still hurt.

Kara jabbed a fist into his throat. He gagged, and his grip loosened. She slipped out of his hands, but his blade slid along her stomach and caught the loose fabric of her shirt, trapping her. It pulled her back with a sharp
yank
. Braeden pinned her against the wall again with his left forearm.

“Change back, Stone.”

“I’m not Stone!”

“Be a man. Change back!”

“Stop it!”

Kara kicked him in the knee with everything she had. He cursed and buckled under the blow. She didn’t feel too guilty, though, as the sound of joints popping back together already resonated from his wound as it healed itself. She darted for the stairs. When Kara glanced back over her shoulder, he still leaned against the wall as if in pain.

She wished he would calm down for a second to just listen. Maybe she could trap him somewhere, thereby leaving him no choice but to listen. Or maybe she could—

Something grabbed her feet and sent her onto the floor, kicking the wind from her.

Braeden appeared overhead when the room stopped spinning. He grabbed her shoulders, lifted her to her feet, and shoved her into a wall.

He raised the sword to her throat. “This is your final chance, Stone.”

She grimaced. “Braeden, I know this is hard to understand. I didn’t want to believe it either. But this is who I am, and you have to accept—”

“STOP!” he yelled.

Kara’s ears rang after his outburst. “Wh—”

“You aren’t Kara! I would have known if she was an isen, even an unawakened one, and she wasn’t! She was beautiful, stubborn, perfect, and the only reason I’m even fighting this useless war. And you took her from me!”

Kara’s lips parted in shock. The sword tip dug deeper into her skin, cutting her, but she barely registered the prick. A hot bead of blood fell down the arch of her neck. The low collar of her shirt absorbed it.

Braeden’s eyes shook. He glared at her, his face a mask of hatred. As much as Kara wanted to reach out and touch his cheek, she knew she couldn’t. He would probably cut her hand off.

He raised his arm higher, so that she could see the whole sword in her peripheral vision. Numbness ate into her body, freezing her in place. No amount of anger could shake the disbelief.

Even though she wouldn’t let him do it, he actually
wanted
to kill her.

The clang of metal falling to the polished stone floor pulled her from her revelation as quickly as it came. Braeden released her and sank to his knees.

He stared at the tiles. “I can’t kill you when you look like her. I could never hurt her, even if I know she’s not really there. You win, Stone. But take me, too, and at least she and I can be together in some small way.”

“Braeden—”

He glared up at her, and she forgot whatever she’d meant to say. His eyebrows twisted. His fists tightened, and his strength dissolved into grief.

“I loved her, Stone. I still do, and I always will, even if we’re nothing but souls.”

Kara’s heart fluttered and did a sickening
plop
into her stomach immediately after. He would let an isen steal his soul
because he thought she was dead. He would sacrifice his kingdom. He would give up life and the control over his own soul because he couldn’t be with her anymore.

Braeden
loved
her.

Kara dropped to her knees and lifted his face in her hands. He smiled and grimaced at the same time. There weren’t any words to fix this situation, so they sat there in silence.

Stone walked into the room. “Oh, hello, Braeden. Lucky for you, I bought whiskey while I was out, since you two are nigh inseparable.”

The old isen stopped a few yards off, a large picnic basket in one hand. A head of lettuce and the brown neck of a whiskey bottle stuck from one of the basket’s open lids.

Braeden stuttered. Kara couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She stood and tried to hide the gaping hole in her shirt from where the love of her life had tried to stab her.

“Then who—?” Braeden finally asked.

Stone headed for the kitchen. “Boy, you’re smarter than that. Who do you think that is?”

Kara looked over to Braeden just as he turned to her, and neither of them breathed. She couldn’t hold his gaze, however, and looked to the floor as she spoke.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, Braeden. I didn’t learn about any of this until Glasgow. I can tell you everything later, if you want. But if you can’t handle what I am, you can leave. I won’t bother you again if you do.”

She headed up the stairs to her room. He didn’t move. He didn’t even come for her after she closed her bedroom door.

She slid against the wood paneling until she reached the floor, head in her hands. Braeden loved her. With a small, happy pang, she admitted she loved him, too.

But after everything they had been through, he had waited until he thought she was dead to tell her how much she meant to him. Why would he have waited so long if he loved her enough to sacrifice himself to an isen? She had pushed him away, yes, but she’d had no idea how far he would go to keep her safe.