His eyes darkened the minute he understood the hidden truth in her words.
Desi had no idea what was coming for her.
Chapter 35
To Right All Wrongs
When Desi took Ronin’s life, she believed she had lost all the goodness left in her. Now she suspected some of it remained when the image of Freyah invaded her mind more often than she would like to admit. The memory of her death was always accompanied by an overwhelming sense of sadness, but not remorse.
She had never planned for that to happen. She had truly believed the general’s words when he had promised they would be taken to trial. Desi didn’t even suspect Alissa and Freyah were from Bryniard, but now that she knew it, the way they explored this world with the eyes of a newborn made so much sense. Still, it puzzled her how they had ever inhabited a place ruled by monsters.
It was such a waste that the life of a brilliant young woman was taken so abruptly. Freyah didn’t deserve that, and Desi believed that with every fiber of her being. She liked Freyah, she just didn’t come to care about her enough to reconsider giving them up. Knowing the young woman died because of her made her start rethinking her decisions. She questioned if that was really the only choice she had, if she would have found a way out without taking people’s lives in the process.
Was she sorry enough to regret what she’d done?
Not really.
Alissa had vowed to kill Desi the day Freyah was murdered, so for the first couple of weeks, she looked over her shoulder. However, after seeing Eldric held in captivity, exposed in the city center for so many weeks, she deduced that Alissa had left. She wouldn’t have let him be tortured for so long if she were still in the capital.
Desi let her guard down.
Alissa’s whereabouts didn’t truly matter. If she lived or died, Desi couldn’t care less because she finally had everything she had fought for so long. The general had kept his word; the bounty for delivering the realm’s most dangerous fugitives had paid her debt, and leaving her post was not considered treason. The general had testified in her favor, lying that she was unwillingly taken to the capital by the criminals. Desi finally had her life back, her freedom, and the love of her family.
Would that love come with an expiration date if they ever found out the price she had to pay to be with them again?
Desi fell from her seat, terrified, when a sudden burst came from the front door. Seeing her worst nightmare standing across from her, Desi rushed to stand, cowardly running away the same way she did the night Freyah was murdered. Except this time, there was a very important factor she was not counting on. Her leg muscles stiffened like rocks, the sharp pain almost unbearable. She cried out in misery, peering at Alissa, seeing her fingers move toward her. She was a sight from hell, with brown eyes that gleamed with a piercing fire and flared nostrils that reflected her anger.
It took a moment for Desi to realize what was the cause of her insufferable pain.Magic!She had never thought she would witness the summoning of magic with her own eyes.
Flabbergasted, she whispered, “How?”
Alissa didn’t give her the privilege of finding out the answer. “Do you ever think of her?” She twisted her fingers wrathfully, and the pain increased by the second.
Desi grunted, her breath caught in her throat. “Yes.”
“Do you regret it?” She clenched her teeth. “Betraying us?”
Olga kept the same blank expression as ever, but Alissa knew the fire of rage burned with the same intensity in the woman carrying the axe.
“I did what I had to do to be with my family. You would have done the same, Alissa.”
Alissa shrugged. She couldn’t debate on that. With a snap of her fingers, Desi’s radius and femur bones snapped into two, both her arms and legs with open fractures. She screamed with agony. Alissa’s power was capable of bringing her a harrowing pain without spilling one single drop of blood.
“I should leave you like this. Broken in a way you could never be fixed. Unable to ever hug your children again or continue practicing healing.” Alissa’s tone dripped with pettiness and resentment. “You would live the rest of your life in suffering so that with every beat of your heart, you would remember Freyah and Breno and what you did to them.” Her nose wrinkled in a snarl.
A hand rested on her shoulder; she would recognize that touch anywhere: Eldric, steadying her when things were too overwhelming to bear.
“You know… Freyah wouldn’t have wanted you to kill me.” Desi’s words came out strained as she thrashed on the floor like a fish out of water.
Her body contorted to Alissa’s magic-tight grip. She bared her teeth, and drool dripped down her chin as she tried to regain control of her body and failed.
Alissa chuckled in disbelief. “Oh,I’mnot killing you.”
The healer sighed, relieved she would live another day.
Alissa stepped back, and Olga stood where she had been. Desi’s relief didn’t last a second when she recognized the violet-haired woman in Alissa’s company and the axe she carried in her hands. The gravity of her situation finally sank in.
Overcome by sheer panic, Desi pleaded, “Please,” her voice coming between sobs, “I didn’t mean to do that. Please, I will do anything!”