There were other ways to make use of her Ashfire blood, after all… other ways to bind Veronyka to her mission and to bind her other, more willing allies to her purpose.
Val would have to go through with her alliance with Lord Rolan. All the way through.
Perhaps she had learned something from the last war after all.
“So, xe Nyka?” Avalkyra asked, and her voice shook ever so slightly. “What will it be?”
“It’s like you said to me in the Eyrie,” Veronyka replied, her voice steady. “I’ve chosen my side, and it’s not yours. I want to save the world, and you want to destroy it. You don’t want to stop the war—you want to win it. And I can’t let you. If you won’t bend, Avalkyra Ashfire, then neither will I.”
Right on cue, Sidra made her move. While Avalkyra and Veronyka spoke atop the cave, Sidra had lured Xephyra inside it, just as Avalkyra had commanded her to through the bind. With the flick of a lever, thick metal bars came crashing down over the entrance, trapping Xephyra inside. The noise pierced the night, sudden and close, and Veronyka’s eyes flew wide. She lunged, meaning to jump down toward Sidra, but Avalkyra grabbed her arm.
There was a moment of struggle as Avalkyra reached for the short dagger in her belt.
It was thin and sharp—and tipped in poison. A slash of skin, a sharp inhalation of breath, and then Veronyka Ashfire went limp in her arms.
What will be left for you,
my daughter, at the end of this?
- CHAPTER 41 - SEV
AS THE FIGHTING DIED around them, Sev and Kade did as Veronyka had told them and ushered the freed animages into the rocky Foothills until they met up with the rest of the fleeing prisoners.
Sev kept seeing Veronyka’s fiery descent, kept feeling the heat of the flames and that strange, numb realization that she was about to attack him. He shook his head. She’d recognized him just in time, and then, when she’d seen what he and Kade were trying to do, she’d helped.
Now she was gone—Sev tried to spot her, but there was smoke and fire everywhere, and he had to focus on the task at hand. He clutched a short sword in his sweaty grip, and Kade, along with some of the older animages, held weapons of their own, whatever they could find abandoned on the ground. Kade hadn’t been fighting because of his wound, but he held a spear and was using it more as a walking stick than a weapon.
When it was clear they weren’t being followed, they stopped their frantic pace and paused in a darkened hollow to catch their breath and distribute some of the provisions they had taken from the prisoners’ wagon.
Kade sidled up to Sev, slightly away from the others. “What about us?” he asked, handing Sev a waterskin.
Sev took a long drink, thinking. The rest would make their way to Prosperity outpost before being reunited with their friends and families, but what about him and Kade? Sev didn’t think he was cut out for the spying game, no matter what Trix had thought—or hoped—and Kade couldn’t return now that he’d abandoned his position as a bondservant. But if they didn’t continue on in the empire, what would they do? Sev thought about the phoenix egg he’d left at the Eyrie…. He could claim it and become a Rider or sell it on the black market, as he’d told Commander Cassian. With that much gold, Sev and Kade could live comfortably in hiding—so long as the impending war didn’t get in the way.
But Kade would never go for that, and it was a bit of a shock to realize that Sev couldn’t do that either. He couldn’t just run and ignore what was happening around him—not anymore. It was surprisingly good to know.
Maybe it was like Kade had said: Fate had brought them here, and the path before them offered Sev a way out of the spying game, which he desperately wanted to take. But even if he quit being a spy, he and Kade could find other ways to fight.
Still, Kade needed to recover first. It only made sense to head north to Prosperity with the others, and then go from there. See what other paths presented themselves.
Before he could tell Kade his thoughts, a distant chorus of shrieks drew Sev’s attention. Above, Veronyka soared by with the two other Phoenix Riders Sev had seen