Night Spinner (Night Spinner #1) - Addie Thorley Page 0,106

skies-forsaken moonstone in my flesh. But I remember. I remember everything.”

This stops her dead. Ghoa gapes at me, eyes wide as saucers and lips parted, her silence as damning as a confession.

Vindication pours through me like cool, spring rain, and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. There may be a monster lurking inside of me—there may be something slightly monstrous hidden in all of us—but I have never lost control of it. I have never been a danger to the people.

Ghoa is. My beloved sister, the woman who raised me, the person who protected me from the cruel outside world. Except that cruel world was a fabrication. Something she invented to conceal her guilt.

“How could you let me take your fall?” I scuttle back until my shoulders bump against the glass wall.

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Enebish.” Ghoa dusts off her armor and schools her features. Her smile is so unnaturally calm, it makes me want to scream. She frees her dagger from the floor, replaces it in her belt, and tightens her ponytail. The peerless leader of the Kalima once more. As if the last five minutes never happened. “The bodies and wagons were consumed by flames, and my Kalima power does not reap such destruction.”

“But your hands can! Ash covered your arms to the elbow. Your hair was singed,” I babble, clinging to the images.

Ghoa’s smile is pitying. “You were half dead. Hallucinating or dreaming. You couldn’t remember such things.”

But I do. I close my eyes and see it all again. I feel the pain of her saber plunging into my flesh and the heat of the starfire rushing away from my palms. “How could you claim to love me, then ruin my life? How could you cut me down, then pretend to be my savior? Has everything you’ve ever said to me been a lie or manipulation?”

Ghoa’s expression hardens into steel and she switches tactics. “We were both on that mission. We were equally to blame. I did what was necessary to save us both. To protect the empire.”

“You can’t honestly believe that!” I gawk at Ghoa across the salon. I want to punch her. Kick her. Anything to make her admit her guilt. “How does stripping me of my position and Kalima power and sanity benefit the empire?”

“The Kalima needed me. And I made sure you were happy at Ikh Zuree. Comfortable. I gave you your eagles, the protection of the abba, and Serik was there to keep you company. I thought that would be enough….”

“How could that possibly be enough? And how could I ever be happy with that guilt on my conscience? Guilt that didn’t even belong to me! You used me. You framed me for a massacre! The same way you framed Temujin. You killed Serik, didn’t you?”

Ghoa crosses the room with quick, deliberate strides and fists the front of my tunic. “You will not spew such lies! I had hoped we could settle this civilly. I had faith you would see the error of your judgment and return to your senses once you were free of those rebels. Your future is still entirely up to you, Enebish. If you cooperate and tell me where the Shoniin are hidden, I may be able to convince the Sky King your deviant foray was part of our design. If we apprehend the entire group of traitors, he may be lenient. We can still serve together in the Kalima, as planned. Everything will be as it was before.”

My laughter is sharp, cynical. “Nothing can be as it was before, since everything before was a lie!” I tear the silver-and-onyx feather bracelet from my wrist and throw it at Ghoa’s feet.

She stares at me as if seeing me for the very first time.

And maybe she is.

I am new. Reborn. Remade—like Temujin said.

“Very well.” Ghoa hauls me up by my tunic. “If you wish to be difficult, I have other ways of making you cooperate.” She drags me across the salon to the double doors and yanks me onto the balcony. I immediately hiss at the cold. Tiny cyclones of snow whip across the platform and spiral out into the sky where they’re crushed by the gale of darkness.

It is forceful. Violent. Vicious. And I make a grab for it, focusing on the back of my throat, where the glorious hum of my power is returning.

With a gasp, Ghoa tackles me. She wrestles me onto my back, unties a waterskin from her belt, and wedges the nozzle