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She lifted a single finger as if it was nonconsequential. “Actually, Camilla did.”
“You’re with Camilla?” I nearly recoiled.
“Aw, don’t look so hurt, lover. Or should I say ex-lover? I’m not with her. She is only alive because she proved herself useful, and I slaughtered her entire coven, so I guess we’re kind of even for now. Besides, she did a nice little spell that told me I had to wait so you all would come out of hiding.” She glanced at the still kneeling Ethan and then at Drake locked in the van. “I mean, I know a pussy when I see one.”
Dianna wasn’t stalling. She was calculating her odds and making a plan on how to get through me to them.
“Where is Neverra?” Logan’s voice broke, his tone pleading and his question hanging in the air.
Her eyes jerked toward Logan as if his voice alone was an insult. Her head tilted slightly, venom filling her smile. All traces of the woman who had joked and laughed with me were gone. “I don’t know. Maybe check the morgue.” She paused and smiled cruelly. “But I guess that wouldn’t help either since you all burst into a thousand particles of light when you die.”
I caught Logan glancing at the mark of Dhihsin on his finger. He knew that if she were truly dead, the mark tying them together would be gone, too. I could see that he clung to that hope.
“You know, this was smart,” Dianna said, her eyes cutting back to mine. As our gazes clashed, something small and brief flashed beneath the glowing red embers of her irises, but just as quickly, anger replaced it. Her lips pulled back in a silent snarl, revealing the sharp elongated canines. “Getting to them before I could. Do you plan to save everyone involved in her death?”
“No. I’m here to save you.”
“Me? That’s so sweet, but you’re a thousand years too late on that one,” she said, regret flashing in her eyes.
“They will pay for what they did, Dianna. They will face justice for—”
“Justice?” A sick laugh escaped her as she clicked her teeth. “Oh, you really are noble. We both know there is no justice in our world. Blood must be paid with blood.”
“No.”
“There it is again. Your favorite word.” Her face turned to granite. “You really are a knight in shining armor, are you not? Or at least you pretend to be. So kind to help those who maim and slaughter. But then, I guess you can relate since you maim and slaughter. Just like your father and every king and monarch before him. Isn’t that how empires work?”
“Don’t.” The word was clipped, short, and had enough power behind it, Logan stepped forward. She knew what could hurt me and was using the knowledge as a weapon against me.
“Did I hit a nerve?” Dianna’s smile widened a fraction. “How about another? The great and powerful king, except you’re not. You’re not powerful. I know what scares you, makes you weak, makes you hurt. They don’t call you World Ender for the fun of it. So, what? You believe in fairness now?” She scoffed before placing her hands on her hips, her bloody fingers tapping restlessly. “Fine. I can be fair, too. For protecting her, for giving her a home, I will grant you a boon. Leave. Take Logan and your men and leave.”
“Dianna.”
“Just go home. Go back to your castles and towers of silver. Go home and let the monsters handle their business.”
My heart sank because I knew what I had feared was coming. I knew it with every cell in my body. I did not have the words to describe the ache I felt. What was about to happen would change everything for her, for us, and for them.
“Dianna. I can’t. There has to be order in any realm. There has to be.”
“Since when?” She threw the words at me, lacing them with venom. “You were gone a thousand years. Go another.”
“You know I can’t. There has to be a line. You know that, and you know that’s me. Otherwise, there would be nothing but utter chaos. Slaughtering them isn’t justice or getting even. It’s eradication and vengeance. Once that vengeance is done, you’ll have nothing. You only make more enemies that way, not less. Trust me. I know you are hurting.”
A small smile danced across her features before her brows drew together. I knew that look. It was one of many I had memorized, and I knew what she was thinking.
“Don’t mistake my words.” I took a small step toward her, the dirt beneath my boot crunching. “I want to help you. You don’t have to be alone. You don’t have to go through this tremendous grief and loss alone. This, killing them, isn’t the way to heal any of it, and once all that anger and grief wears off, you’ll be left with nothing but an empty void. Trust me. Please.”
Dianna paused. It was a slight one, but it ignited the ember of hope I carried within my chest, hope that she was still in there.
“I trusted you once. When we were on Novas, I trusted you when you said that Kaden wouldn’t harm her. You said she was a tether, so I listened. I stayed and waited with you, and I…” Her eyes closed tightly as if willing some deep part of her closed. She took a deep breath, and her eyes snapped open the next second. “There is no version of this where anyone involved stays alive, but you know that already. You know that I’m going after Kaden.”
I nodded. “I also know what you have to do for the strength you need to do so. What you must consume and how long it’s been since you last partook. I know what that will do to you. What it’s already done.”
She smiled again, the crimson of her eyes flaring a shade brighter. “Yes, because you know your enemies, right? The treacherous Ig’Morruthens. They are the one thing the gods feared. The one thing designed to hurt them.”
“There can be another way. I know it. I’ll help you as you helped me.”
“Okay.” She shrugged a single shoulder, the curve of her lip lifting. “Kill them.”
