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His skin was caked in a layer of dirt and his grime-filled hair hung over his face. It was longer now and beginning to mat.

“Not even a little,” I snapped and watched the lines of Taft’s face harden. “Ardan is the only person that deserves to be missed.”

“Ardan’s death is not on me. He was my brother; I loved him just as much as you,” Taft spat.

“You don’t get to speak his name. You knownothingof what it means to love,” I snarled, that anger slowly starting to seep out of my skin. “Now.” I took a deep breath in an effort to ground the emotion spilling out of me. “I’ve only come here for answers. Answers that youwillgive me, or I will rip them from you myself.”

I pushed off the wall and took a single step toward him, watching as a small flinch shook his body.

Heshouldfear me.

“If you tell me what I want to know, I will end your imprisonment and send your soul back to the Gods in one piece. If you refuse, I will spend the next hundred years having you cut apart, piece by piece, only letting you heal enough to carve those pieces from your body again and again and again.” The words were soft as they left my lips, the sound gliding through the air like a sinister melody.

Taft took a step back, his fingers wrapping around his cage.

“Only a few short months, and I no longer recognize the person that stands before me,” he said, his voice a low growl, but I could hear the unease tugging at the seams of it. “What happened to the girl who loved me, who once called me family? The girl that would die for her family?”

I scoffed, amused at the manipulation that used to make me feel guilt.

“What makes you think I want to be recognized by you?” I asked, my voice cold—hard.

I pulled a dagger from my sheath and let the shadows pluck it from my hands. Taft staggered deeper into his cell, away from the tendrils flowing toward him—his back pressing against the hard stone.

“The thing is, Taft, you are not my family, and I know now you never were. I am no longer that same gentle, submissive creature you once knew. You are right about one thing, though. I will no longer die for my family. I willkillfor them.”

Shadow wrapped around his limbs and he struggled against them, fighting as they pulled him back toward me and pushed him to his knees. The dagger fell into my open palm as they coiled around us, wrapping around his throat and squeezing as I crouched down to meet his gaze.

“Answers, Taft. I need answers. War is coming and you have used up all your grace.”

He lifted his eyes to mine as he tried to claw at the tendrils around his neck.

“I will never tell you anything,” he spat. “You will lose this war and the Gods will condemn you for this. I will pray for you—pray they give you leniency.”

He gasped as the tendrils tightened around his airway.

A corner of my lips lifted as I reached through the cell bars. He recoiled as my hand connected with his skin, pushing a strand of hair behind his ear before my fingers slid down his jaw and pulled his chin toward me.

“Hear me when I say this,” I breathed, my eyes locking on his as his skin turned red from the lack of oxygen. “Iamyour God now. You pray to me, and Iwill notanswer.”

Taft jerked his head from my hands, gasping as my words hit their mark and allowed him air again. He hissed at me as he scurried away from the bars.

“Where are you from, Taft?” I asked, knowing that he would not answer.

I clicked my tongue into the silence.

“Unfortunately, I have no more time to give you this morning,” I said, turning toward the stairs and taking the first step up, then paused. “Think about what I said here today, and choose wisely, or the next time I see you, you will not be left whole.”

The threat flowed from my lips over my shoulder as I turned my head back to the stairs and began my climb.

“Isthisabribe?”Wren asked, setting down the last of the crates we had hauled down the hill from the castle as the five of us stood in the entry of a house that would soon be Ata’s new home. “I wasn’t aware we received gifts for bad behavior.”

I slapped Wren’s chest playfully with the back of my hand as I stepped further into the large, circular foyer, trying to imagine how Ata would decorate it.

Two large staircases stretched upward before us on the opposite side of the foyer. The one on the right, led to a den whose balcony overlooked the main level, and the other led to the bedrooms and washrooms.

“It’s the only thing she has ever asked for, and after what she has been through, she deserves to have someplace to feel safe,” I said, turning just in time to see the Elric and Wren exchange weary glances.

“What?” I asked, my eyes flickering between them.