Page 75 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Isa

The portal room was empty in the middle of the night.

Isa had snuck in through the secret tunnels that she was pretty sure only she knew about. And then she sat in front of the shining portal door and just stared in wonder.

She could have been halfway across Alandria by now. But Kerrigan’s offer had rattled through her. She couldn’t escape it.

There was no part of this world that she could go to and remain unrecognized.

Her father had made sure of that. The Father had exacted this last bit of vengeance.

All she had left was the truth about her mother. The truth that her mother had been a good person who loved her, and her father had killed her for it. Had done all this in a fucked-up way to honor who he had wanted her to be instead of seeing the reality of who she was.

But could she go through the portal to another world?

Could she leave everything she knew behind?

It had been the question plaguing her night after night as she sat before the unguarded portal.

A noise made her come hastily to her feet. She slid behind the door and dropped a knife into her hand, prepared to attack anyone who might find her.

“I know you’re here, Isa,” Kerrigan’s voice said.

Isa blew out a breath. “How?”

“I have an alarm trap on that entrance. I’ve known the whole time.”

Isa came out from behind the doorway. She hid the knife but not before Kerrigan saw it and gave her an annoyed, “Pfft.”

“How did you know about that entrance?”

Kerrigan sighed. “Valia showed it to me.”

Isa’s face dropped. Her sister. Another death caused by her father. Another loss in Isa’s life. Another reason to leave this cursed land.

“That sounds like her,” Isa said after a moment.

She settled back onto the floor, and Kerrigan dropped down across from her—on different sides as they always had been.

“Have you considered my offer?” Kerrigan asked.

“Only every second since it was offered.”

“And?”

“Where would I go?” Isa asked, her voice cracking. “What would I do? I’m an assassin. That is all I’ll ever be.”

“That is all he made you. It isn’t all that you are.”

Isa lifted a shoulder. “I could still have a knife through you in half a second.”

Kerrigan smiled. “You’re not that lucky.”

A laugh cracked out of Isa—the first in so long. “Perhaps.”

“You could do whatever you wanted. You could wear a fancy dress and meet a pretty stranger and not kill people.”

Isa sighed. “That sounds unreal.”

“You just have to choose.”

Isa tipped her head back to stare at the plain stone ceiling. “I heard what they said about me when they denigrated your name for letting me go.”

“All the more reason to start over.”

“They still let you on the council.”

Kerrigan lifted her eyebrows. “Not sure they had a choice when it came down to it. I saved the world…or whatever.”

Isa laughed. “Or whatever.”

“The people love me.”

“As they should—their mighty hero.”

“Just a person,” Kerrigan reminded her. “Just like you.”

Isa’s voice grew smaller. “Where would I go?”

“I know a place.”

Their eyes met. “You already know where you want to send me?”

“I have friends in other lands,” Kerrigan admitted. “I asked them if they would be okay taking you in.”

Isa straightened. “Who? Where?”

“I’ll show you if you like,” Kerrigan said, getting to her feet and offering Isa her hand.

Isa narrowed her eyes at it and then forced herself to take the offer. She came to her feet and faced the portal door. Apprehension was in her bones, but there was something else too. What was that new feeling? Hope?

Kerrigan touched the portal, and the shimmering substance transformed to reveal a ruined castle on the side of a mountain. A large city was in the distance with rolling hills beyond that. The place was beautiful . Unlike anything Isa had ever seen.

“Ready?” Kerrigan asked, offering her hand.

And Isa realized she was.

“Fancy dresses, pretty strangers, and no killing?”

“That’s right.”

“I think I’ll give it a try.”

And she crossed over to a whole new world.

The End