Page 100 of Stormvein

The shadows retreat reluctantly, though they continue to swirl around my feet, writhing up my legs, and pulsing beneath my skin. The raven remains on my shoulder, head tilted, eyes focused on the door.

Ellie enters, almost vibrating with tension that eases the second she sees Lisandra still on her feet and breathing. Her gaze finds mine, relief visible in her eyes. She thought she might return to find Lisandra dead. I can’t deny that it was a reasonable assumption.

Varam strides in behind her and stops cold. His gaze moves from me to Lisandra, and narrows at the bruises forming on her throat. The distinctive imprint of fingermarks against skin. The evidence of how close I came to ending her life. A frown creases his brow at the fading patterns of darkness visible beneath her skin, the scorched circle on the floor, the cracks in the walls.

“Lord Torran?” His voice is careful, one hand drifting down to the weapon at his hip. He’s cautious. Uncertain of what he’s walking into. “What is happening here?”

I straighten, assuming once more the mantle of the Vareth’el. Not just a man seeking vengeance, but the Shadowvein Lord, a leader with responsibilities to his people.

“We have found our traitor.”

His attention whips back to Lisandra, jaw dropping. Incomprehension gives way to shock. And then the information locks in place. Understanding dawns, followed immediately by rage that twists his features.

“You?” The word drips with disbelief. Fury colors his voice. “Youbetrayed us?”

Chapter Twenty-Four

ELLIE

In every resistance, there is a beginning that looked like surrender.

Fragments of the Lost Veinwardens

“Find Varam.Bring him here. Say only that it’s urgent.”

Sacha’s instructions echo around my head while I hurry through Stonehaven’s passageways. I can’t shake the look in his eyes when he faced Lisandra—cold, hard, and utterly without mercy. The darkness that’s shown in hints since his transformation was never more evident than in that moment. The way his fingers flexed at his sides with barely contained violence, the shadows that swirled around him, the way the entire room seemed to darken.

I’m scared of what I’ll find when I return.

Are you going to kill her the second I leave?

I didn’t need to voice the question. He’d seen it in my face. His slight headshake hadn’t been reassuring. It wasn’t a promise of mercy, but merely a‘not now.’ I know him well enough to recognize the distinction between restraint and reprieve.

And the terrifying part is how much I understand it. How much of me secretly agrees with the fact he might have to kill her.

I should be furious with Lisandra. Iamfurious with her. She betrayed Sacha, betrayed everyone inside Stonehaven. She pretended to be concerned about him. She stood beside me, her face a mask of concern, and tried to convince me he was dead. She mourned him, while knowing her actions led directly to his capture, to the torture that nearly destroyed him, to the wounds that festered and the fever that nearly claimed him while I watched, helpless to stop it.

He has every right to want her dead.

And yet …

The power inside me flickers, responding to my unease. Back in Chicago, I’d have called this murder. Here in Meridian, with war and magic and prophecy swirling around us, the lines between justice and vengeance are beginning to blur.

Is this who I’m becoming? Someone who weighs the value of a human life so clinically?

The memory of the soldiers he killed at the mountain pass returns. The casual way his shadows moved through them, tearing through flesh and armor without any hesitation or remorse. I remember his face, cold, emotionless, as men fell screaming.

The man who emerged from that night when I awoke to find him healed, isn’t just Sacha restored. He’s been remade into something harder, colder, and more absolute in his judgment.

And the most disturbing part isn’t the killing. It’s how much I still want to be near him. How the ruthlessness that should repel me instead draws me closer. How the strange power inside me seems to reach for him whenever we’re together.

My steps falter, doubts assailing me from all sides. A torch on the wall flickers as I pass, casting my shadow in strange, distorted shapes across the floor.

Should I warn Varam about what we’ve discovered? Should I tell him that Lisandra is the traitor, and prepare him for what we might find when we return?

But Sacha’s instructions were clear.Say only that it’s urgent.

Butwhy? Why the secrecy when he clearly wants Varam to know? Unless …