Page 143 of Stormvein

“Since Ashenvale fell,” she whispers.

Varam swears viciously behind me. One of the scouts takes a step back, his hand instinctively moving to his sword hilt. My shadows surge outward, responding to the rage coursing through me, reaching toward every corner of the hollow before I force them back under control.

“Since Ashenvale.” The words taste like poison. “Since my parents were murdered. Since everything I fought to protect was destroyed.” I can barely speak through the fury building insideme. “Did you play a part in that? Did you help Sereven plan the attack that killed my family?”

She shakes her head, tears tracking down her cheeks. “No, I would never?—”

“So, it’s just me you wanted dead then.”

“No!” The word tears from her throat.

“Thenwhatpossible reason could you have for what you’ve done? How do you justify years of betrayal? Years of watching people die while you fed their killers information.”

“I thought I could control it. I thought I could give him enough information to keep him satisfied while protecting the people who really mattered.”

“The people who really mattered.” I take a step toward her. “And who are they, Lisandra? Who really matters to you?”

“The ones still alive! The ones in Stonehaven who’ve survived because they stayed hidden!”

“Youdestroyedthem.” Shadows lash out toward her, stopping short of her throat. She jerks backward with a strangled gasp. “How many Veinwardens died because of information you provided? How many Veinbloods were captured and dragged to Blackvault becauseyoutold the Authority where to find them?”

She’s crying openly now. “I tried to minimize the damage.”

“Entire Veinblood lines weremurdered.” I’m less than an arm’s span away from her now, close enough to see the terror in her eyes, close enough to smell her fear-sweat. “Families burned alive in their homes. Children thrown into Authority prisons and left to rot. Those who survived were left as empty shells, their power stripped away. Is that what you call minimizing damage?”

“I never meant for it to go that far.”

“But it did. And you kept helping them anyway.” A thread of shadow, thin as silk but strong as steel, wraps around her throat. Her face begins to turn red as it tightens slowly, cutting off herair supply. “When did you know Sereven wasn’t on our side? Before he betrayed me at Thornreave?”

Her hands come up to claw at the shadow-bond, but there’s nothing solid for her to grasp. Her mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water, desperate sounds escaping her throat.

“Answer me!”

“It was for the good of everyone!” The words explode from her with desperate force. “With you gone, with the Shadowvein Lord dead, we were able to live peacefully. The Authority stopped their raids. Stopped hunting us so aggressively. People had normal lives again.”

“Peacefully?”The single word comes out as a roar that echoes off the canyon walls. “Did you even step foot outside of Stonehaven in all the years I was trapped in that tower? Did you see the children burned alive in their beds because their parents were Veinbloods? Did you watch families torn apart by Authority raids in the outer settlements because they dared to give food to a Veinblood?”

The shadow around her throat tightens again. Her eyes bulge, her face turning purple as she struggles for air that won’t come.

“I should kill you. Right here.” My voice is deadly quiet, barely audible over the sound of her strangled gasping. “Slowly. Painfully. Let you feel what it’s like to suffocate while everyone you trust stands by and watches.”

For a moment, I let the shadow-noose tighten further. Her struggles become weaker, more desperate. Around us, the camp has gone completely silent. Even the horses have stopped moving, as if they can sense death hovering in the air.

“But death would be too easy for you, Lisandra. Too quick. Too merciful.”

With effort, I force the shadow to release her. She collapses to her knees, gasping and choking, her hands pressed to herthroat as she fights for air. The sound is harsh and ragged in the mountain silence, broken and desperate.

I turn away, needing distance before I do something irreversible. The rage is still there, still burning through me like acid, but underneath it is something worse. The knowledge that one of my own people, someone I trusted, someone Iprotected,has spent years orchestrating the deaths of innocents while I was helpless to stop her.

Twenty-seven years of imprisonment. Endless days of torture that left scars on my soul deeper than any physical wound. The decimation of Veinblood families while I screamed their names into empty air. And through it all, this woman was helping the people responsible, convincing herself it was for the greater good.

Ellie follows me when I walk into the trees. Her presence is steady, grounding, cutting through the rage that threatens to consume me. She walks beside me while I wrestle with the desire to return and finish what I started.

“What will you do with her?” Her voice is quiet, careful.

“I don’t know yet. Execution would be justice, but it would also be over too quickly.”

“And you don’t want it to be quick.”