Page 71 of Stormvein (The Veinbound Trilogy #2)

Chapter Thirty-One

SACHA

Buried truth is still truth. Time does not erase it. It ripens it.

Writings of the Veinblood Masters

I set a hard pace, putting distance between ourselves and Blackstone Ridge. My shadows carry Lisandra, wrapped around her wrists and ankles like shackles. They keep her off the ground, and keep pace with our retreat.

Behind us, Authority horns sound in the distance. Reinforcements, just as Varam warned.

“We need to get to the horses,” Varam whispers.

My shadows adjust their grip on Lisandra as we scramble over loose stones and around jutting outcroppings. Her eyes dart constantly between the path and me, but she doesn’t speak. She can’t . Voidcraft ensures her silence, sealing her lips against any sound that might give away our position.

The sound of hoofbeats echoes from the direction we came, growing steadily louder.

Authority soldiers, getting closer with each passing second.

We push harder, half-running, half-climbing over ground that would be difficult even without pursuit.

But it’s better than taking the easier routes where mounted soldiers could run us down in minutes.

Ellie stays close to me, her breathing steady despite the pace.

Where once she would have scrambled and stumbled, now she moves with the sure-footed grace of someone who’s learned to navigate my world.

The change in her strikes me hard. She’s far from the frightened woman who touched my tower wall in the desert.

Now she anticipates obstacles, adjusts her footing without thought, and keeps pace with fighters who have spent their lives in these mountains.

“How close are they?” she asks in a low voice.

I reach out to my familiar, my mind joining it as it circles overhead at a distance that makes it look like nothing more than another bird in the sky.

Through its eyes, I see the mounted patrol.

At least twenty soldiers in Authority crimson, their horses picking their way along the path we’ve abandoned.

“Close enough, but their horses are struggling.”

“There.” One of the scouts calls out softly, pointing ahead. The small clearing where we left the horses comes into view, the animals stamping nervously at our approach.

“Mount up.” I hold Ellie’s horse steady while she swings herself up into the saddle.

My shadows lift Lisandra onto her horse, wrapping around her waist and securing her in place like rope. One of the scouts takes the reins. She won’t fall, and she won’t be able to escape.

The moment everyone is mounted, we set off at a gallop. Canyon walls close around us as we ride, pushing the horses hard. At Varam’s order, three scouts veer off to create false paths to confuse any pursuit.

We don’t stop until we reach a sheltered hollow where an old streambed has carved out space beneath overhanging stone. It’s defensible, hidden, and has multiple escape routes, if we need them.

“Set up guards,” Varam instructs, as he dismounts. “Four-hour watches. No fires.”

My shadows lower Lisandra to the ground near the canyon wall with deliberate roughness. She lands hard on her knees, then struggles to her feet, testing the bonds at her wrists with small, desperate twists. They tighten as soon as she moves.

“Don’t bother.” I don’t look at her while I tend to my horse, removing the saddle and checking to make sure it hasn’t been injured. “I will know the second you try to escape. And you won’t like my response.”

She freezes in place.

Once I have the horse secured and watered, I turn to face her. Around us, the camp grows quiet. Even the horses seem to sense the tension, their ears flicking nervously as they crop at the sparse grass.

“Three times.”

The words fall into the silence. Lisandra’s eyes snap to mine, wide and desperate, before skittering away like a cornered animal seeking escape. But there is none. Not from this. Not from me .

“Three separate betrayals that I know of. I want to know why.”

The Voidcraft keeping her silent dissolves.

“I can explain?—”

“ Explain? ” The word comes out as a snarl. “Explain what? How you’ve spent years feeding information to the Authority while people who trusted you died because of it?”

She flinches as if I’d struck her, pressing herself against the canyon wall.

“First, you told Sereven I was going to Ashenvale.” My voice stays level, controlled.

Around me, the rest of the camp has gone completely still. Even Varam has stopped what he’s doing to watch, his hand resting on his sword hilt with the casual readiness of someone prepared for violence.

“The second time, you told him about Glassfall Gap, and the ambush there cost two of our men their lives. They had families, Lisandra. Children who will never see their fathers again.”

Tears track down her cheeks.

“And today, you put a knife in my back while I was fighting for my life.”

“I was trying to?—”

“Trying to what ?” The shadows around my feet begin to writhe like living things, responding to my escalating fury. “Are you going to claim you were protecting the Veinwardens? Me ? Or were you protecting him?”

Her silence is answer enough. But I need to hear her say it. Need the others to hear it.

“You were protecting Sereven. Admit it.”

Still nothing. But I can see the answer in her eyes, in the way her shoulders hunch defensively, in the way she won’t look me in the face.

“How long?” My voice echoes around the secluded hollow. “How long have you really been feeding information to the Authority? How long have you been betraying everyone you claimed to care about?” I step closer, darkness swirling around me. “Answer me.”

“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 inside me. “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.

“Then what possible 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!”

“You destroyed them.” 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 because you told the Authority where to find them?”

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

“Entire Veinblood lines were murdered .” 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 her air 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 her throat as she fights for air. The sound is harsh and ragged in the mountain silence, broken and desperate.