Betrayer's Bane (Embers of Illeniel Book 3) by Michael G. Manning

Author:Michael G. Manning
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2016-12-29T23:00:00+00:00

***

“Father.”

A hand was on his shoulder and Tyrion looked up to discover Emma leaning over him. She looked like a pale wraith. Her eyes were sunken and had dark circles beneath them. “You look terrible,” he told her.

Her impatience was written large across her face, “You’re dying.” Unspoken was another implication, he would soon be irrelevant.

“That’s likely,” he admitted, “but I can’t leave things unfinished. You have to be ready to take my place.”

“I don’t even know what you have been doing, or what you plan to do.”

“Let me show you,” he said, reaching for her hand.

She pulled away as though he might burn her. “It’s too late. I’ll find my own way.”

“You’ll fail,” he said bluntly.

“You already have,” she accused, covering her face with her palms. “Ryan is paying the price for that.”

“Not yet. There’s still time—if you help me. Otherwise his sacrifice will have been for nothing.” He glared up at her with all the vehemence in his face that a dying man could muster. Everything that had happened was his responsibility, but he was defiant still. “Curse me if you wish, but you want what I want. I can see it in your eyes.”

Emma’s hands were balled into fists but eventually she opened one and thrust it toward him, “Show me then and I will judge, and if I think you wasted Ryan’s future on pure folly I’ll choke the life from you right here.”

He took her hand and after a moment’s resistance their minds linked. Emma no longer felt like the same person he had met mind to mind only a day ago. Gone was the warmth, replaced by a dark turmoil that echoed his own. She was practically his soul’s twin now, filled with a towering rage. She hated him, almost, but not quite as much as she hated the She’Har.

Opening his memories, he showed her the weapon he would create. He felt her confusion at first, for the memories were not his own, but those of the She’Har, and the weapon was not easily identifiable as one at first. Her awe washed over him when she realized what it would do, followed by her recoil from the images of what it had done once before.

This is why you wouldn’t tell us…

Mentally he agreed with her, none of you would have gone along with this. You didn’t hate them enough. Only you, Emma, only you have the hatred and conviction to see this done if I fall.

And Brigid, she corrected.

But she doesn’t have the means, and she can’t lead the others.

This will be the end of us, of all of us, she responded. You can’t mean to do this.

Think! he commanded. The stasis boxes, the women we’ve taken, let me show you the rest. And he did, finally sharing the reason for the kidnappings, and revealing Ian’s role. For a moment, he feared she would recoil, but her malicious glee surprised him.

Her evil had become greater than his own. Where Tyrion had lacked empathy, Emma

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