Master of Souls by Rena Barron

Author:Rena Barron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty

Arrah

I pace back and forth inside the tent, waiting for Efiya. I know my sister, and she would not give up so easily. If she wants the dagger, she will take it from me, even if it means prying it from my dead body. I’m clutching the hilt tightly, but it brings me no solace. There is no peace to be had for me. I’ve accepted that.

When I hear shuffling outside, I crouch, ready. Rudjek bursts into the tent with both his shotels out. Blood drips from one of them. I stare at him, my heart racing. He answers my unasked question.

“Efiya,” he says with a deep sigh.

“Did she hurt you?”

“No.” Rudjek shakes his head, grimacing. “Are you okay?”

I bite back the anger building inside me. “She tried to take the dagger. If not for the akkaye, she would have.”

“Do you need further convincing that she and the Demon King plan to attack Zöran?” Rudjek asks, frustrated. “You can’t still believe his lies.”

“I don’t know what I believe,” I say, annoyed at myself for not trapping my sister when I had the chance. “Daho wouldn’t have sent Efiya to retrieve his dagger—that much I know is true. And you saw how he hesitated after the orishas ambushed us. He could have let me die to bring Dimma back.”

“I supposed he saved you out of some twisted sense of honor. He is the reason—” Rudjek shifts on his heels. “He’s the reason you lost your family.”

“Maybe,” I say reluctantly, but immediately regret it. I don’t really know Daho—only the stories that stand in stark contrast to Dimma’s memories. But that isn’t true, either. Dimma has her history with him, and I have mine. I frown, pushing the thoughts away. “Essi was right about Efiya—she’s weaker than before. I don’t know how or why, but we have to use that to our advantage.”

“We’re in agreement on that point,” Rudjek says with a scowl. He sheaths his swords. “I never told you what she said to me on the battlefield at Heka’s Temple.”

I glance down now, afraid to hear his words, but I force myself to meet his eyes again. He deserves my full attention, no matter how much shame I might feel.

“She said that she thought I would love her—that he told her that I would. At the time, I thought she meant the Demon King, but now, I’m thinking it must have been my cousin, Tyrek. He’s always been cruel, even when we were children.” Rudjek pauses, tucking his thumbs in and out of his sword belt. “She went on to tell me that she’d make a mistake, that if she could live her life again, she would run away with you.”

I don’t know how to take any of this news. My first impulse is to dismiss what she told him. She’d say anything to make herself look innocent when she is the greatest monster the world has ever known. But Efiya had asked me to run away with her tonight as if we could pretend that nothing has ever happened between us.

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