“Yes,” she croaked. “I lost my nerve. I couldn’t do it.”
“You’ve been spying on me all this time,” Kerrigan said with a dawning realization.
“Please, I didn’t want to. They’ll kill me before letting me go.”
With the force of her magic, Kerrigan yanked the girl off of her feet and threw her backward into the tree. Vali cried out, fresh tears coming to her eyes. Kerrigan pushed her hand against Valia’s throat and held fire in the other hand. “Tell me why I should not do the same?”
“You should,” Valia whispered. “I deserve death.”
“Who are they? Who sent you? What do they want?”
“I’m sorry. I was raised in the organization. I was just a child. A daughter of the Father. They want… they want to wipe out humans and half-Fae.”
“I know what the Red Masks are,” she hissed. “But if you are truly one of theirs, then let’s go to the council right now and tell them all you know.”
“No! No, we can’t do that. They’ll kill everyone I know. They’re so deep, so insidious, that it won’t hurt them. But you won’t have me any longer.”
“That sounds good as far as I’m concerned.”
“But you need me.”
“I don’t think that I do.”
“I can help you,” she gasped. “And… I understand why you’d hate me.”
“Do you?”
Valia nodded and started crying again.
“How can you help me?” Kerrigan demanded. Then she thought for a second. “Do you know Isa?”
Valia gulped. “Yes. She’s another daughter of the Father. She failed at killing you. So, I was supposed to do it. We were both punished for our failure.”
“And who is the Father?”
“I don’t know.” Kerrigan pushed the fire hotter, and Valia screamed. “I swear I don’t know. He wears a Red Mask at all times. It molds to his face so that even in death, we’ll never know who he is. Isa may know who he is, but I do not. I’m not sure anyone else does.”
“It’s not Lorian?”
But Kerrigan already knew the answer. She knew it before Valia started shaking her head. Lorian wasn’t the leader of the Red Masks. He was just a bigot. One who would suffer for the sins of others.
“Did Lorian do the things that he was accused of?”
A tear streaked down her cheek. “No,” she choked out. “It was a plant.”
Kerrigan released her in a rush. “We have to stay the execution.”
Valia grabbed her arm before she could go dashing back toward the mountain. “It’s too late. He’s already gone.”
“You let an innocent man die!”
“Lorian Van Horn was not innocent,” Valia said. “He was not a Red Mask, but he was hardly innocent. You can’t save everyone, Kerrigan.”
“I can damn well try,” she said, shaking her hand off and heading back toward the mountain.
“I’m offering you a chance!” Valia rushed after her.
Kerrigan turned back to face the real traitor in their midst. “A chance at what? Leading me astray again? You said yourself that they’ll kill you for this.”
“Yes, if they find out. Like if you barge in there right now and explain how Lorian is innocent. But”—Valia raised her chin and met her head-on—“if we work together, maybe we can stop Father before it’s too late.”
“How do I know that this isn’t another trick? How do I know that the Father didn’t send you to do this?”
“You don’t,” she said, swiping at her tears. “You have no way of knowing, but I swear to you on the grave of my mother that I am telling you the truth.”
“I could never trust you.”
“No,” Valia agreed with a sigh. She dropped her chin to chest, a wash of shame coming to her cheeks. “But you could still work with me.” She lifted her head again and met Kerrigan’s stare with one of matching fury. “I’m done watching the world burn and doing nothing about it.”
Kerrigan looked at the girl and saw her for the very first time. She had blood on her hands and weight on her shoulders. She’d been raised to be a spy and an assassin for a broken man. Kerrigan might never have this chance again. It would mean she would be trading Lorian’s life for information to bring down the whole bloody organization.
“If you betray me, I will unleash on you a thousand fold.”
“I know,” Valia said with a smile. “I know you, Kerrigan.”
Kerrigan might regret this later, but it was necessary. She held her hand out. We take them down.”
Valia hesitated only a second before sliding it into hers. “Together.”
65
The Father
ISA
Isa leaned over the side of the wall where the dragon’s typically observed council meetings to watch Lorian’s head be released from his shoulders.
No dragons had come to see the show. So, she had the entire upper quadrant to herself. Her hands dug into the cliffside while her feet had light purchase against the stone. She shouldn’t have been able to see into the chamber from here. There were no official doors, but she knew how to not be seen. She’d climbed up hours ago in the pitch-black and waited like a spider spinning a web.