Raihn stepped back, leaning against the wall, as if to give me space alone with it. “You can pick it up,” he said—oddly gently. “Just be careful. Hurts like a bitch if you touch the hilt too long.”
I unsheathed the sword and lay it over the desk. It was light, a slender and elegant rapier. The blade was bright red, swirls and sigils carved into its length that matched those on my own. The hilt was made of Nightsteel, forming delicate spirals around the handguard, which resembled the bones of Hiaj wings.
I stared at it for a long time, not trusting myself to speak. A slow-rising tide of grief and anger swelled inside me.
Raihn had been keeping this sword. My father’s most prized possession, now owned by the man who had killed him.
“Why are you showing me this?”
Surely he couldn’t think it was some kind of sentimental peace offering.
“Could you wield it?”
I blinked in surprise and turned to Raihn. I briefly questioned if I’d heard him right.
“No,” I said. “No one can wield it but him.”
“But no one could use the mirror but him, either. And you used that.”
“That’s different. This is…”
His.
Vincent had warned me many times against even touching the weapon. For all the obvious reasons one would warn a child against such a thing, in the beginning, but later because he made it very clear it would be dangerous for me to even hold it. The weapon could only be wielded by him, and what was painful to vampires could very well be deadly to me.
“Why?” I asked pointedly. “Is this another thing you want me to do for Septimus?”
The shadow of anger that passed over Raihn’s face was fleeting, but powerful. “No.”
“Then why would you hand me a weapon like this and want me to use it?”
After I’d acted against him. After he had made it so clear the role I was intended to play.
Handing me this weapon—hell, even letting me know that it still existed—was a downright stupid move.
He said simply, “Because you’re right.”
I’d told myself so many times that I’d never let Raihn surprise me again. And yet, here we were.
“Because the things you said in Vincent’s office that night—they’re true,” he said. “There is no excuse for what I have allowed the Bloodborn to do to this kingdom. Septimus is preying on both of us. I allowed myself to be manipulated into an alliance that I didn’t want, into a deal I can’t get out of, and now here we fucking are.”
He paced closer, step by step, and I didn’t move away. I glanced to the floor, uncomfortable, when he spoke of being forced into his alliance, but I still saw his face, anyway—that moment when Angelika had been ready to kill me, and I’d watched Raihn look up into the stands and nod.
Another paradox I couldn’t reconcile. Raihn had murdered my father and taken my kingdom and imprisoned me, but he had done it all to save my life.
“I know I’m right,” I said. “And?”
A faint smile of amusement, gone in seconds. “And I want you to help me do something about it.”
“If this is another speech about—”
“No. This is about blood, Oraya.” He didn’t blink. His eyes didn’t leave mine. “This is about getting the Bloodborn out of our fucking kingdom.”
“Your allies. The ones you’re relying on to keep your throne.”
“Allies,” he scoffed. And there was something about the way he said it, under his breath, that made a realization crash through me.
Septimus had manipulated me to test his theory, knowing I would never cooperate with him. And until now, I’d assumed that Raihn had been right beside him in that—maybe even that he had instigated it.
Now, I was suddenly certain that I had been wrong.
“You didn’t know,” I said. “You didn’t know about any of this, either. The mirror. The armory attack. The god blood.”
The look on Raihn’s face confirmed my theory long before he spoke.
Because there had been Rishan forces at the armory, but no Bloodborn. If Raihn had been involved, there should have been many more Rishan troops at the base that night. But they were as unprepared as we were. He ended up losing just as many soldiers as I did.
Only Septimus had come out of it all unscathed—with both the Rishan and the Hiaj weakened, and his theory confirmed.
“He’s a snake,” Raihn muttered. “He didn’t tell me about any of it until afterwards. I showed him what he wanted to see. Threw my dick around. Shouted. Big, stupid warrior shit. And then I went along with him, after giving him just enough resistance to make it believable.”