Anger flashes in Arella’s eyes, but whether she’s mad that Audra would think that or furious that Audra figured it out is anyone’s guess. “Audra—”
“The whole ‘making peace’ thing you said last night was just an excuse, wasn’t it?” Audra interrupts. “You planned this. You wanted to use Gavin to betray me today—the same way I betrayed you. You wanted me to die, didn’t you? Admit it!”
Before I can think of something to say to any of that, Arella starts laughing. It’s a cold, mocking sound, and I can’t decide if I want to tackle her or get Audra the hell away from the crazy woman.
“That’s your theory?” Arella shouts. “Then you’ve officially lost it, Audra. You want to know the truth? Fine—I’ll give you the truth. I did what you were too weak to do. I forced Vane’s breakthrough. I knew it would never happen unless you were in mortal danger. So I did what had to be done. And it worked—didn’t it? You speak Westerly now, don’t you?”
“So you gave away our location to the Stormers—without even warning us?” It takes all my willpower not to rip the smug smile off her face. “We almost died. And you did it for my breakthrough?”
“For the key to defeating the greatest enemy our world’s ever known? You bet I did. I’m a guardian, Vane. I did my job—since my daughter didn’t have the courage or skill to do it.”
“Guardian?” I spit the word. “You’re damn lucky I had the breakthrough, because if I hadn’t, Audra would be dead now and I’d be Raiden’s prisoner. A real guardian would’ve protected us. You ran because you’re weak!”
“You think I’m weak?”
She waves her arms, and the winds stir around us without her uttering any commands.
Audra tries to back away, but I hold our ground. I call one of each of the four winds and tangle them around my hand.
Arella gasps.
Yeah—that’s right. Let’s not forget who’s the last freaking Westerly here.
“You may know a few tricks, but I’m the most powerful guardian in the Gales,” she hisses like a coiled snake ready to strike.
“If you’re so powerful, why couldn’t you save us during the fight today? And why couldn’t you save my family ten years ago?”
Arella laughs again, the sound so harsh it makes both Audra and me jump. “You want to blame someone for your parents’ death? Then you’d better blame my daughter. Ask her what happened that day.”
Audra makes a strangled sound, like she’s just been kicked in the gut.
I pull her against my side, supporting her. “She already told me what happened.”
Arella steps forward, a glint in her eyes. “Really? So she told you she called the wind to save Gavin after a Southerly knocked him out of the sky? That she branded the draft with her trace and didn’t even have the decency to tell us so we could prepare? That she killed her father and your parents? You know all of that?”
Audra starts to shake.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I remind her. “It wasn’t.”
“I know,” she says, surprising me with the conviction in her voice.
She pulls away from me, rounding on Arella. “I never told anyone it was a gust of wind that knocked Gavin out of the sky. And I never knew what type of draft it was. The only way you could know it was a Southerly is if you were there. And if you were there, then you knew the Stormer was coming—and you didn’t warn Dad. Almost like . . .”
She stares at the sky, like she’s watching her words hover over us, not sure what to do with any of them.
That makes two of us.
“You wanted the Stormer to find us, didn’t you?” she finally whispers.
Arella hesitates before she answers.
But she knows she’s trapped. So she raises a defiant eyebrow at Audra. “Yes.”
CHAPTER 56
AUDRA
It wasn’t my fault.
The words are so foreign—so impossible—I don’t know how to wrap my mind around them. The more they swirl around my head, the more they boil into rage.
Vane tries to hold me steady, but I pull away.
“Why?” I scream at my mother. “You killed Dad. Killed Vane’s parents. Let me take the blame—ruined my life! How could you do that? Why would you do that?”
“You think I killed your father?” She reaches under her uniform and pulls out my father’s pendant, holding the black cord. “You think I wanted this? I loved him. I chose him—out of all the men who wanted me. I bonded to him.”
She waves her link toward my face, pointing to the worn, tarnished cuff like I don’t know what it means.
The winds swell with her anger and she hugs her arms to her chest. Shaking from the pain.
I’m too disgusted to feel sorry for her. “You let the Stormer find us. Did you send the Southerly, too? Knock Gavin out of the sky, knowing I’d save him?”