For She Is Wrath

by Emily Varga

Or perhaps I needn’t have done anything. Perhaps he always had the capacity to do this to me, and I was too in love with him to see it.

Never show them your fear. The weak feed from fear.

But just be careful you don’t become what you most despise. That we both don’t become what we most despise.” “And what is that?” “Greedy. Power hungry.”

This was who I would become in front of him. A sweet, beautiful confection. And when he bit into the honeyed sugar, it would be poison filling his mouth.

The problem when someone you loved betrayed you was that you had a lifetime of good memories with them that you had to examine in a different light. What was once a safe place to be—beside him, engulfed in his arms, inhaling the smell of rainstorms and pine—was actually the most dangerous place of all.

“You know I’d follow you anywhere, Dani.”

Something twisted in my heart, and I was suddenly robbed of breath in a way that had nothing to do with the battle.

He swallowed, the knot at his throat bobbing. “And thank you, for making me feel something other than consuming rage. Because my only two options were either to murder the emperor, or come straight here.” And he had chosen me. Just by saying those words, he had told me so much.