Brood of Vipers by Maggie Claire (good books for high schoolers .txt) 📕

“Nearly ten years you were gone. You must have been very indecisive.” Ithel leans closer, a fire building in his brilliant eyes. “Ten years of waiting, of not knowing what had happened to you. I spent every day searching for news about you, pestering the guards that crossed over into Cassè for information. Ten years of wondering if you had died, if you had suffered over in that foreign place while I was helplessly waiting for you to come back. Can you even imagine how terrifying it was? And then, to find you the day of the major attack, alive and well with a new man and a daughter, a traitor to your people.”

“I never turned against you or Déchets! I just—” Helena swipes a hand down her cheek, a low groan wheezing from her chest as she struggles to hold herself together. “It was beautiful there, Ithel. Cassè reminded me so much of Déchets that sometimes I’d forget which side of the Devil’s Spine I was on. Nothing Alaric claimed about that place was true, Ithel! Yet we were blindly attacking and killing them, all for the king’s incessant greed. Surely you see that.”

“For someone so concerned about the people, you did not fight for them very hard. I was there the day they caught you, remember? You surrendered and took the iron shackles willingly. You said not a word as we tore the land apart. You didn’t even cry when your new man disintegrated right beside you.” Ithel surges forward in his chair, his nose almost brushing Helena’s as he presses, “Why did you leave your child behind, alone in a world that was falling apart? What were you hoping to accomplish?”

“What else was I going to do, Ithel?” Helena snarls, her fingers clenching into claws as if she is a cat preparing to scratch out the eyes of another predator. “Should I have brought my daughter with me to the prison cell? Would you have her rot in that wretched darkness, or worse still, be a pawn that Alaric used to control my every move?”

“You could have asked me! I would have kept your daughter safe!” Ithel drops back in his chair suddenly, desiring to be as far from Helena’s side as possible, when he whispers, “Did you even once think of me?”

Unnerved by Ithel’s sudden mood swing, Helena moves to the farthest corner of her makeshift bed, lying down and facing away from her guard. “I just wanted to apologize before tomorrow’s trial, Ithel. You are a decent man, and you deserved much better than I could ever have given you.”

“I loved you so,” Ithel breathes so quietly that Helena almost misses the words. “You were my life.”

To repeat the sentiments would only hurt him more. Yes, she had loved Ithel, but in the days he remembers so fondly, her affection was like that of a child loving a favorite doll—an easy, superficial devotion. Her life away from the palace had given her the perspective she’d longed for. Her days in his arms at the border station had been glorious yet still sheltered.

Her time in Cassè had been so much harder. Trials and struggles had made her strong. She’d come to look back and appreciate everything Ithel had given her, including the beautiful moonbeam-haired daughter he’d never gotten to see. How bitterly ironic it is to look back on those days now, knowing that while her love for the man she’d left behind was only growing stronger, his affection was turning sour and bitter in her absence.

I should tell him he’s a father, Helena concedes, knowing the words will never be able to escape her lips. Yet that knowledge would accomplish nothing. If we live through tomorrow, I will have plenty of time to tell him the truth. If we don’t survive, it won’t matter anyway. “Sleep. We have lots to endure tomorrow,” Helena finally answers a willpower as strong and unyielding as iron forming in her heart.

Yet no sleep finds Helena, nor does she seek its solace. Silently she watches the stars and moon dance through the sky. Let the rest of the world slumber, she thinks as she traces their patterns in the sky. If this is my last night, it will be passed, savoring every moment of life. She imagines her beautiful daughter as a grown woman, strong and capable of anything. She mourns the loss of the man she’d shared a home with in Cassé, wishing his life could have been spared. She watches Ithel pretend to sleep, mapping the lines on his weathered face, drinking in the sight of his shuttered eyes.

Helena greets the morning sunlight calmly, her thoughts far over the mountains. Today I gain my freedom or—no! She cannot allow herself to consider defeat. Instead, she vows, I will survive the tunnel. I will return to Cassè and find our daughter. I will protect her at any cost.

***

“Attack! Get into the skies!” I bellow down the cavern halls that lead deep into the Pith before the intruder has the chance to move closer to me. “Siri! Ekard! Both of you and Drake get everyone out of here,” I command, reaching for my weapon as I prepare to fight off the enemy. Siri hesitates only long enough to cast one loving glance in my direction before she and the crimson Ddraig hasten off to do as I ask.

“Relax, child,” the strange being mutters as it slinks closer, keeping to the shadows. Its strange eyes glitter yellow and lime green as it moves. The creature’s elongated slit pupils expand to adjust to the darkness, giving the already unusual eyes a creepy, maniacal stare. “I’m not here to harm you,” the distinctly female voice taunts, but I do not believe her words. Brilliant white teeth gleam suddenly as the intruder smiles, and my heart shudders in my chest at the sight.

“Then why do you hide in darkness?” I wonder, keeping my hand on the hilt of my