The Traitor by A. Lombardo (i can read with my eyes shut TXT) 📕

An overwhelming level of frustration made his head hurt. Rubbing his temples, he turned toward the window. As the pain subsided, he felt a lightness return to his soul. Each breath came easier, and the anxiety passed.

“Good, you are awake.” Keegan strolled into the cabin, startling Kai. “How do you find your accommodations? Or rather, my quarters?” He approached the bank of windows but left a respectable amount of space between them.

“You stole my crystal. Return it,” Kai insisted.

Keegan ignored his plea. “We sail to Caroco to collect reinforcements and continue to stoke the battle that is about to consume this world. But more importantly, once there, I will show you how the rest of the world should bow to our greatness. You will come to understand how life as a Katori should be. Let war tear this part of the world to pieces, and then we can collect the broken bits and rebuild it as we see fit.”

This could not be happening. Kai searched his mind for an answer. There had to be a way of escape.

“I have no interest in being a god, Keegan,” he finally spat. “Return my crystal and let me go. If there is going to be a war, I must try and stop it. Or at least be there to fight.”

Keegan laughed. “And on what side will you stand? Diu is a large country but weak. They have never stood alone in any battle—not without the mighty Katori dragons or the powerful Nebea supporting them. Or will you stand with your Katori brethren, who indubitably will crush their neighbors even if Milnos comes to their aid?”

Kai choked on the picture of Diu at war because of his foolish attempt to fight destiny. Had he stayed in Katori, his father’s death would not be his fault. His father might have died, but not by his hand, and his mother’s people would not be blamed. He let his eyes fall on the waves behind the ship once more.

Kai did not hear Keegan leave. The shifting sun and hunger led him to search his room. The door was locked, but he found wine and rum in a wooden rack, a mound of fruit on a silver tray, and a loaf of bread wrapped in cloth. No water. Desperate for sustenance, he ate a hunk of bread and two apples, tossing the cores into the sea.

A third apple rested in his hand; he wanted to eat it, but visions of Rayna caught in his throat. He had abandoned her. She was safe, but the last moment they shared was abandonment. He promised they would never be apart, yet he left her behind. Had he been so desperate to confront his fate that he let his ego blind his ability to trust the one person who trusted him the most?

Thoughts of her and their brief but tremendous happiness pang his heart. Years of wishing they could be together had been within his grasp, and he wasted it. So many times he had chased after danger or put her in harm’s way; she deserved better. Maybe being with Keegan was what he deserved—a captive in a strange land.

Before he could wallow too deep, the cabin door opened and a woman entered. Kai knew her instantly. The curve of her face, the shape of her eyes, and the bounce in her dark brown hair. Rayna’s mother brought in a tray of cooked food. The hatred in her eyes swelled with tears. “I would kill you myself if I could,” she professed. “but Keegan would have my head. I blame you for the death of my daughter.”

“Blame Keegan, he ordered her execution,” Kai thundered back. “Not that you did anything to stop him or the Weathervane ordered to strike her tree with lightning.” He did not know her name, and his wonderment must have shown.

“My name is Fenia,” she offered. “Rayna’s father is Demir. We were not good parents, but she was still our blood.” Her honey-colored eyes stared through him.

Kai felt Fenia’s anger, and he could see her broken spirit. Rayna’s loss weighed heavy on this woman. She may not have raised her daughter, but there was something akin to love there. Compelled to spare her continued pain, he sat on the edge of the desk. “Rayna lives,” he spoke softly. “After you all fled, we dug her from the earth where she hid under her burnt tree. She was barely breathing, but alive all the same.”

Fenia darted to his side, and she grabbed his shoulders. “Don’t lie to me for sympathy. I will not harbor my daughter’s killer. I will kill you or see it done when I get the chance.”

“I speak the truth.” He pushed her away and slipped around the desk. “Do you think I could stand here knowing her murderer stood on deck? I would fight Keegan with my dying breath because I could not live without her.”

His words sank deep into the Fenia. The shift in her expression bounced between joy and sorrow. “I still will not help you. This life is not for the weak. The one rule in the real world is a kill or be killed. Denmir and I made a mistake following Keegan, but we owned it. When Rayna was born, we had two choices—feed her to the sea or pay a trader to escort her to Katori. We could not let her grow up with Keegan, so we paid very well to see her safe return. My golden bracelet embedded with five jewels delivered her to her Aunt Mina.”

The very thought that Fenia trusted anyone in her line of business made Kai roll his eyes. “Rayna was not delivered to Katori,” he announced. “She was dumped in Port Anahita with little more than a blanket, her name stitched on the corner. Luckily good people raised her before the worst happened, and when the