Shadow and Bone

“I’ve given you power beyond all dreaming, and you can’t
wait to run off and keep house for your tracker.”
I knew I should stay silent, play the diplomat, but I couldn’t
help myself. “You haven’t given me anything. You’ve made
me a slave.”
“That’s never what I intended, Alina.” He ran a hand over
his jaw, his expression fatigued, frustrated, human. But how
much of it was real and how much was pretense? “I couldn’t
take chances,” he said. “Not with the power of the stag, not
with Ravka’s future hanging in the balance.”
“Don’t pretend this is about Ravka’s welfare. You lied to
me. You’ve been lying to me since the moment I met you.”
His long fingers tightened around the glass. “Did you
deserve my trust?” he asked, and for once, his voice was less
than steady and cold. “Baghra whispers a few accusations in
your ear, and off you go. Did you ever stop to think of what it
would mean for me, for all of Ravka, if you just disappeared?”
“You didn’t give me much choice.”
“Of course you had a choice. And you chose to turn your
back on your country, on everything that you are.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Fairness!” he laughed. “Still she talks of fairness. What
does fairness have to do with any of this? The people curse my
name and pray for you, but you’re the one who was ready to
abandon them. I’m the one who will give them power over
their enemies. I’m the one who will free them from the
tyranny of the King.”
“And give them your tyranny in return.”
“Someone has to lead, Alina. Someone has to end this.
Believe me, I wish there were another way.”
He sounded so sincere, so reasonable, less a creature of
relentless ambition than a man who believed he was doing the
right thing for his people. Despite all he’d done and all he
intended, I did almost believe him. Almost.
I gave a single shake of my head.