Traitor Read Online Free PDF Page A

all of this, but it was obviously affecting him. He had the same weary, dark circles under his eyes Bren had.
    “We don’t have much time. You need to leave soon.” Sile turned away to look at Mavrik. “Don’t tell anyone you saw me here.”
    I doubted anyone would believe me if I did. I wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten here in the first place. But as he started to walk away, I just had one more question.
    “What about Beckah?”
    Sile stopped mid-stride. He shot me a glare that probably would have singed my eyebrows right off my face if I’d been standing a little closer. “What about her?”
    “I just wondered what made you change your mind about her. You trained her to fight. You sent her into battle without a wing end. You did everything you said shouldn’t be done for a girl.” I tried to at least keep my tone neutral, even if my questions were somewhat accusing.
    I knew I had no place to interrogate him about his parenting choices. After all, he’d threatened to rip my ears off if he ever found me messing with his lovely young daughter. Unfortunately, that ship had sailed. I was in love with her. And now I wanted to know why he had gone from being adamantly against her being a dragonrider to training her for it himself.
    “I did what had to be done.” He didn’t sound happy about it at all. “There’s a reason she was chosen. I may not agree with it, or understand it, but at this point those choices are no longer mine to make. All I can do is try to prepare her for the worst.”
    “She could get hurt,” I reminded him. “Or killed.”
    Sile snorted and cast me a dark, almost mocking smirk. “You won’t let that happen.” It sort of sounded like a threat.
    “There may not be anything I can do about it, Sile. No matter how much I love her, I can’t bring people back from the dead. And at the rate she’s going—”
    He was on me before I could finish getting the words out. He lunged so suddenly, I barely had time to react. He took a swing at my face, and I blocked. He tried to grab one of my arms and force me down into a grappling hold, but I knew these tricks already. I hadn’t just spent a year in absolute hell for nothing.
    I twisted myself around, wrenching free of his grasp. Before I could catch myself or even think about it, my body reacted. I punched him hard across the cheek, twice.
    I could have stopped there. I probably should have. Those hits had only been instinct, after all, and he was the one who’d started it in the first place. But it felt so good to get a little vengeance for all the frustration and lies. So I hit him again, one more time, right in the gut. That one was just for spite.
    We broke apart and staggered back, glaring at one another. I was poised, ready to dive right back into the fight again if he sprang at me. My face was burning with rage as I waited to see what he would do.
    I had a pretty good idea why he had jumped me in the first place. Now he knew how I felt about his daughter. Considering her current situation, it was probably a bad time to bring that up. Regardless, I had my own reasons for wanting to punch his nose in. I hadn’t completely forgiven him for holding out on me—keeping valuable information out of my grasp. Not knowing that stuff had almost gotten me killed several times now.
    But Sile wasn’t going to budge. I knew him well enough to guess that much. He wouldn’t tell me anything, no matter how many times I hit him. He’d never tell me what he really knew about my past, my mother, or what my father stealing the god stone had to do with any of this.
    “Not bad.” Sile laughed dryly as he wiped blood from the corner of his mouth onto the back of his hand. “Looks like you did learn something after all.”
    “Why did you even come here?” I tried to sound intimidating. “Was there a reason? Or were you just checking to see if I was still alive?”
    Sile let his arms drop. He stood, frowning at me like I was still a big