Kingdom of Ash

But then he said, “You are well and truly
Lady of Perranth now.”
She knew. She’d thought about it endlessly
during these hard days of travel. “This is what
you really wish to talk about?”
His fingers didn’t halt their miraculous,
sinful work. “We haven’t spoken of it. About
Vernon.”
“What of it?” she said, trying and failing
for nonchalance. But he looked up at her from
beneath his thick lashes. Well aware of her
evasion. Elide loosed a breath, peering up at
the tent’s peaked ceiling. “Does it make me
any better than Vernon—how I chose to
punish him in the end?”
She hadn’t regretted it the first day. Or the
second. But these long miles, as it had become
clear that Vernon was likely dead, she’d
wondered.
“Only you can decide that, I think,” Lorcan