Chapter 168: Ryder’s Fury
But there was no time to explore those thoughts further, not now, not with Reana so fragile, standing in front of him as if the weight of the world had just been thrust upon her.
"Why are you keeping him alive?" Ryder said finally, his voice low and steady, "You know he’s after your life, yet you let him live. Why?"
Reana squeezed his hand, and he pulled her a little closer, as if to shield her from the world itself.
"My father made me promise to protect and look after them." Her fingers tightened around his, a desperate gesture, as though trying to hold on to something solid in her world that had just been turned upside down.
"Just a promise?" He frowned with displeasure. He didn’t like the sound of that. A stupid verbal promise that has turned his woman into a prisoner.
She shook her head lightly, her lips stretched into a bitter smile. "It was not just a promise made by the tongue. It was sealed by the Roughmans’ blood, Ryder," she whispered, her eyes looking distant as if she could still see the weight of her father’s final words hovering in the air. "It was taken before the Goddess."
Ryder’s brow furrowed, a mix of confusion and frustration swirling within him. "So, you’d rather keep a threat to your life alive than break that promise?"
Reana’s breath trembled. Honestly, she’d been tempted a number of times to tear Kael’s throat from his neck, but it could only be a wishful thinking. "I wasn’t the only one who took an oath to not raise a sword against them. They were made to swear too. But they broke their oath. That’s why their hearts has grown darker."
She shook her head, "I don’t want to be like them, Ryder. The Roughman has a centuries-old tradition– "
"You think you know that better than I do?" He raised an eyebrow. He knew the Roughman tradition better than anyone ever would. In fact, he made that tradition for them to follow.
Reana blinked as the realization hit her. Right. He was a centuries-old monster, likely more attuned to the Roughman’s traditions than anyone else could ever be.