From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

yyour people veryy well, but I would think that theyy have learned a lesson.”
He took a drink. “What I did disturbs yyou.”
I knew that wasn’t a question. Myy gaze shifted back to myy plate. Did
it disturb me? Yes. I think it would unsettle most. Or at least, I hoped so.
The blatancyy of the kind of violence he was capable of was shocking if not
entirelyy surprising, further separating him from the guard I knew as
Hawke.
“Eat,” he said again, lowering his cup. “I know yyou need to eat more
than that.”
I bit back the urge to tell him I was capable of determining how much
food I needed to consume. Instead, I opened myy senses to him. The
anguish there was different, tasting…tangyy and almost bitter. The urge to
reach out to him hit hard, causing me to curl one hand in myy lap. Had what
happened between us caused this? Was it what he’d done to his own
supporters? It could possiblyy be both. I reached for myy drink, closing myy
eyyes, and when I reopened them, I found him watching me through thick
lashes.
I could tell him that it did bother me. I could sayy nothing at all. I
imagined that perhaps he expected one of those two things from me. But I
told him the truth. Not because I felt like I owed it to him, but because I
owed it to myyself.
“When I saw them, it horrified me. That was shocking, especiallyy Mr.
Tulis. What yyou did was surprising, but what disturbs me the most is that I
—” I drew in a deep breath. “I don’t feel all that bad.”
Those heavyy lids lifted, and his stare was piercing.
“Those people laughed when Jericho talked about cutting myy hand
off. Cheered when I bled and screamed and offered other options for
pieces for Jericho to carve and keep,” I said, and the silence around us was
almost unbearable. “I’d never even met most of them before, and theyy
were happyy to see me ripped apart. So, I don’t feel syympathyy.”
“Theyy don’t deserve it,” he stated quietlyy.
“Agreed,” Kieran murmured.
I lifted myy chin. “But theyy’re still mortal—or Atlantian. Theyy still
deserve dignityy in death.”
“Theyy didn’t believe yyou deserved anyy dignityy,” he stated.
“Theyy were wrong, but that doesn’t make this right,” I said.