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I watched as Vessina swallowed the fragments of her body and then followed Reyna through the room. Before she left the kitchen, Reyna turned back to me.
“Ladon, I think you have more cleaning to do.”
Indeed. Red stains covered the floor, and so did a pile of ash. It was all that remained of the two twins, except for a small ring I found amid the ashes. A silver band with a family crest bearing the letter ‘M.’
I worked too late into the evening to be called for Reyna’s services that evening. When I returned to our bedroom, Emilie rushed over to me and flung her arms around my neck.
I paused, momentarily stunned by her actions, and then I wrapped my arms around her back and held her close. Images of the girl being torn to shreds haunted me when I closed my eyes. Images that could’ve just as easily been Emilie, had she not been given an antidote on our first day.
She pulled back far enough to look at my face. “Where were you? I was starting to worry.”
I smirked, though it felt more forced than usual. “Feeling lost without me, princess?”
From the way she tilted her head, I could tell she wasn’t in a playful mood.
I sighed and then locked eyes with her. “We need to get out. Now.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ladon
Emilie was properly horrified as I recounted the events of that night. Our sense of urgency was renewed, and we began to train every day and night. Every moment of free time was spent with her learning to fight and defend herself while I pulled the magic from her tattoos and stored it for the right moment.
The problem was, neither of us knew when that moment might be. Emilie had the harpy looking for other entrances to the tunnel, but so far she’d hadn’t come up with anything.
We couldn’t risk waiting any longer. Ultimately, we decided that the harpy would have to unlock our room, and we’d escape through the Scholars’ Cavern. The harpy understood the risk, and only agreed to the plan when we compromised and agreed to wait until a day when Reyna had left the mountain. That way, the harpy wouldn’t risk getting caught.
Waiting was torture in and of itself. After witnessing the twins’ death, I couldn’t wait to get out of the mountain and far, far away from Reyna’s clutches. I didn’t want to think of the possible demises she had planned for Emilie and me.
My thoughts were interrupted when Emilie huffed in frustration. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Her source of frustration was immediately apparent. She’d been working through a course of exercises I’d given her when snow began to fall through the crate in the ceiling.
I snorted. “If you work faster, you’ll hardly notice the cold.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, but she took my advice and quickened her pace, jogging while bringing her knees to waist level.
“Higher,” I said and laughed when she scowled. She’d shown immense progress in a short period of time. While I still didn’t think a textbook was a sufficient way to learn, Emilie seemed to absorb the information faster with its help. When we weren’t practicing tactics, her nose was buried in that book, memorizing the illustrations. If I had to guess, I’d say she’d surpassed some of my novice soldiers already.
“Why aren’t you training?” she asked between heavy breaths.
“Because I’m already in shape.”
“So you’re just going to watch me instead? You could be doing anything else. Anything other than monitoring me.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I prefer to watch you.”
I could’ve sworn the pink that stained her cheeks was from more than the physical exertion. It was true. I could’ve watched her all day and never gotten bored.
But my plans to do just that were interrupted when the door to our room opened. Emilie quickly stopped her exercises, and I stood up beside her.
“Reyna requests both of you this evening,” Luther announced as he stepped into the room, wearing his typical black uniform and face paint.
Requests. As if it were something we could say no to.
We were too close to our escape to cause trouble now, so I followed without resistance, and so did Emilie.
But as we walked through the halls, I couldn’t help but notice something different about Emilie. The usual look of dread on her face had been replaced by something else. Something wild and ruthless. It reminded me of that day in Osavian. Of how she looked at me right before throwing a dagger at my head.
