The stream of red gave a small crack of light, sealing Aegir’s vow. “Now, if you don’t mind,” he said, rubbing his thumb against his index finger and watching the broken skin close, “before you freeze our oxygen supply.” He tossed a glance at the tall succulents lining the walls.
Slowly, the touch of water against my senses returned.
Aegir crooked his arm and flexed his fingers as though vaguely mystified by the sensation of it. “Cebrinne and I have struck a deal,” he said, “but I need to know where you stand.”
With my sister. Unquestioningly. Unwaveringly. Undoubtedly. Always, no matter how angry I was at her. Always, always, always.
But I took my time answering, offering a tentative, “What deal did you strike?”
“He’s going to help us find the stones,” Cebrinne answered. “And we’re going to gather information for him. About Thaan.” I met her eyes from across Pheolix, and though her voice remained firm, her mouth twitched with uncertainty. “Well. I’m going to gather information at least.”
Aegir took a step forward. “This agreement only works if all parties concede.”
“To spy on Thaan,” I clarified.
Aegir’s eyes dropped to mine. “Yes.”
“And conspire his death.”
“Yes.”
I shifted weight between my feet. Killing Thaan wasn’t part of my plan. It had always been part of Cebrinne’s but not mine. I would have been happy to break her from her contract and run, hiding among obscure coasts and port cities, taking on the life of a nomad. Adopting a trade like beading or sewing, drifting from place to place. It would be easy, with the ability toincanthumans. We could stay in villas or mansions and never leave a trace.
“What if we don’t agree?” I asked, though internally I already had. I’d acceded before I even knew there was something to assent.
Cebrinne’s eyes cut a line in my direction, but I kept my gaze on Aegir.
“I can’t allow a drone and twoPrizivac Vodesto leave alive while knowing they were sent to trap me,” he said softly. “But I've just vowed not to harm you. You'd live out your days here.”
I nodded. “I guess I don't have a choice, then. I agree.” Aegir dipped his head, and then everyone looked at Pheolix. The drone’s jaw tensed. He darted a look at me then back to Aegir. “What will happen to Thaan’s servants?”
“Are any of them loyal to him?”
Selena and I shook our heads. Pheolix didn’t move. Aegir studied him, calm calculation in his stare. “If they do not retaliate, I have no reason to want them dead.”
“You’ll swear that in your blood as well?” Pheolix asked.
Aegir turned his cheek slightly. “That one I won’t vow to. But I have no intentions of stealing life from the innocent. You’ll have to take me at my bare word, drone.”
Pheolix released a deep, quiet breath, glancing down at the knife in his hand. He twirled it between his fingers, more slowly than he had in the room we’d been placed in, watching it rotate across his palm. “All right,” he said. “I agree. If I get even a whiff of a threat from you, you’ll already be bleeding out on the floor.”
11
Cebrinne
“We’re dead.”
“You’re not dead,” I snapped at Selena.
She tossed her luminous dark hair over a shoulder, blue eyes flaming with undoused anger. “If Thaan suspects for even a moment that we’ve double-crossed him, we’re dead.”
“There’s nowe,” I tossed back. The carriage wheel dropped into a hole in the rock, and we each jounced. “You’re free, Senna. You can go. At any moment, you can justleave.”
She stared me down, the cut of betrayal deep in her gaze. As though I were someone she suddenly didn’t recognize.
I rocked my skull against the cushioned backrest, searching the ceiling of our coach for an answer for her. “I can’t do it anymore, Senna. I see my life stretched before me, and death suddenly feels like a salve to a wound that will only fester. The last two weeks, taking thesesanguis proditionis,having free rein over my voice, my clothes, my very thoughts…” I closed my eyes. “I’ve come up for air when I didn’t realize I was drowning. Returning to Calder now feels like preparing to fill my lungs with water. I signed Thaan’s contract so he wouldn’t kill us, but I never cared about what happened to me. You can escape. You cango.”
She said nothing. Across from us, Pheolix slept with his temple tucked against the glass, eyes hidden under the hem of his hood.
