I spear my gaze into the corner of the dark cell beside ours, finding a fae hiding in the shadows, bunched in a slow-rocking knot—a shroud of full-bodied hair tangled around her face and curled shoulders.
My heart stops, then smashes so hard and fast it makes my ribs feel like they’re caving in.
Thick, curly hair …
Freckles streaked in blood …
Glistening ember eyes—hollow. The hollow that comes to folk after they’ve been here for too long …
“Veya?”
She blinks, releasing tears that streak through the filth on her cheeks as she nods.
My stomach flips.
“What areyoudoing here?”
“I—” The words sputter, like this place has already stuffed her mouth full of stones. More tears slip down her cheeks, and I curse beneath my breath.
Veya’s eyes widen as footsteps echo down the hall. Many.
Heavy.
Panic wraps its hands around my throat andsqueezes.
“I’m s-so sorry,” Veya rasps, and a sinking sensation drops through me at the desperate pitch of her tone.
“For what?” I frown. “What happened? Does he have Kaan?”
Her face crumbles at the mention of her brother.
Please, no …
Please—
“I wish I knew. But …” She spears a glance down the tunnel, and I glimpse the remnants of a rune cut into her temple—struck through. “He knows everything, Raeve.He—” Her gaze flicks to Kyzari, more tears welling as she gasps, hands coming up to claw at her jaw and mouth. Like she’s trying to rip the words free and pass them to me.
“Hedid this?” I press, jerking my chin down at the princess.“Arkyn beat her?”
Veya nods, binding her knees with her arms. She drops her head and begins to rock again, tucked so small she could easily be mistaken for a tortured child. Bearing none of the fierceness I saw from her back in Dhomm. None of the swagger.
A flower stripped of everything but the stalk.
I look from her to Kyzari, back again, something inside me boiling up. A fierce cold that burns, spreading through the veins in my arms until it’s settling at the tips of my fingers—alive.
Waiting.
The steps continue to echo, growing so loud I know they’re but a few turns away as I look down, heavy with a strange yearning to sweep Kyzari up in a hug. To harden around her like a dying dragon and protect her with everything that I am.
Knowing better, I do the opposite. Because in this place of greed and pain, Arkyn scavenges everything but bones and blistered souls. He takes happy, living things and chars the fucking life from their eyes, turning them just as broken and lonely as he is.
And those I show affection for …
They end up dead, no matter how hard I fight.
I ease Kyzari into the corner, almost certain she’ll fall apart the moment I let go. Like a fissured moon that’s barely holding shape. Since I’ve never been very good at holding things together anyway, I lift Kaan’s málmr from around my neck and slip it over her head, resting the carving in the scoop of her clammy hand. “Your uncle’s málmr. To keep you safe and strong,” I murmur, tucking the frayed blanket up over her bladed shoulder. “Look after it for me.”
Her fingers twitch as the thundering clamor of booted steps intensifies.
