“The broadcast is in two hours. Make sure whatever you do to her doesn’t show, and don’t be late.”
“Yes, sir,” Arcane said as he started to walk toward his lab, forcing me to follow him by my chains.
“And Scotlind,” the King added just before we reached the doors of the ballroom, “I don’t think I need to remind you that if you mess up, your friend will be the one who pays the price.”
THIRTY-SIX
SIE
“What is this place?”
When Savannah asked me to take her somewhere, I assumed it was close by, but I was beginning to question her judgment for what she considered a short trip.
Beads of sweat were dripping down my temples by the time she finally announced we were here. But I wasn’t about to admit I felt exhilarated instead of exhausted. It was the most amount of jumps I’d made in a long time, and it felt freeing to move that openly.
I was starting to notice the effects on my body from weeks ofnotconsuming a daily poison. I was getting stronger, getting back to my old self again, and it felt fucking good.
I found I liked doing new things—things I never would have even considered before my time in the prison. My memories were tampered with. I had to constantly convince myself I was free, that I wasn’t stuck in some illusion a Tennebrisian guard projected onto me.
I was still having trouble waking up every morning. Even when I spent time with Peter, I found myself touching my forearm just to check for broken bones.
And despite the fact that this human girl annoyed me to no end, I savored that I knew I was in the present moment with her. I wasn’t cast in another illusion thousands of feet underwater in some suspended cage. I was out because there was no way in hell my mind could have conjured up something like Savannah. Whenever I was with her, I didn’t have to question my reality.
It made her annoyingly intoxicating.
I’d never let anyone dictate where I’d jump before, and I must be starting to go insane because I agreed almost immediately when she had asked. Maybe I just wanted to be with her for a little while longer. Maybe I didn’t want my mind to play tricks on me. Maybe I just didn’t want to think about Scotlind and how I failed her again…Trust me.
Fuck trust.
I just wanted a small reprieve from the current fuckery that was my life. I didn’t want to go back to a camp that was too cramped. I didn’t want to worry about whether or not this plan would work. And I definitely didn’t want to fucking think about what would happen if it did work. Scottie still wouldn’t be mine. I lost her and no plan I conjured would bring her back to me in the way I wanted.
“It’s called the dead river,” Savannah said as she headed for the bank. “I come here whenever I want to feel alive.”
I scanned the area, wiping the sweat off my forehead despite the chill in the air. There wasn’t another soul in sight, but the river still performed. A constant current flowed down the base with an occasional fish splashing and breaking the surface. Wildlife was hidden from us, but if I listened closely, I could hear that we were still surrounded by it. Lavender flowers, the same shade as Savannah’s hair, were sprouting on the other side of the bank. I couldn’t understand how something so delicate survived in a harsh climate. My breath was a constant cloud of smoke in front of me, and if it weren’t for the layers of clotheswe were provided before we set out to scope the meeting grounds, my balls would have frozen off.
Savannah made her way toward the river’s edge, and despite the freezing temperatures, she sank into the snow, curling her feet behind her. “What are you doing?”
“Enjoying the water.”
“I mean, what are you doing here? Why did you want to come? Why make me bring you?”
“To enjoy the water,” she repeated as if that answer should’ve been obvious.
I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. I was long overdue for a cut, it was almost as long as hers, stopping just above my shoulders. “You did not just make me teleport you for the past hour so you could look atwater. There’s water back at the camp.”
She turned to glare at me, her palms sinking further into the snow, and fuck, she looked serene amongst the white powder. She was so out of place, just like the purple flowers amongst the winter, but yet somehow she still belonged.
I had no idea how she was managing because humans were even less adapted to temperature changes than Advenians. Tennebris was colder around the border of the shields, but we were never outside long enough to feel the numbness from it.
“I didn’t make you do anything. You agreed. And the water isn’t the same at the camp. I like it here better.”
“Why?” I asked as I started making my way toward her on the bank, mainly because I had nothing else to do.
“Because no one ever comes here. I like being alone and not in a camp full of Advenians—”
She cut herself off, but she didn’t have to finish her thought for me to imagine what she was going to say. I felt the same way. Even though I was in awe at what Tezya created, I fucking hated it. The camp was everything Scotlind ever wanted. She had asked me if it was possible one of the nights at the lakewhen we were still married, and I told her no. It felt like a reminder of everything I lost, and for once in my life, I didn’t know what to do next. I was supposed to be the king. I was supposed to be with Scotlind. And all the fucking Advenians at the camp who stared at me everywhere I went… they knew it. They knew, and I was growing sick of their judgment.
I sat down next to her in the snow but didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what Savannah’s life was like, but I saw the way some of the soldiers interacted with her. How she’d get pissed off whenever one of them called herLavender. At first, I hated myself for watching her. The fact that I even knew what she did in her spare time was infuriating.
