Echo stares at her for a tense moment before her eyes drift to me. The darkness swirling inside the gold makes me shiver.I’ve never seen eyes move with the shadows of the Underworld before.
“We got an annulment,” I blurt, her gaze making me want to fill the silence with nothing but the truth. “And he’s getting married toEvangeline. Can you please not tell him we’re here?”
She doesn’t say a word.
“I’ll enrol. I’ll do whatever you –”
“Arienna,” Fabia hisses, but I just shake my head at her.
“I want to learn how to fight. I’m not weak. I can do this.”
“Echo –” Fabia tries, but when the woman glances at her, she instantly stops talking.
“And I want to learn how to do that.” A giggle pulls at my chest for the first time in seemingly forever. “She tells me off a lot.”
Snorting, my best friend mumbles something underneath her breath. It sounds a lot like,“You deserve it,” which can’t be right because she tells me off for no reason all the time.
Swallowing, I look at Echo, praying she’ll let me stay. I want to show Richard how stupid he’s being.
More importantly, I need this for me. My whole life I’ve followed rules that other people put on me. First with the cult, then with Richard’s idea of a wife. Even Fabia tells me what to do, and I do listen to her most of the time.
But I want to be me now.
I want to learn whomeis.
Staring into Echo’s eyes, I lift my chin.
Turning abruptly, she says, “Come. I’ll show you to your room.”
My heart hammering, I follow her out.
The hall is long, straight, and bare with numerous doors leading off it. We only turn two corners in five minutes of walking, and then Echo stops outside a door that looks exactlythe same as all the others. She raps once, then opens it as she says, “Stevie.”
“Yes, Captain?”
A little girl, no more than six or seven stands at attention in front of a bunk bed, her back straight, her legs together, her chin up, and her arms behind her back. The room is smaller than Echo’s office, only really big enough for two bunk beds pressed against opposite walls, a locker at the foot of them, and space for the door to swing open between. Two other kids stand at attention – a boy and a girl, both roughly the same age and dressed in a plain brown uniform.
“This is your new squad member,” Echo says.
Stevie glances at me, her nose wrinkling. “She’s old.”
Hey.
“She has the skills of a newborn.”
My cheeks heating, I glance at Fabia, but she looks at me with zero sympathy.This is what you wanted.
Stevie snickers once, then clears her throat as her back straightens even more. “I will whip her into shape, Captain.”
“I know. Because her failure is whose?”
“Ours,” the three kids say in unison.
Nodding, Echo leaves. Fabia shoves me into the room. “Enjoy. I’m going to find my own squadron, assuming I’m no longer working in the castle.”
“I’m sor–” I start to say, but she brushes me off as she leaves. She never did like accepting apologies. I used to be annoyed at that, but as I watch her leave, I realise I don’t mind it so much. Forgiveness is not a given. It is won.
Taking a deep breath, I turn to the kids. “So… which bed is mine?”
