“Sell me the ring?” I asked, uncertain why it grabbed my attention the way it did. “A patron might wish to buy that off you.”
“This?” she asked as she held up her hand.
I swear I felt something from the arrowhead hidden at my chest.
“It’s probably not worth much either,” she continued, but her pupils dilated as she stared at the coins. “But okay.”
She tugged the band from her finger and dropped it in my hand. I let the coins fall into hers, and she blinked slowly.
“Thank you,” I said, my voice scraping. My throat bobbed, and I held her gaze for a moment.
Her tawny eyes were thoughtful. “Leave when you hear me return to the room next door,” she muttered. “Make sure the door clicks on the way out. Good luck.”
With that, she slipped from the room. I slid the dull ring onto my finger and waited.
Minutes later, the deep slur of a drunken man barked down the hallway, followed by the soft croon of Delia’s voice, and the adjacent door creaked open. Thunder growled in the sky, and I took a deep breath before slipping into the dark alley and clicking the back door to the brothel shut.
Mount Telum’sglowing red spires reached ominously to the sky as I sprinted for the castle, my mind replaying the harrowing events of the night. Vander was notVander. Something had slipped into him, and whatever it was, it wanted my arrowhead.
I needed to speak with Ronan. He’d been guarded around Vander since the beginning. Had he suspected something? My lungs burned as I pushed myself to move faster. What if Vander had seen me enter the brothel and waited for me to leave?
I shook my head. No, whatever creature lurked inside Vander would have clawed its way into that establishment to get what it wanted.
Something rumbled in the distance, and I frowned, glancing up to the clear skies. The storm had long since passed, and the sound sent my heart pumping faster.
I skidded to a stop as I reached the castle, taking the side servant entrance in lieu of the soldier entrance. The guards nodded to me, and I hurried down the hall.
I skidded past the galley on the lower level, where the cooks and kitchen maids were already busy at work. I slowed my pace as I neared the training yards, tiptoeing through the hall and into a large room.
The guard manning the armory nodded as I snatched a bow and quiver of arrows from the wall. My eyes lingered on the neighboring room, where we housed what remained of the rubelline weapons.
White daggers, air cannonballs, spearheads, and arrows sat in crates beyond the door. We hadn’t used any since the siege of Aedrialis last year. Since Mount Telum was one massive nullifier, they didn’t really have a use here.
I strode past the guard, and he lifted a head as I snatched a rubelline arrow from the stock. His bristly brows furrowed in question, and I shrugged.
“The high steward requested one today,” I lied.
He grunted his response and went back to sharpening the blade in his hand. Another rumble echoed in the distance, and my heart beat in time to the reverberation that hit the massive fortress.What the fuck…
I hurried from the hall, rushing past various rooms. My stomach hiked into my throat at each shadow.
Where the fuck was Ronan?
My thighs burned as I sprinted up the stone staircase to the base of the castle. The red glow of the fortress lit my way in the dark. The gray Juniper Sea met a powdery, deep purple smear on the horizon. My gaze lingered at the docks in the distance, and I swear I caught movement in the waves. I pulled my attention back to the matter at hand and ran the length of the rampart.
Relief swelled in my chest as Ronan’s voice carried in the distance. I rounded the corner, scanning the empty battlement when he barked something from below.
The training courtyard.
I rushed to the edge of the marble balustrade and pulled up short as my eyes landed on the back of Vander’s head.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
EVONY
But daughters take caution—Herrah lostallin the gods’ first fall.
– Eghan Family Stone.
