“Mull … ene got us.”
Night crouched down too, his face popping into view. “Mauldrene got you?”
“Hm.”
“How?”
“Hm.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“We’ll have to wait for the details,” Aziza said. “Perfect. I fucking love waiting for shit.”
“Hm.”
She faced me. “What about the traitorous bitch? Can she string together more than ogre grunts?”
“Hm,” I said.
She leaned back on her heels. “Great, that’s scorching fantastic.”
Edwidge sat on the couch, keeping to the front edge of the cushions so she could leap to her feet in an instant. With the toe of her boot, she nudged at the Rillis rope, as if expecting it to rear up and bite like a viper.
“How can we tell if it’s still working?” she asked the others.
“It’s a Rillis rope,” Félix said. “It’s working.”
Night disappeared from my view. “Hey, look.”
“It’s a book,” Edwidge said in a tone that suggested she’d never seen one before.
“Yep,” Night said. “Can’t read it.”
So he’d picked it up from where it had fumbled from my hands. I tried to yell at him to drop it: that book was mine. I had found it. I had held on to it when it had felt like my own guts were going to come out through my nose. My hm didn’t succeed in conveying my outrage.
Night sank onto the couch beside Edwidge to open the book on his lap. At least the tail that emerged from the spine was tucked away.
The book’s secrets belonged to me.
Aziza and Félix sidled behind Night. Edwidge leaned over to get a closer look.
“I’ve never seen this language before,” Aziza said.
“Neither have I,” said Edwidge.
Night flipped through the book with far less care than I would have.
The static in my hearing and mind had finally quieted. When I rolled onto my side and got my hand under my head, my reality tipped and wavered, but I wouldn’t let myself go back down.
This won’t last forever. It will end, I reminded myself again.
I would break free of this prison and then I’d never allow myself to be captured again—not ever.
I had vowed something similar when I’d emerged from my underwater sarcophagus, and then again after I’d been released from Zaraga’s palace prison. But this time … this time I would achieve it.
Night swiveled to glance up at the elf.
“How ’bout you?”
