“Yes. All of us.” It’s clear she won’t leave without the twins.
Tension coils inside me. Every moment we stand here talking is one we could be retreating.
“Absolutely not,” she counters sharply. “There is no ‘we’ here, Hunter. No ‘us.’ There’s the three of us and then there’s you. After everything you’ve done, why would you think I would come with you?”
A knife to the heart would hurt less than her words, and that also doesn’t make sense.
On one hand, I understand where she’s coming from. I know who I am and what I did. The rest of my life will be spent atoning for my sins. I had no idea that when I was hunting escaped Marked Ones, I was returning them so they could be killed.
On the other hand, we are in the capital and far too close to the bloodthirsty king to be debating this.
My chest fills with an anxious thrum, and I can feel Mist tugging on our bond. She’s looking for me, and I can picture her pacing the forests outside Rosebridge, wondering where I am.
Her panic seeps into me, and my next words come out sharper than I intended. “You don’t want to come with me?”
“Certainly not,” Wren retorts.
“Hmm.” I nod as if we have all the time in the world. “I see. So your plan is to stay here and wait for the king to return? Or perhaps, you’re hoping to take your chances in the tunnels?”
Wren lifts her chin. “I’ll find a way to get myself and my sisters out.”
Her sisters. I file the information away, grateful for an answer to at least one of my questions.
“You’ll never make it out.”
Her nostrils flare. “Yes, we will. I got us this far.”
“Do you consider this a success?” I gesture to the scattered bodies around us. The blood on the floor.
She lifts her chin, and the defiant look in her eyes does something wholly inappropriate to me.
“We’re alive, aren’t we? I’d consider that a version of success. Even if...” Her voice falters as she looks at her dead friend, then away, regaining her composure. “Yes,” she says more firmly, “it is.”
Gods, this woman. Her fight is strong, and I’m drawn to her fire like a moth to a flame. Her Mark glows brighter, casting us both in blue.
“I can get us out of here,” she continues, not seeming to notice her flaring Mark. “We can get to the Sapphire Coast. We’ll find a boat, and?—”
“No, you won’t.” I laugh, but it lacks all warmth.
“No?” She sounds incredulous. “Yes, we will.”
I shake my head. “The king will find you. You have angered him, and he will use every means in his possession to find you.”
And when he does . . .
My back constricts as memories of hundreds of lashings race through my mind. Every time the king had a bad day, or he wasin a foul mood, or he wanted to have some “fun,” he would seek me out and use me to get his demons out.
His own bastard son.
One of the twins whimpers, and a tear slides down her cheek. “Birdie, I don’t want the king to get us. He scares me.”
“I know he does. He’s not a good man.” Wren gathers her sister against her side and glares at me. “See what you’ve done? You frightened them.”
My eyes bulge.Me?I’m the one scaring them? Wren’s the one suggesting that they stay down here and wait for the king.
Something tells me that particular argument won’t go over well.
I gesture behind us with my free hand. “These tunnels run for miles in every direction. They are mazes. Without a guide, you will never find your way out.”
