My eyes search his uncomprehendingly. ‘Who?’
But at hearing the name, images flood my mind like a wall of snow coming down the mountain, flattening everything in its path, forever altering the landscape. A woman. A human woman. A slave in the Dark. Too thin with beautiful, expressive eyes, long, dark hair, and a laugh that could melt even the stoniest of hearts.
Like mine.
Bryn.
I’m absently aware of my own tankard clattering to the floor.
‘We left her,’ he breathes. ‘We promised her we’d save her, but we just…’
He sits down hard as if his legs can no longer hold him. The devastation in his countenance mirrors my own. I stare down at my spilled drink, memories of her and of our journey rolling around and around, the feelings that I felt for her that were gone suddenly rushing back, filling my heart with joy and yet utter anguish. How could I have let this happen?
I was to protect her…I just didn’t realize it would need to be from someone I trusted, someone I considered my kin.
‘I let Locke pull her around by that collar,’ I whisper, feeling sicker and more bleak by the moment. ‘I let her be treated like she was worth nothing to me.’
‘I walked right past her. She called out to me. Kings hit her. I remember thinking it was regrettable that we couldn’t save all of them and then I just…forgot about her. We left her to her fate in Merediea.’
He lurches up and runs from the tavern, the door slamming hard behind him.
I follow as slowly as possible, letting the humans move out of my way so I don’t start a stampede. I find Jak outside retching by the wall in the light of the doorway torch.
‘Gods, Morgan,’ he chokes out. ‘What have we done? How could we…? Why did we?—?’
‘It was Locke!’ I snarl.
My fists clench, knuckles popping with the force of it. Saying it out loud makes me even angrier.
What has he done?
CHAPTER 2
BRYN
My side feels better when I wake. It’s no longer hot to the touch. The rest of me hurts, but I barely acknowledge the pain. That’s not how a human down here lives another day.
The gates unlock loudly and my eyes snap open.
Fuck!
I slept too long.
I lurch up, gritting my teeth and making my way quickly toward the river to drink before the training begins. Someone pushes me, and I shove back with a snarl, not even looking in their direction, but there are too many making their way to the gates and I can’t get to the water.
None for me this morning.
I turn in silence, my jaw working, and shuffle with the others out to the training grounds. I’m put in a circle with another woman I don’t know. We never begin until we’re told, so we just stare at each other, sizing each other up.
She’s blonde. Her hair is shorn very short. She likely did it herself with a sharp stone so that it can’t be used against her. She’s thin. Been here awhile. But she won’t be as weak as shelooks. There’s a jagged, angry scar across her face. It’s made her eye look perpetually swollen. She can barely open it.
But I don’t fall for that. It probably isn’t as bad as she’s making it look; a trick so that I underestimate her. I tense, ready for the signal horn that will commence the practice. I see her body coil as well, and I brace for her to throw herself toward me.
‘That one!’
I’m grabbed by the scruff of the neck and pulled from the circle by one of the overseers.
Survive.
