“You’d better not.” Sorza scoops up her bag and walks out the door.
I’m not far behind. It’s been four days since I last saw Arina. I’m sure Gregor figured things out, but it’s well past time for me to relieve him. Hopefully, since Emilia was here, that means that the Worldkeepers haven’t been under threat in the city and things have been quiet—
The distant echo of a scream has me halting in my tracks. Ice surges through my veins.
Arina.
Chapter 39
I begin running. The sounds of Arina’s screams tear through me, echoing louder and louder the deeper I go. Each scream is a dagger. Every other thought I have bleeds out.
My sister needs me.
I throw open the door to her apartments and dart right for her room. Gregor is there on one side, two Worldkeepers I don’t recognize on the other. But my focus narrows on her.
Arina thrashes. Her arms—still heartbreakingly thin—pull so hard against the leather straps they’ve tried to restrain her with that they’re cutting into her skin. The few inches of brown hair that’s grown back is now a tangled crown. Her gaunt face is as pale as bone, and her wide, glassy eyes dart around the room as if she’s living a thousand nightmares at once.
“Arina!” I try to scream over her.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!” She thrashes as anyone tries to draw near. The Worldkeepers fling healing cards that don’t do anything. Even a Four of Cups barely sedates her for more than a second.
The first words I’ve heard her speak, and it’s like this. My heart shatters and I don’t even have time to pick up the pieces.
“Arina, I’m here.” I step forward, and everyone else stops, looking to me, as if I have the answer—as if I know what to do.
“Who are you? Who are you?” She stares at me with pupils so wide they nearly eclipse her irises.
My knees threaten to give out.She…she saw me after. She seemed to know it was me when I came to visit.But her mind does not belong to her right now; it belongs to her trauma. “Arina, it’s me, Clara.”
“You arenother.” She’s practically foaming at the mouth. “Clara is dead. I…I slept next to her corpse!”
The fuck did Ravin do?The only thing stopping me from burning everything down is knowing that the last thing my sister needs right now is more violence.
“I don’t know who that was, but it wasn’t me. I’m your sister, just with a slightly different face.” I slowly approach the edge of her bed and hover, unsure if sitting would help or send her spiraling further. I can see deep gouges in her flesh—claw marks left behind from her brittle nails and hand-shaped bruises from the attempts to subdue her. “I’m the same sister who let you stay up past your bedtime to watch until we saw Mother’s boots through the window. The same who then helped settle the covers over you so she wouldn’t know.”
“Clara…I can’t…” She looks up at me with tear-streaked cheeks. “Make it stop. Please, make it stop.” She sobs. “Someone, please.”
My heart shatters.
I sit on the edge of the bed and reach out to cup her cheek. She flinches but then—for a moment—relaxes. For a breath, I see her in there.
“Arina, it’s okay,” I whisper. “I’m here. You’re safe. And I will never let them hurt you again.”
“I will never be safe. He will always be here, within me…” The words quiver at the end, almost like a laugh. “I will never—never…” She grips her head. “Let me die.Let me die already!” She’s screaming again.
I try to hold her. Try to throw my arms around her shoulders to embrace her—as if I could somehow steady her and ground her in this reality. She bites my ear, taking a chunk, and thrashes.
Jolting away, I stare down at her, gritting my teeth against the pain. Gregor heals me—I see his card from the corner of my eye. I barely mumble a “thank you.” My eyes are locked on my sister.
I will never let them hurt her again…But what good is that vow when they keep hurting her over and over—when Ravin’s torture is not just mapped on her skin in the scars she bears but underneath it?
I grit my teeth, and a card rises from my deck. The Four of Cups washes over her, and she goes limp. But her eyes are still open. Tears still stream from them as pained wheezes escape her slightly parted lips.
“Another.” I hold out my hand. One of the Worldkeepers gives me one from their deck. I cast it again. This time, Arina’s eyelids grow heavy and close.
I gesture to the others to leave. The two Worldkeepers step out ahead of me. But I stop, staring at the wall by the door. At the tiny, pale scratch marks, lined with blood. In an instant, I can see her, scratching at the door. I think of what I told Gregor as I left last time:Lock the door…it’ll be fine.
This is my fault.
