Page 31 of Daughter of the Dark

Solana pushed through the door and into what looked like a storeroom. Sami had his back to her, but he whirled around when the noise from the bar filtered into the small space. While she searched him for injuries and explanations, he watched her with disgust.

“What are you doing here, Sami? They let you go. You’re supposed to be back in Qhilli!”

“Oh, am I? I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were alive to care,” he yelled and shoved his hands through his hair. “I’ve been at the castle gates every morning demanding to see you.” He jabbed a finger to his right, presumably to the castle, and then back at the ground at his feet. “I got a job so I could afford to stay in the city until they allowed me through, and you, what? Abandoned your people to drink your way through Sonqo? To dine at the king’s table?”

“I didn’t abandon them,” she said, his words too close to her guilt. “The king sent the Masters to replace me. They can do a better job than I ever could.”

“They don’t want the Masters’ protection, Solana. They want you.”

“Well, I don’t want it anymore!” Solana yelled, chest heaving, the truth stinging her throat and eyes. “I’m tired, Sami. Every demon I kill takes a piece of my soul. You know, you’ve seen. I don’t know how much more of it I can afford to lose.”

“Everyone is tired,” Sami whispered angrily and stepped closer, his hands reaching for her but falling short. “So that’s it? Are you telling me you did this for them? What did he offer you?”

“Your freedom,” she yelled, hands clenched at her sides. A look of pain flashed across Sami’s face, and he reached out to touch her, but she sidestepped it, unwilling to accept his comfort before she told him everything else. “And mine. In six months, I’ll be granted passage out of Supay.”

Just as she thought, Sami pulled back his hand as if burned. “And you’ll finally have what you’ve always wanted.”

“I never lied to you.” Solana held his eyes and shook her head. “I never let you believe that I wanted anything else. It’s not my fault you wouldn’t listen.”

It was the truth, and Sami knew it. His jaw tightened and he looked away from her, as if merely the sight of her honesty was too much to bear. “You’re right,” he said through clenched teeth. “It’s my own for hoping that you’d see how much I love you and change your mind.”

Solana reached for him. “Sami, I—”

The door opened and noise drowned out whatever Solana would have said next. “Everything okay in here?” Reyes asked. She felt his presence at her back, watched how Sami’s eyes trailed over him and then her.

And because she was a terrible person, because it was easier to let him hate her more than he already did, she leaned into Reyes, grateful when his hand came up to curl around her shoulder. “Everything’s fine,” she said. “We were just catching up.”

She watched his face fall. And then the anger smoothed away. His eyes, always so expressive, went blank.

“We’re done here.” Sami strode forward and around them, stopping at Reyes’s side to add, “She’s all yours,” before pushing through the door.

The quiet returned and Solana leaned forward to rest her hands on her knees, sucking in deep breaths and blinking away the burn in her eyes. She would not let Reyes see her cry, but neither could she stand tall at that moment. She exhaled through the pain and inhaled what little strength she could muster.

This day was inevitable. One way or another, whether by death or by choice, Solana was going to leave Sami. It was going to hurt him, and it was always going to be her responsibility.

When she finally gathered herself and straightened, she turned to find Reyes with his hands in his pockets and facing the wall, attention fully focused on the barrels of pisco stacked against it as if nothing had happened. She took the opportunity to watch him, to consider the fact that he was giving her a moment of consideration yet again. A stark contrast to who she thought he was and how little he cared for her.

Solana didn’t know what to think of it. She cleared her throat and said, “If we stay in here much longer, people will get the wrong idea.”

Reyes slowly turned, as if they had all the time in the world. “Like your friend did?”

“He’s not my friend,” she said, the truth of her words like a knife between her ribs. “Not anymore.”

“If he can’t understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, then maybe he never was.”

Solana bristled at his words and opened her mouth to argue when the door opened for a third time. “Is everyone clothed?” Cora asked, one hand hovering over her eyes and the other waving in the space in front of her.

The somber look in Reyes’s eyes melted away, replaced with a smile that he only ever gave Cora, and he slung his arm around her neck. “I think everyone is done drinking for the night,” Solana heard him say as he pulled her out of the room.

And then she was left alone, just as she had started, just as she had always been.

They came across no others on the short walk, the night strangely quiet and calm, but only for Solana, it seemed. Nikolas and Oskar were responsible for dragging the muki back to the castle. Cora and Suri sang a silly tavern tune she had never heard before, and Reyes walked behind them, his gait casual, shoulders relaxed. Meanwhile, Solana’s mind was a mess of doubt and destruction.

Perhaps she should have refused the king’s offer. Perhaps she could have figured out a different way to secure her and Sami’s freedom. Perhaps she had given in too easily. Traitor’s blood in a different form.

“Get some sleep,” Reyes told them at the entrance to the castle. Solana watched the muki disappear around the corner and wondered if she was doing the right thing. If any of them could be saved after all they had done.

Her thoughts and several glasses of pisco distracted her as she trudged back to her rooms. It was because of the pisco that she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her when she caught sight of a flash of gray hair around a dark corner. And it was because of her inability to leave things alone that she followed.