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AIKA
My legs are trembling, my knees shaky with each tenuous step away from the grounds. It’s mild out tonight, winter finally on its way out, but it doesn’t help the chill that’s settled into my bones.
We made it out alive. Somehow.
Still, I can’t stop seeing the moment I locked Remy into that chair.
The way the iron shackles bit into his skin. Watching him drink the serum, knowing he wasn’t prepared for the way it would set fire to his veins.
The wan moonlight highlights the unusually sallow hue to his skin, the sheen of sweat on his brow. Small tremors run through the hands that are clenched into fists at his sides.
I want to scream at him. Thank him. Tear his clothes off with my teeth and remind myself that he’s alive.
I can’t do any of those things, though. Right now, we just need to get back to the palace. One step, then another until we have put as much distance as we can between us andher.
I start toward the fastest footpath to Etienne, when Remy grabs my arm.
“That way,” he says a bit unsteadily, pointing toward the main road.
“This way is faster,” I explain.
“But the carriage will be waiting there.” He cocks an eyebrow, but the gesture is forced.
All right, then.
We take off in the direction he indicated, the silence between us heavy with the weight of things we aren’t addressing.
It’s suffocating.
My mind is racing with a thousand questions, none of which are safe to ask yet. However, when a black, nondescript carriage comes into view, parked unobtrusively in front of a very specific establishment, I can’t resist the urge for a distraction.
“Make a pit stop before you came to see me?” I ask drily, gesturing vaguely toward the brothel.
Remy huffs out what might be a laugh under different circumstances, but his voice is hoarse when he speaks. “I’m insulted that you think such a visit would have gone so quickly.”
I dart a glance around to make sure we’re not being followed, but it seems she truly did let us go.
“Of course. But if time hadn’t been a factor?” My teasing tone falls flat, but he doesn’t call me out on it.
He shrugs, wincing with the movement. “I’ve never seen the need to pay someone for companionship.”
The bastard is avoiding my question on purpose. It’s quite the feat, given that he’s both under the influence of the serum and in pain. I shouldn’t use that against him, but we’ve come so far from right and wrong by now that I go ahead and ask anyway.
“And if there were no transactions involved?” I push.
He steps forward to knock on the carriage door, giving me a look that’s far too knowing for my liking.
“Then I still wouldn’t want to be with anyone who wasn’t my favorite murderous wife.”
It shouldn’t matter in the wake of volunteering to be tortured on one another’s behalf, but I feel a tiny smile tugging at my lips. Then the carriage door opens, and any semblance of lightheartedness we have found effectively vanishes.
We clamber inside, waiting until the carriage is moving to speak.
Zaina and Einar are here, concealed carefully in the darkness. Khijhana, too. They were ready to bring in the cavalry if things went badly tonight, even if it got every single one of us killed.
I don’t know whether to be grateful or irritated, all things considered.
A shocked breath escapes my sister.
