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“They’ll be back,” I whisper, and Einar’s arms wrap more tightly around me. At this point, I’m not sure if the words are more for him or for me. “With Madame coming here, it’s safer for them to be away from the palace.”
He nods, his short beard scraping against my neck before leaning back to meet my gaze. His icy stare pierces something inside me, like he can see into my very core and read every worry, every concern that lives there.
Every fear that comes from the potential of interacting with Madame today.
Though, if I have to leave this room, it means something has gone very, very wrong. As it is, Einar and I haven’t reached a consensus on what thatsomethingwould be.
All I know is, I won’t let Aika face Madame without back-up ever again, as long as it’s within my control to stop it. Even if I’m here, behind a screen, she will know I have not abandoned her.
Khijhana chuffs at me, putting her enormous head in my lap. I run my fingers along her spine, focusing on the texture of her silvery fur, the lines where the bright white bleeds into the deep blue of her stripes.
Anything other than the reality that soon, the monster who raised me will be a mere few feet away.
That means hearing her voice, melodious and lilting in its endless cruelty.
It means smelling her perfume, a heady scent she uses to hide the way blood and death cling to her very being.
But it also means that I will get to watch as her reign of terror is finally brought to an end.
If we win.
CHAPTERFIFTY-NINE
AIKA
When the carriage doesn’t turn down the road toward Madame’s estate, I know something is wrong.
Hell, I’ve known something was wrong since it was Damian who showed up to fetch me. Still, I keep my features neutral, watching the Heights pass us by until we’re in the Mid-Sector, then finally heading into the Slums.
Damian quietly smirks across the cabin, his long legs stretched outward. His posture is relaxed, but his eyes are wary, alert.
“Why aren’t we going to the estate?” My question breaks the silence between us.
The corners of his mouth turn up into a feral grin. “Mother instructed me to bring you to the docks.”
“Why?” I demand.
He tilts his head, sitting forward slightly in a move designed to make me feel even smaller.
“I don’t know.”Lie.“I don’t question her, because unlike you, I am actually loyal.”
I make a show of examining my nails, not bothering to give him a reaction as I process what he’s saying. He could just be trying to get under my skin. She could have requested me at the docks.
Perhaps there’s something here she needs me to do.
I risk another look at him.No.He looks too smug, too triumphant.
Adrenaline kicks in.
I think of how easily she let us go. How she never responded to Remy’s note. Hasn’t sent for me or had Damian check in until just now. She’s kept eerily quiet.
My heartbeat drums too loudly in my ears.
This is a trap.All of it.
Remy is in danger, and I need to get back to him.
As if Damian can read the thoughts racing through my mind, he laughs. A small, vicious sound like he’s already won. Like this is already over.
