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“I will be back to deal with you both later.” Madame’s voice slices through my thoughts. Her icy stare moves from me to Zaina in a promise of pain. “Clearly, I’ve let my affection for you overrule my judgment.”
I try not to outright scoff at the word affection. Judging by the way her deep brown skin pales with the intensity of her fury, though, my expression gives me away. I brace myself for punishment, but she only snaps her fingers for Damian to follow before turning on her heel and leaving.
My jaw drops open.
“She doesn’t trust herself not to kill us,” Zaina whispers once they’re both gone.
“You mean, not too quickly?” It makes sense, and is just about the only reason she would delay our punishment. Now that I’m more alert, shaking off the effects of the drugs, that reality is terrifying.
“I mean at all,” my sister corrects. “She doesn’t want us dead. She still thinks we’ll be together as a family in Delphine. That she can spend the journey there punishing us and we’ll be grateful to be back in her good graces on the other side, like—”
“Damian,” I finish her sentence with a shudder.
Would that have been true for me before I met Remy? I hope not. I hope even then, I would have been able to dredge up more self-respect than that, but I can’t honestly be sure.
I shake the thoughts away, focusing on what matters. “Is Remy—”
“Alive,” she says quickly. “Einar, too,” she adds before I can ask.
The ship moves abruptly under us, the wood groaning as we’re thrust sideways. Shouts ring out, men giving orders on setting sail.
“Injured?” I ask, trying to decipher the undertone to her words.
“No.” She shakes her head, and I wonder what the hell happened to put that look on her face if they’re both unharmed. But now isn’t the time for that story.
I take a deep steadying breath. “We have to get out of here, Zai.”
“To where?” she asks sarcastically. “The middle of the ocean?”
She pales at her own words, a shiver wracking her body that has nothing to do with the cold.
She’s wearing one of her Jokithan outfits, fitted pants and long sleeves with a light overskirt, markedly warmer than my airy spring gown. Though, neither will be conducive to surviving the choppy waters.
“It’s better than the alternative,” I hiss. “We might still die, but at least we won’t give soddingDamianthe satisfaction of killing us.”
“Madame won’t let him kill us, but she has no such control over the ocean.” She sounds more defeated than I’ve ever heard her.
Of course. She can’t swim, and she’s bloody terrified of the water.
“We at least need to get out of these chains and see what we’re up against,” I insist.
The woman who put all of this into play by facing down a dragon, staging her death and crossing a kingdom to help me cannot give up now. I won’t let her.
“We’re up against Madame,” she bites back. “Who can’t be beaten. We tried, and we failed.Ifailed,” she adds more quietly.
“Fine,” I snarl. “Then just lay there and enjoy her torture and hope she doesn’t kill you. When Einar comes for you—like you know he will—I’ll be sure to tell him how hard you fought to get back to him.”
Her gaze snaps to mine, her eyes burning with indignation, just as I had hoped.
“What is it you want me to do?” she asks with a heavy dose of mockery, tugging on her chains to indicate how limited she is.
I ignore her tone and answer her question evenly.
“For now, I want you to find a way to get the pin out of my hair. Then we’ll go from there.”
Zaina squares her shoulders as much as she can with her arms above her head, then gives me a single dip of her head.
Maybe she’s right and there’s nowhere to go, no point to this at all. Maybe I never did learn Remy’s lesson about knowing when to fold.
