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The chilling thought distracted me just long enough that Darnell wriggled free from my grip, but I saw his eyes had returned to normal. I let him go, and he stumbled away from both of us, coughing and trying to catch his breath. His bloodlust had gone, but Jillian was still bleeding freely, so I couldn’t take any chances.
“Kana... help me, before he comes back,” she whined, trying to dig out the broken pieces of mirror vine with slippery, bloody fingers.
“Hold fucking still, then. If I see even a flash of your fangs, I’m out,” I warned her. “And keep your goddamn mouth shut.”
She had the audacity to smirk at me, right up until I twisted the first shard out of her hand.
I’d been cut by mirror vines before, too, and they were no joke. The plant was brittle and shiny, splintering into glass-like pieces at the slightest pressure. The ground below where she’d fallen was littered with the sparkling bits.
Halfway through, I realized I could leverage this. An opportunity, of sorts.
“Why are you stopping?” she snapped at me, glancing around for Darnell. I could scent him not far away, but he was keeping out of sight.
“I want answers. About the blood slaves.”
“Fuck off, princess,” she sneered, but her bravado wavered when I stood up to leave. “Oh, fine. I’ll answer two questions.”
I narrowed my eyes, finally deciding it was a fair enough trade. I settled back down and plucked another piece of vine from her wound as I considered my options. I didn’t want to implicate Jax in anything I’d learned, but I also wanted new intel.
“What’s different about the... the training that Merden uses?” I asked, wincing at the word but hoping Jillian would assume I knew the old methods of training blood slaves.
In truth, I had no idea what the traditions had been before Grand-mère outlawed it.
Jillian watched me silently for a few moments. “The slaves are drained three times, not just once.”
I gritted my teeth, knowing this aligned with what Jax had told me. But there was more, too. Jillian was only giving me part of it. I gave a vicious twist on the next shard, and she crumpled inward, crying out.
“Weak,” I hissed, but before I could guess her intent, she threw herself on me, snapping at my neck and managing to draw blood. My arm flew out and backhanded her to the ground, where she fell, laughing like a maniac, my blood dribbling from her lips.
“I may be weaker in body, but your mind is too full of pity,” she sang, rolling to her knees and lashing out at me with a substantial blow of ice magic.
I blocked it, though, hurling one of my knives straight into her shoulder.
“You’re on your own now, dumbass,” I said, heading down the corridor.
“You better watch that pretty back, princess. No wolf-faced guard dogs here,” she called, still laughing like a maniac as I rounded the corner to find Darnell.
By the Goddess, it would be a miracle if I made it through this Trial without murdering her.
