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Autumn Eyes spun to me. “What?”
I scanned her face again, looking for any sign of the scar that should have been there. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Were you hurt that day? In the explosion? In the stampede?” I knew the truth. I’d seen it with my own eyes. The wound had dripped down her face.
She stared at me like I had three eyes before looking me up and down. Her face contorted into angry disgust. “What’s your fucking game?”
Shit. Did she suspect something already? Did she know I was after the Daughter of Katia? “I don’t…” I stammered. She smelled like sweet citrus, and I had to keep myself from moving closer to her. “There is no game. I just want to know if you’re okay.” That wasn’t a lie. “You had a pretty nasty gash on your forehead.” Also not a lie, even though it was nowhere to be found.
Her eyes stayed on me for what could have been an eternity. I relished it, the honey and chestnut and umber of her eyes keeping me locked in place.
“I’m fine, thank you,” she said flatly and spun on her heel, immediately scurrying away from me.
“Wait!” I called with absolutely zero idea what I would say. Autumn Eyes turned back to me, her face unreadable. There was something about her, I didn’t know what. Something about her gripped me by the throat and kept me staring. I thought of what to say and chose the first thing that came to mind. “What’s your name?”
She raised a brow and continued staring. I could tell she wanted to ignore me, leave me on the dusty road, but I prayed to every Saint that she wouldn’t. “Petra.”
Petra.It meantrock. And shit if I wasn’t stuck between a rock and a hard place. I realized she was waiting for my name in response.Fuck. We hadn’t thought about this. What was I supposed to say?Hi, I’m Belin Cal Myrin. But don’t worry. I’m notthatBelin Cal Myrin.
“Calomyr,” I spat out with a hand on my chest. That was believable, right? Bellsin would be my last name if she asked. Calomyr Bellsin. Thankfully, she didn’t ask. “Do try to be more careful, Petra.”
She spun on her heel and threw a hand in the air. “Watch where you’re going,Calomyr.” I let out a laugh, because I couldn’t help it.
But I was afraid that I was fucked.
Chapter 30
I pushed through the front door to find an empty hearth, the house silent and almost pitch black. Something hung in the air, but it was nowhere near as noticeable as what was missing. The kitchen sat eerily empty, the only light coming from the fire lamps on the street, the house cast in shadow. No pots on the stove, no vegetables or meats on the cutting board, nothing to suggest my Aunt Berna was near.
Something was wrong.
“Aunt Berna?” I called. There was an unmistakable panic in my voice that I didn’t try to conceal. “Aunt Berna?”
“Cal.” It was a sound so quiet that had I not been listening for it I would have dismissed it as the wind.
My steps were urgent as I neared the ornate rug in the living room to see the shadow of a limp figure sprawled over the settee.
“Cal.”
I fumbled in the dim light for the matches on the mantle, my hands shaking as I lit the first candle my hands could grab. The flickering orange light fell on my aunt, her petite limbs splayed out in a manner that sent nausea roiling through me.
My knees hit the ground, my hand frantically grabbing hers only to be met with skin so cold that it felt like I was holding the hand of Cyen, Saint of Death. “Aunt Berna,” I breathed. Disbelief — I was in disbelief that the languid body in front of me was my vibrant, fiery aunt.
But deep within me, I knew what I was staring at. It was death, slowly creeping forward on his stallion, eyes locked firmly on his target. Inevitable. Inescapable.
Her lips parted, her breaths shallow as she tried to speak. “M-my Cal.”
Tears flooded my vision and I did my best to blink them away. I had to keep the floodgates intact. “I’m here.” I pulled her hand closer and leaned in. “I’m here. You’re going to be okay.”
She was not going to be okay.
Her lips contorted into something that looked like her familiar smile, an echo of an echo of the woman she was. She was fighting for consciousness. “N-no,” she answered, her voice weak. “I’m n-not going to b-be okay.” Every word was a battle. The pain and labor that came with each breath was a stake through my chest.
“What happened?” The truth, it seemed, was an unwelcome companion riding beside Cyen, making no attempt to hide itself.
She swallowed, her brows furrowing over closed eyes, her lashes brushing sallow cheeks. “Castemont. P-poison in my t-tea.”
Silence overtook me first. The kind of silence that’s so vast your ears start to ring. But then the rage came for my mind, body, and soul as his name rang through my skull. My teeth gnashed together, and it took everything within me not to clench my fist around her delicate hand as I stared at my aunt, the woman who’d given useverythingonly for that bastard to take it away.
But the rage dissolved the longer I looked at her. In the candlelight I could see foam at the corners of her mouth. Her lips were thin and gray. Her skin was pale and almost lifeless. I let the tears fall then in the face of the truth, uncontrollable and wild. She tried to smile again, and I did my best to return it as I stared down at the woman who’d loved us so, so well.
