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I snort to cut her off.
She was perfectly happy to take over my entire body when it servedherpurposes. I’m done with her too.
I hurtle on without waiting for her to keep weighing in. “Sure, she cared about the investigation. That’s all she cared about. The four of you were just hapless dupes to her—the people she figured would be most useful to her, the people with some weakness she could exploit to get you invested, to be sure you wouldn’t back out on her. You talk about her like she was a divine being, and maybe that’s appropriate, because to her you were definitely worth nothing unless you were acting like her adoring devouts.”
Please, Ivy, don’t—they don’t need to hear—I would never have—
“Why should we believe anything you say about her?” Alek demands, his shoulders gone rigid.
But I see the self-doubt already darkening Benedikt’s eyes, tensing Casimir’s face.
“I think you already know,” I retort. “You just wanted to believe she saw something more in you than you did. That’s how she roped you in to begin with. That’s how she ropedmein, for fuck’s sake. But if this is the thanks I’m going to get after I’ve stuck my neck on the line a dozen times, I’ve had enough.”
I shoulder through their semi-circle around me and stride toward the far wall.
Stavros shakes himself out of his stunned silence quickly enough to snatch after my arm, but I dart out of the way and tug on the books to open up the passage.
“Ivy, you can’t just—” he shouts after me, and then his voice is lost to the darkness of the staircase.
I sprint up the steps as fast as my legs will carry me.
Julita feels as if she’s whirling in my head.No. This isn’t good. You’ve got to go back. They’re going to think— Please. Just stop for a second.
I dash down the hall in the direction of the secluded back door, not interested in having this conversation. Not interested in havinganyconversation.
Tears that infuriate me sting at my eyes. My jaw is set so tight my teeth are aching.
They’re just a bunch of arrogant, ignorant noble twits. All of them, Julita too. It’s ridiculous to think they could ever tackle a real disaster.
And I can’t either—not here, and not on my own. I never should have imagined I could.
Me with my riven soul, impress the godlen into forgiving me for the blood on my hands? I must have been insane.
Julita cajoled me; Julita made me feel I could be important. She leveragedmyweakness too, without even knowing exactly how deep it ran.
Well, I see everything clearly now. I’m not going to play the fool anymore.
As I veer around the corner where the hall narrows, my gaze fixes on the small door up ahead. I have to get out through the gate. Then I’ll be free enough.
Not much chance of the men chasing me into the fringes after the confrontation we just had. Let them stew in their memories of how wonderfully perfect Julita supposedly was.
For some reason, the thought makes my stomach churn harder. My fingers curl into my palms hard enough to prick the skin.
I hustle past the final row of narrow columns before the door, hearing nothing but the pounding of my pulse and the furor of my frustrations—and a blast of air rams into me from behind.
I lurch toward the nearest column, too fast to catch my balance. My forehead slams into the stone surface.
Pain splinters through my skull, setting my mind reeling.
Wind? There shouldn’t be any wind blasting through the Domi’s hallways.
It was conjured, just like when Julita—
Another surge of furious air smacks me against the column before I can turn around. With it comes a brutal pain that rips through my abdomen from my back.
The searing gash of a thick blade that’s just slammed between my ribs.
Thirty-Three
