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Finn appears in Xavier and Posey’s old bedroom, and he glances around, looking for the trap to spring. It’s written all over his face in the skeptical squint to his eyes and the tension in his shoulders. But Posey bides her time and waits until he’s exactly where she wants him.
Every little bread crumb that Posey painstakingly laid is leading to this very moment and she’s almost giddy with excitement. Small wings emerge from Finn’s shoes and lift him in the air so he can hover over the bed to better access the safe hidden behind a portrait of Posey.
Finn glances around again, instincts probably screaming that this is too easy because it is, and this might be a memory, but I want to scream at him to run.
“Looking for these?” Posey asks, holding out the scepter and the dagger. She’s transported to be right at his side. He startles back, but has just a second to graboneof the items. He snatches the scepter because it’s a hair closer to him, but it’s that greedy moment where he thinks he can grab the dagger too that seals his fate.
Three goons appear in the room. One throws their arms around his middle, pinning Finn’s arms into place and hauling him off the bed while the other two rip the wings off his shoes.
He screams in agony as blood spurts from them. It’s only a memory and I still gag, my heart breaking all over again for Finn.
He never sees who is holding him as Posey advances on him with the dagger, but I can see Cassius watching on coldly even as he holds down a screaming, crying Finn, his body thrashing as she carves one eye from his face.
To shut him up, she shoves the removed item in his mouth before she starts on the other one. There is so much wrong with this scene, but perhaps nothing more than the utter delight I feel from Posey.
“Perhaps the princes will think twice before sending someone else to do their dirty work.”
Through the whole ordeal, Finn never gets go of the scepter, and the moment he’s free, he transports himself out of that room. At some point he spit his eye out because both of them lie on the ground, seeming to stare at me in accusation for not helping my friend.
I wantto scream and cry myself, but when I come out of the memory, I’m still being held in a chokehold. It’s unclear what she hoped to achieve with showing me that memory, but it makes me never want to let this weapon go.
“You may not die, but your child will. Let go of the dagger, and I’ll let you both live.”
I wish my eyesight was enough to cook her with the fire of a thousand burning suns, but I’ll have to settle for the next best thing. I stab the dagger into the hollow of her shoulder. The pain must be distraction enough because she lets me go as she stumbles away from me with the blade still embedded in her flesh.
We break apart, eyeing the other to see if we’re going to go for another round.
“You want Ellie back? You’ll come,alone,to my house tomorrow.”
“Why? So you can spring a trap and kill me?”
I scoff. “You’re the one carving people’s eyes out. We would prefer to settle this amicably, but if you leave us no other choice, we will strike to kill. Show up. Otherwise, I’ll turn Ellie into an herb and you’ll spend the rest of your immortal life wondering if you’re seasoning your meal with your daughter.”
Posey rears back like I’ve hit her, but I won’t give her the chance to respond. Whatever force Posey was using to hold me there is gone. I separate myself enough from her to return home.
If I were smart, I would have told Posey to come next week to give us time, or even said,Don’t call us, we’ll call you,to stop her from treating me like some sort of errand girl.
When I feel the sand beneath my feet, I finally start to relax, letting my knees drop to the sand. Now that I’m away from her and the adrenaline is done coursing through my body, I realize I’m shaking and really want to throw up. Again.
What she did to Finn…
This time I do throw up and it’s mixed with my tears because it was all too close, too fucking close.
I need to get my emotions and breathing somewhat under control before Essos finds me and levels Solarem. The tide laps against my ankles, and I whisper a quiet prayer to the water to get Kai. I have to hope that even with his powers so diminished that he gets the message.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Kai greets after approximately thirteen seconds. I want to collapse like tissue paper, but I don’t. My fingers slide into Kai’s outstretched hand and I struggle to my feet.
“Of all the gin joints,” I joke. One of his large finger’s prods under the cut on my cheek, wiping at the partially dried blood there. I can feel the water running off his fingertip, helping to clean my cheek so I look more presentable to Essos. If Zara was right and the blood was a onetime use only, I’ve just fucked myself by getting cut again.
“Want to tell me what happened?”
It’s not that I blame Kai for prodding, but I would rather only deal with this once. I look up into his warm brown eyes and shake my head.
“Gather the council. We’re going to war.”
CHAPTER33
Essos is the first person through the door. I’m standing at the head of the dining room table, arguing about if we need to have food for this right now because I don’t know if I have it in me to ever eat again, and Kai is doing his level best to distract me by listing different foods. I can still feel my body trembling. My husband spins me to him, pressing a kiss to my lips. It sears me to my bones and I reciprocate, grabbing his sides, opening my mouth for him.
