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Monsters like Berenger and Estienne.
I was glad they were both dead, but the way they’d died…I shuddered, though I had a hard time working up an ounce of remorse. “We need to be careful.” I murmured, opening the door for her. “This place is more dangerous than we imagined.”
“Six croissants.” Ember asked the shop keeper. I watched the long line form outside the door while Ember made her choices. No one came in, but no one ever did, not once we were inside any of the shops.
Crowds parted for us on the city streets, as if people were afraid to get too close, we were never spoken to. This entire city treated us like pariahs and their fear made me feel so…wrong.
I couldn’t stop asking myself the same question.
Why was I here?
Why go to all the trouble to bring me to Tempeste, then let me freely wander the city streets and eat croissants?
I felt like a calf being fattened up for slaughter.
Ember thanked the baker and we headed back. This time we bypassed the side entrance—we had our answer about what those horrid rooms were for—but once we were inside, we made our way to repay the guards who’d disobeyed their orders.
The guards were gone, the acidy aroma of lemon and vinegar soured the air. The hallway had been freshly mopped; every door flung wide open; the small rooms empty.
My fingers crumpled the top of the bag.
We’d been gone minutes, at most.
“Hello?” I called, keeping clear of the wet floor. “We brought you breakfast. We…”
Whatever I was about to say next died in my throat when Solok stepped out of the last room, wiping his hands. “A thief and a slave went to the market.” His gaze narrowed. “But they had to cause mischief first, didn’t they?”
“We brought the guards some croissants.” I could barely catch my breath. “To be nice.”
“If you were nice, little thief, you wouldn’t have asked those men to disobey a direct order.”
“Where are they?” The bag crumpled in my shaking hand as I searched the hall for any sign of the guards.
“Gone.” Solok said, nodding to the bag. “Are those from the Westend Baker?” All I could do was nod as he snatched the bag, shoved his hand in and pulled out a pastry. “These really are my favorite.” He devoured the thing in two bites, then licked the crumbs off his fingers, his glittering eyes never leaving mine. “Now get up to your room, instead of trying to be clever.”
We did just that, collapsing in a panicked huddle on the bed.
“Did you see it?” I asked and Ember nodded; her eyes wide.
We’d both seen what the Axe had overlooked. They’d cleaned the floor and the doors, the wainscoted lower part of the walls, but they hadn’t looked high enough.
Over Solok’s head was a long streak of blood, nearly five feet long, the height correlating to the guard’s head…or their throats. Ember curled into me and I put my arms around her.
“We killed them, Anaria.” Her breaths came short and quick. “We killed both of them, because we were nosy. We shouldn’t have asked them to let us through.”
“We have to get out of here.” I murmured into her hair. “There has to be a way.”
“In a box, maybe.” She pushed away from me. “How did he manage to kill them so quickly?”
“I don’t know. We were only gone a few minutes, yet in that time, he’d killed themandcleaned everything up.”
“And not a servant in sight.” Em turned her head until we were staring at each other. “We never do that again.”
“No, we won’t.” While the secret passage out of here might well be hidden on the second floor, I wouldn’t cost anyone else their life. “I have to get this collar off. And there has to be a way out of here, we just have to find it.”
Because I knew in my bones, our time was running out.
14
