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I hear Piper, the Red, speaking, but only barely. Like water’s flooded my ears, and she’s above the surface, calling out to me.
Autumn has settled into the outskirts of Dwellen, the trees beginning to burst into a cacophony of scarlets and yellows.
Not that I’ll ever see their hues outside the shade of night.
We stalk through the forest, Piper’s steps so light they hardly make a sound.
Mine don’t make a sound either, which is strange, considering my entire body feels as if my veins have been filled with lead.
“We’ll camp tonight, then take off first thing in the morning,” Piper says, though something about that feels wrong.
“Morning?” I shake my head, bringing myself back into focus. “No. No, I can’t travel in the daytime.”
Piper offers me a confused look. The kind of look a female wanted in every kingdom for trafficking affords someone who claims they can’t travel during the day. “We can get you a hood, a disguise even…”
I shake my head again, and it’s like ridding water from my ears. “No, it’s not that. I’m…” How does one explain vampirism? “I’m cursed. Sunlight burns me.”
Piper takes that surprisingly well, though she doesn’t hide the inconvenience written all over her expression. Still, she stares up at the sky while the warehouse smoke behind us fills my lungs.
Abra’s body is burning in there, her head tossed casually aside from the rest of her, crumpled on the warehouse floor.
Assuming none of her landed in the vats.
I can’t quite rid myself of the visual.
I would have thought I’d feel something surrounding the death of the female who made my life miserable, but I can hardly feel anything at all.
All I can feel is the pang in my chest when Nox’s eyes met mine the moment he chose not to save me.
It was stupid of me not to realize why he was tagging along with me after the Old Magic cursed him not to love me anymore. I hoped there was something deeper there, something the Old Magic hadn’t been able to touch.
But no. Nox just wanted Abra.
He wanted revenge, and I was the mechanism to get him there.
The strangest part is, I can’t even blame him for it.
Isn’t that what I used Evander, Ellie, and Asha for? To get me to the Rip so I could open it and get Nox back?
I’d known the Old Magic’s punishment for me was fitting.
I just didn’t realize until now exactly to what degree.
“I assume you had a cave in mind, to flee to afterward,” says Piper, and my heart leaps as I remember the rendezvous point Nox and I agreed upon before entering the warehouse.
But when I lead Piper to the cave at the base of the Kobiis, there’s no one there.
There’s no sign anyone ever was.
Silly servant girl, no one wants the villain, whispers a voice.
A voice slithering from the adamant box strapped to my belt.
CHAPTER 67
ASHA
After an incident in which my new lady’s maid, the one Az so casually replaced his sister with, found bedsores staining my thighs and torso while helping me bathe, Az has decided I’m allowed to visit the library for the afternoon.
