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The former general’s eyebrow ticks upward, but he gamely matches the irritation in my tone. “They’re keeping us safe.”
I snort. “Keeping us safe or keeping us within their tight restrictions? The daimon were trying to tell us something isn’t right, and they’ve silenced them. It’s not likewecan say anything for ourselves without risking getting arrested.”
“I don’t think anyone wants to hear the kinds of things you’ve been hinting at,” Stavros replies, letting his voice darken. “Least of all me. Don’t shame your family by talking like a traitor.”
“Isn’t it more traitorousnotto speak up when something’s wrong with the world?”
He scowls at me, getting right into character. “I don’t want to hear another word. If I have to drag you to the guards to make sure you’re not doing anything more than spouting off senseless rhetoric—”
I stomp toward the door. “Oh, quit acting like you’ve got the moral high ground here. I’m sure I can find better company than you.”
As I grasp the doorknob, I catch his gaze. He offers a slight nod to indicate we’re still good, that he knows it was all a pretense.
A pretense I need to follow through with. I stride out into the hall and hesitate there, smoothing my hands down my skirt.
I don’t know if our mock argument accomplished anything at all. The beetle could be in Stavros’s room for any number of other reasons, not picking up on what we say at all.
At least I tried.
I’ll have to make sure it’s gone when I get back. Or maybe Stavros will contrive to discover it before then and do the squashing for me.
The peal of the palace bell rings through the Domi’s walls, and I find myself remembering another afternoon when I was looking for ways to investigate. My pulse kicks up a notch with a spark of inspiration.
I set off toward the stairwell with renewed determination. No one else is around, so I risk a soft murmur. “Today would be a hunt day, wouldn’t it?”
Julita shifts.I believe so. You’ll be able to tell quickly at the stables. But didn’t you hate the last time you went?
I shrug. “I can tolerate the embarrassment if it serves a purpose. I seem to remember a couple of the bug club members participated before…”
Oh! Yes, you’re right. Were they from the group Alek thinks is part of the conspiracy?
I think back to the scholar’s sketches of the members he considered most suspicious. “One of them was for sure. And even if they don’t join the hunt this time, word might get around.”
I need to do something to feel like I’m moving our mission along. Who knows what the conspirators have been planning while I wait for them to reach out to me again?
Julita goes quiet as I descend the stairs. I’ve just reached the ground floor when she speaks up again, in a wistful tone.I wonder how Alek is getting on with his clay research.
The hint of melancholy to the comment draws me up short with a prick of guilt in my gut.
We haven’t talked about how close my relationship with both Alek and Casimir has gotten or about her mournful complaint when she returned to find us all in bed together the other day. I’ve been waiting to see if she’ll broach the subject in her own time… but she’s pretended as if it never happened.
Instead of heading straight to the stables, I take a meandering route that leaves me in the courtyard apart from the other roving students. There, I stop to pluck a flower that’s sprouted between the blades of grass.
When I hold it to my nose as if to smell it, my hand hides the movement of my mouth. “Julita, if I’m handling anything in a way that upsets you—if it’s uncomfortable for you to have to be here with me when I’m with Alek or Casimir—”
It’s fine,Julita breaks in, too brusquely for me to believe her.I can pull away—I told you. They want you; you want them—it’s good.
I swallow thickly. “I’m sure they still remember you, think about you.”
Not while they’re doingthatwith you. And they shouldn’t be. I never meant that much to them, and I know it, so there’s nothing more to say.
I don’t think that’s all she meant with her remark about them not seeing her anymore. It’s true that none of the men have referred to Julita inside me as much as they used to—and Alek vehemently rejected her attempt to talk to him directly.
“We’re friends, right?” I say, giving it one more try. “And friends should be able to talk about—”
There’s nothing to talk about,Julita insists.Everything is good. You’d better hurry up, or you’ll miss the start of the hunt. Oh, gods smite us, there’s that pushy guard again.
I think she’s only attempting to change the subject until I shift my attention beyond the flower and realize the ridiculously handsome guard who badgered me while stargazing is marching straight toward me with a stern expression. Although even when he’s making a face like he’s got a stick up his ass, those blue-green eyes are fucking breathtaking.
