Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Emilie
My mind raced as we walked the streets back to the inn. The world was quiet—the rain had finally stopped and everyone else in the small city was fast asleep in their beds, where we should’ve been all along.
Did I regret sneaking out with Ladon? Or the events that followed? I didn’t think so.
I had killed a man.
I’d done it before, but unlike those times, I couldn’t claim this was self-defense. Devyn hadn’t attacked us. In fact, we’d followed him out of the tavern and into the night, had tracked him like prey in his vulnerable state, drunk and disjointed. It wasn’t even a fair fight.
Did I regret it?
I should. And maybe in another life, I would. But after everything I’d been through and knowing that Devyn was involved in hunting and selling humans… I felt no remorse.
I was tired and a little numb, but I felt vindicated.
It was a small reparation for what had been done to Ladon and me.
I didn’t even care if Devyn had never seen or spoken to Reyna directly.
He was associated with her, at the bottom of a long line of command in which she sat at the top, and that was enough for me.
I enjoyed watching the light fade from his eyes while he gasped for breath. A sense of accomplishment had filled me, watching his body roll off the dock and into the water. He’d be devoured by sea serpents before the sun rose in the morning, and I had a hunch that no one would miss him.
The only downside was that we hadn’t been able to get any information out of him.
“We should go back to the townhouse,” I said, my voice piercing the quiet that had fallen upon us.
Ladon glanced at me. “In the morning. It’s late, and we need to get back to the inn. You should wash up too.”
His gaze flicked to my hands, which were speckled with blood. I had avoided making a mess for the most part, but carving into his skin and stabbing his leg had sullied my right hand.
I searched Ladon’s face for something. Disappointment, perhaps? That I had let my fury get the best of me. That I hadn’t been able to control my emotions, and I’d killed a man without a second thought. Had I ruined the image he had of me, whatever that was?
But I didn’t see any of that. He was looking at me with admiration and maybe even a little pride.
I smiled. “Okay. In the morning then.”
We strolled through the inn’s entrance. The fire in the entry hall had burned down to embers, and the night clerk was asleep at his desk. He didn’t even wake when the stairs creaked beneath our feet.
Upstairs, Ladon quietly opened the door to our room, and I sighed in relief. Cyrus was still passed out in bed, snoring with one arm thrown over his face and the other clutching the patchwork quilt.
Ladon kicked off his boots, and I did the same, hanging my cloak on a hook by the door. Then I grabbed my bag so I could change into my sleep clothes after I washed up.
I started for the bathroom, but a noise made me jump and almost trip over my own feet. I grabbed the wall to steady myself. “Fuck,” I said, placing a hand over my racing heart. “What is wrong with you?”
Jade, who had appeared out of nowhere in the dark bathroom, slid onto the couch that was to be her bed for the evening. “I don’t know what you mean by that. I just woke up and needed to use the toilet.”
Ladon sighed behind me. Why was Jade always in the most inconvenient of places at the worst times? Whatever relief I had at seeing Cyrus sleeping so peacefully had dissolved.
“Where were you two?” Jade asked, not bothering to keep her voice down.
I looked back at Cyrus to make sure he hadn’t stirred. Quietly, I answered, “That’s none of your concern. You haven’t told us where you slipped off to.”
“Well, I can tell you one thing for certain—I was not out for a romantic stroll.”
My heart hammered so hard it was almost painful. I wanted to strip the air from her lungs too. Thankfully, the room was dimly lit, so she likely couldn’t see how red my cheeks had turned. The gods had cursed me with that particular trait.
“Neither were we,” I said.
Jade just laughed.
“Shh,” I snapped. “You’ll wake Cyrus.”
“Oh, we wouldn’t want that, would we? What would you tell him, I wonder?”
“This isn’t any of your business,” Ladon said, stepping closer to me.
“It is, though. I’m here for one purpose—to ensure that my people get what they deserve. You made a promise, a binding agreement, to provide Murvort with the aid we need. I won’t see it undone because you can’t keep your dick out of your brother’s wife.”
“I’m not his wife,” I spat. “I don’t belong to him or anyone else.”
Jade threw her hands up in feigned surrender. “No, of course not. You’re a perfect little princess who could never do anything wrong. You take whatever you want, consequences be damned.”
“Knock it off,” Ladon snapped. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
As much as I appreciated Ladon’s support, I held up my hand to stop him. I could handle Jade myself.
“You don’t know me,” I said. “I have never gotten a single thing that I wanted for myself. My parents made every decision in my life, down to the dresses I wore and the man I was supposed to marry. I don’t expect you to understand what that’s like, but I won’t listen to you judge my character when you don’t know the first thing about me. ”
I stepped inside the bathroom and closed the door before she could respond. Putting my back against it, I closed my eyes and counted to ten.
Jade had no idea what she was talking about. She spoke about me as if I were a selfish, spoiled brat, but Ladon was the first thing I’d wanted in this life enough to go for it. Enough to ignore my parents’ demands and stand up for myself. Jade couldn’t take that from me.
I approached the sink, grabbed the bar of soap, and scrubbed my hands clean. My reflection in the clouded mirror looked back at me with anger and hurt.
I was a good person, wasn’t I? Was I truly that awful for following my heart?
It took only a moment of reflection before I decided I was doing the right thing. All I had to do was picture a life chained to Cyrus in a loveless marriage to know that I never could’ve lived like that. Not after I’d discovered what it was like to love and be loved in return.
I dried my hands on the towel hanging on the wall and did my best to brush my hair back into a ponytail. My cheeks were still rosy, but at least my heart had returned to a normal rhythm. A few more minutes and I might be able to face Jade and Ladon again.
Or I could sleep in the bathroom. But avoiding all my problems came at the cost of a rough tile floor for a bed, and I quickly concluded that I couldn’t handle an entire night sleeping on the cold, hard floor.
So I changed out of my clothes and into a cotton set of pajamas.
I reached for the bathroom door and carefully opened it, expecting to be greeted with the continuation of our argument.
Instead, Jade was lying on the couch, her back to the room.
I couldn’t see her face, but I assumed she was still awake.
No one could fall asleep that quickly, or at least, I certainly couldn’t.
I tiptoed over to my bed and slid under the blanket. It was surprisingly comfortable for an old inn. My body sank into the mattress, and even though my mind was racing to process everything that had happened tonight, I found myself drifting into a lethargic state.
The shuffling of a blanket to my right made me roll to my side. I watched as Ladon extinguished the lamp on the table between us.
When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could just make out the outline of his body. Even without the light, I was so familiar with the features of his face that I could still envision them in the dark.
A flicker of moonlight reflected off his eyes, but it faded just as quickly as it had appeared.
I wanted to reach across the gap between our beds and find his hand. Or call his name to have him move over and snuggle in beside me. It was always so much easier to sleep when he was holding me.
He sighed, and I was certain he was thinking the same thing.