Chapter 17 #2
Levitt waved his hand, the belled sleeve of his robe swishing between us like he could waft away the tension in the room. “I’m sorry, Kit. We had only what Anders said to go on and no reason to doubt him.”
“Have I given you reason, then?”
He dipped back like I’d struck him with the coldness of my tone. “We will interrogate him,” he hedged. “If he did what you said—”
“If he did it?” I lunged toward him, only peripherally aware that the knife clutched at my side could be seen as a threat. But we were alone here. There was no one to strike me again or stop my approach.
“Damn it, Lev, why won’t you listen to me?”
The second chair screeched against the floor when Levitt’s hurried steps brought the backs of his legs against the edge of the seat. For a man with so much power in this place, he wilted under my scorn.
“I hear you, Kit,” he said softly. “And I believe you. We’ll get Anders to confess, and he will be punished. If he mentions Merrick, I will gladly pursue that too.”
“And if Anders doesn’t confess? If he continues to lie? Then what? Will you believe me then?”
Levitt’s lips fell apart, and only a single word croaked out. “I…”
When I’d first returned here, Levitt’s promises had revived my childhood faith in him. But that faith had been reduced to a sputtering ember in the harsh wind of reality. He’d let me down twice, and this was looking to be the third time. My trust wouldn’t survive another blow.
I pointed the knife back to the door behind me and Penny somewhere beyond that, alone with an interrogator who wouldn’t believe a word he had to say. When I spoke again, the spite in my tone had been replaced by resignation.
“Then let us go. Pretend we never returned. Say the militia took us, if that’s your lie of choice.”
Levitt sputtered again but made it no farther than a few syllables before I carried on.
“I told you before, I won’t risk him.” I swallowed against the lump growing in my throat at the thought of Penny suffering through his own questioning when all he wanted was to sleep.
To forget about the horrors of the last few days.
“If staying in Ashpoint endangers Penny, if it continues to threaten his life with no consequences for those seeking to harm him, then I want no part of it. We walked here, and we can walk away from here just as easily. You’ll never see us again. ”
Silence met my words. My shoulders sunk as my exhaustion crept back into my muscles and weighed me down.
Levitt watched me, eyes sharp but wary, like he was trying to discern if I meant what I said and would walk away without a backward glance. I’d done it before, and I’d had less to lose then.
He drew a deep breath and let it out in a rush, and his eyes shuttered. When they opened again, he looked as tired as I felt.
“No need to do anything tonight,” he said. “It’s getting later by the moment, and you’ve clearly had a harrowing few days.”
“Does that mean we’re free to go?” I asked coolly.
He nodded, then gestured to the door. “I’ll take you to Penny.”
I sheathed my knife and followed him out the door and down the stairs.
We’d barely stepped into the hall of cells before a voice barked, “Answer the question!” I recognized it as Luca, the interrogator who had questioned me when we first arrived.
Only silence answered his demand.
“We’re done here, Luca,” Levitt called ahead.
A moment later, a cell door down the hall opened and the portly man stepped out. His brows were drawn low, and his eyes narrowed when he saw me, unbound, beside Levitt.
“Your Eminence?” He gestured to the cell. “I wasn’t finished.”
“You are now,” Levitt said firmly. “You may go.”
Luca looked like he wanted to argue, but a sharp look from Levitt cut his resolve off at the knees, and he only nodded and stalked past us up the stairs.
Pushing past Levitt, I rushed into the cell where Penny was still in a heap on the floor where the guards had left him. His defiant expression dissolved as soon as he saw me, and the torchlight caught on the tears that lined his lower eyelids.
I sank before him and threw my arms around him as though we’d been apart for months instead of maybe an hour. Any amount of time was too long. Too many chances for harm to come to him without me there to shield him from it.
He pressed his face into my chest, and I buried mine in his hair, still damp from the snow. His breaths came with a lingering wheeze, and all I could think about was getting him home and getting him warm, then falling into bed for a week.
Levitt stopped in the doorway, watching with what could only be described as pain etched across his face. He certainly had enough things to wound him these days, not the least of which was the cold glare I gave him in return.
“Come on, Pen,” I murmured. “Let’s go home.”
He didn’t speak as I helped him to his feet and pulled him against my side.
Maybe it was possessive, proprietary. But more than that, it was protective, because I felt like I was fighting even now.
Not staring down five men with masks and crossbows, but silently begging my old friend to be the man I always thought he was.
But all Levitt did was step back to clear the door to give us room to pass. No further apologies were offered, not a word to Penny about what he’d been put through. Just brittle silence until we were almost at the stairs.
“We’ll talk later?” Levitt called after us.
A grumble escaped me before I replied, “We certainly will.”