Chapter 26 #2
Desmond directed his answer to them both.
“Promised him I’d look out for you. I wasn’t going to let you be alone.
That was before I knew you’d have company, though.
” His gaze flicked to Lola, who was unusually quiet.
Desmond brushed his honey-blond hair back from his face, quickly redirecting. “About the tournament. What’s next?”
“We don’t know what the second trial is, but I’m working on finding out,” Emmeline said. “For now, we need to make sure Roremar makes it to the trial.”
Roremar’s spine straightened at that, and he squinted at her. “What do you mean?”
Emmeline didn’t look at him. “A lot of people believe he really is a murderer. We need to ensure no one decides he needs punishment between now and the next event.”
“When is it?” Myrella asked.
“Five days,” Lola said.
“I’ll hang around the barracks as much as possible,” Desmond assured them, absently drawing shapes in the dust on the ground as he thought.
“The guard who led you to Emmeline and me last night is a friend,” Lola added to Roremar. “His brother is working the barracks. He’ll keep an eye out. Desmond, I’ll introduce you two.”
Desmond grunted in agreement, his gaze on the pattern his fingers traced.
“What else has been going on here?” Roremar asked both Emmeline and his sister. His restlessness from earlier tonight was settling now that he was finally gathering information.
Emmeline toyed with the end of her braid, strands slipping out to frame her face.
Roremar had to fight the urge to tuck them back and listen to her words.
“I’m researching the original tournament so we can prepare you for the next task.
I received a scroll, but it’s written in Endasi, so it’ll take time to decode. ”
Roremar pursed his lips. “Received?”
Emmeline sighed. “Someone left it in my suite.”
“They were in your room?” Roremar seethed.
He was in Fatesdamned chains while someone snuck into Emmeline’s bedchamber. Fuck, he was useless in these damn barracks. He’d have to continue to try to read, to find out anything he could about what awaited them no matter how evasive Dryvius was.
“She has guards,” Lola assured him. Her gaze flicked between him and Desmond. “We both do.”
“Where are they now?” Des asked with narrowed eyes.
Lola snorted a laugh. “They think we’re at the pleasure house down the street. Spirits know they won’t be bothering us.”
“I didn’t need that image in my mind, Lola,” Roremar groaned, tipping his head back against the wall. Emmeline snickered, and now he was picturing her at the pleasure house, laid out on silk sheets with some other man’s head between her legs.
Jealousy seared his chest like a brand, and Emmeline squirmed, cheeks flushed. Much like they had the night in the apartment, when he’d watched her come and couldn’t lay a damn hand on her—
“Regardless,” Lola continued, breaking through that image, “we have time.”
“They better be the best guards the Chancellor has to offer,” Roremar grumbled, trying not to think about how hard his fucking cock was at the memory of Emmeline.
“They’re adequate,” Emmeline said. “I think I’ll still be able to sneak out.”
“Which she won’t be doing alone anymore,” Lola warned, and that tone had all his lust evaporating.
“Why not?” Roremar asked. Emmeline glared at his sister.
Lola shrugged. “They have to know.”
“A bunch of tattletales,” Emmeline muttered.
Roremar turned to her. “Why not, Huntress?”
Emmeline sighed. “A few nights ago, someone attacked me.”
Desmond cursed, Myrella gasped, and it was all Roremar could do not to explode.
“What?” He fisted his hands to keep from reaching for her.
“I’m fine,” Emmeline insisted. “They tried to drug me with the same florals from the murders on Lyra, but I fought them off. It was the night before the Opening Ceremonies, and then we had the duel and you and the Presentation, and everyone is demanding my time and attention.” She shook her head, her voice strained in a way he’d never heard from her—a way that cried for help without knowing how to ask for it.
“It’s all been such a whirlwind, I haven’t even been able to visit the scene again.
” Emmeline finally looked at him, assurance hardening her hazel eyes. “I’m okay, though.”
Some part of her probably thought she was, but Roremar could tell from the pitch of her voice that she wasn’t okay and it tore him up. “Someone attacked you, Emmeline. What if—”
No.
Horror choked him as he forced out, “What if it’s whoever broke into your dormitory at the Academy?
” He stood, pacing the roof and dragging his ringed fingers through his hair, the metal snagging on the tangles.
The night breeze beat against his cheeks.
“We never figured out who that was, but it couldn’t have been Dryvius using me.
I was at Fated Ink with Nico and Des at the time.
What if there’s someone else who’s trying to take you out or scare you? You said it was the same florals…”
The pieces. He had to gather the pieces. Line them up in his mind as if he was looking at another victim or an assignment in a war camp.
“It’s okay, Roremar.” Emmeline’s voice pierced his panic. Then, she was before him, grabbing his hands and pulling them from his hair, her touch the thing he’d been longing for. “It’s okay. Breathe.”
Roremar dropped his forehead to hers and inhaled deeply. With the wind picking up to wrap around them, he whispered, “Nothing can happen to you, Huntress. I can’t handle it.”
“It won’t.”
“Don’t say that to placate me. Please,” he begged. “I know you’re going to keep sneaking out. I know you’re going to look for what you need, and I’m not asking you to stop. Please, just be careful.”
She nodded against him.
Unable to look at her when he said his next words, his eyes slipped closed. “I know you said we aren’t good—this isn’t good—but please, allow me to want you enough to protect you. It’s all I know how to do.”
He felt her sharp inhale more than heard it. Embraced the soft exhale against his lips as she whispered, “Okay.”
A part of him withered right there. He’d hoped she’d deny what he’d claimed, say she wanted him, too. He could hear unspoken thoughts racing through her mind, but for once he couldn’t tell what they were.
He should have known better than to expect Emmeline DeLeoste to give up her secrets so easily.
Good thing it was his most rewarding challenge to figure them out.
Breaking the spell, Emmeline dropped his hands and turned back toward the group. Roremar’s spirit roared in dismay at the distance, but he let her go. He would only ruin her.
“There’s more,” Lola said.
“Of course, there is,” Roremar answered, leaning back against the roof’s edge and dragging a hand through his hair.
“Uncle Aldryn is here.”
Roremar froze. “What in the everlasting Fates did you say?” he said with lethal calm at the same time Myrella asked, “How did you know that?”
“You know?” Lola looked between Myrella and Desmond.
“Yeah, we know,” Des said. “We followed him into a pretty disgusting situation last night.”
Desmond explained what sounded too much like a ritualistic killing for Roremar’s liking. His mind whirled, but anger lashed through him for another reason entirely. “What in a Fate’s starry-eyed fuck is he doing here? What about our mother? The kids? He’s supposed to be taking care of them.”
“He didn’t say anything of them, but he requested I have breakfast with him tomorrow. I’ll ask,” Lola said, hands fisting in her lap.
“Thanks,” Roremar ground out. There was slim chance of his uncle coming to visit him. He turned to Des and Myrella. “Can you write down everything you saw at the sanctuary?”
Desmond took a small floppy journal from his back pocket and tossed it to him. “Already did.”
Roremar quickly flipped through the pages. Carvings on the chest, incense, the woman tied up. What in all the realms was his uncle involved in?
From where she was reading over his shoulder, Emmeline asked, “The carving wasn’t a star?”
“No,” Myrella said.
“Looked like two symbols and a realm’s worth of Aevollon incense.”
“Not Dryvius, then,” Roremar said, partially relieved he wasn’t responsible.
Emmeline said, “Falliare claimed he was here to negotiate trade agreements.”
“Don’t see how this is related to that,” Roremar muttered.
“Do you think the cloaked people in the sanctuary could be connected to the man who attacked you?” Myrella asked Emmeline.