Chapter 24 #2
I remembered the feel of that biting cold from the first time I’d seen the demoni. Bressen had summoned them after the coup in Gendris to come for Glenora. I’d tried to get to him, and the smoke surrounding him had been cold enough to burn my skin.
The demoni that sat on my shoulder now was cold, but not nearly as frigid as what I’d felt that day in Gendris. Perhaps the demoni were warming up to me, literally, or maybe I was acclimating to them.
We began to descend the stairs toward Clarice’s cell, and Axenus pushed past Serise to press in next to me.
“What do you need Clarice for?” he asked in a low voice.
“She knew Magdalene,” I said. “She may know how to find her.”
“Do you intend to hurt her?” he asked.
“If I need to.”
“Cyra, please.”
I stopped and looked at him, which caused Surgeon and Serise to pull up short to avoid colliding with us on the stairs.
“Why do you care if I hurt her?” I asked him. I was genuinely curious. According to Bressen, Axenus had tried to drown Clarice the last time he’d been here, but he’d eventually stopped. I didn’t understand why.
Axenus glanced at the two gargoyles, and I knew this wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have here of all places, but there wasn’t anywhere else for us to go. In Revenmyer, the walls literally had ears.
Axenus looked back at me, and I was momentarily held by the piercing cerulean of his eyes. They were similar to Bressen’s in their strikingness, and the knot in my stomach pulled tighter.
“I don’t care what happens to Clarice,” Axenus whispered, leaning in so only I could hear. “I care what hurting her will do to you. Don’t let her or Magdalene turn you into a monster, Cyra.”
I pulled back as if he’d slapped me, but his expression was unapologetic.
“Stay outside if you want,” I told him. “You don’t need to see what I do if you don’t want to. Then you can continue to pretend I’m as sweet and innocent as you want.”
I turned away from him so quickly that Blink had to grab a lock of my hair to keep from being pitched off my shoulder.
I could practically feel Axenus’s hurt and disappointment at my words, but I couldn’t deal with him at the moment.
Not when I didn’t know what was happening to Bressen right now.
My sole focus was getting to him before…
No one else spoke as we arrived at Clarice’s cell door and Hettie opened it.
I strode inside, but I didn’t immediately see Clarice.
The cell was darker than the hall, and it took my eyes a moment to adjust before I saw her facing the wall at the far end of the cell.
An oval frame hung there, like the kind that might contain a mirror, but this one was empty.
Nevertheless, Clarice looked into it as if she could see her reflection.
She jumped back a second later as several pairs of red eyes popped into the frame, followed by the faces of their demoni.
“Clarice,” I said, and she swung around. Her face seemed to brighten as she saw me.
“You came back,” she said. “Did you bring…?”
She looked around, presumably for Bressen, but her eyes widened, and her lips parted as her gaze lit on someone behind me. I knew who I’d see as I turned to confirm Axenus had followed me into the cell.
“Axenus,” Clarice breathed. Her eyes traveled up and down his body, and I had the urge to burn them out of her head.
For his own part, Axenus had frozen in place. His jaw was clenched tightly, and a muscle ticked wildly just under his ear.
The start of a smile hitched the corners of Clarice’s mouth, and she stepped forward, but I blasted her with a forcefield that threw her back against the wall.
“Cyra, no!” Axenus shouted. He wrapped his hand around the wrist I still held out toward Clarice.
“Please don’t do this,” he said.
“You should have drowned her,” I said.
He flinched, but his expression hardened. “If I’d done that, she wouldn’t be here for you to question now. Ask her what you came here to ask and let’s go.”
I tugged on my hand, and he let go of it. Then I turned to Clarice.
“I need some information from you about Magdalene,” I told her.
Clarice tore her eyes from Axenus and met mine. Slowly she picked herself up off the floor.
“I’ll tell you anything you want,” Clarice said, “but I want something in return.”
I raised a brow. “Oh? And what do you want?”
Her gaze shifted back to Axenus. “I want five minutes to catch up with him,” she said silkily, and my stomach churned.
Axenus didn’t move, but his lips curled in disgust.
Clarice stepped up in front of me, and I was annoyed to find I had to look up at her.
I knew she was taller than me when I’d first encountered her in Axenus’s dream, but it had been the least of my concerns at the time.
I’d been more focused on the smugness in her expression and how she looked at Axenus as if he belonged to her.
I saw that same smugness in her expression now.
“Convince him to see me for five minutes alone, and I’ll answer any questions you want,” Clarice said.
There was silence behind me as I met her eyes.
Surgeon and Serise had entered the cell as well, and, with their mind shields down, I felt their curiosity about why Clarice was so interested in Axenus.
I also felt Axenus’s own acquiescence. He’d do it.
He’d put up with this woman alone for five minutes to give me the answers I needed.
Luckily, he didn’t have to.
“You misunderstand me,” I said to Clarice. “I don’t need to ask you any questions.”