Chapter 1 #2
Maz rolled his eyes. “We’re not all as in love with our weaponry as you are, little sister.”
“Were you not going to get your lost axe inked on your skin?” I asked him.
Yarina snorted, and Maz chuckled—a sound that seemed out of place in this room. But Holy Four, it felt good to bring someone joy. For one moment, the shackles on my heart loosened.
But then the door opened, and Aiden stepped into the room.
Our gazes clashed in the shifting light. Those bright green eyes had captivated me from the first moment they found me in our shared cell in the Den. Right after he’d broken the jailer’s nose for hurting me.
They had been filled with fury then. Now, they looked as haunted as I felt.
Maz squeezed my hand, drawing my attention back to him, and I realized I’d been crushing his fingers. I slackened my grip.
His teasing smile faded as he studied my expression. He glanced between me and Aiden, his brow creased.
“Kiera was just telling me of Ruru, Aiden,” he said, holding me firmly in place as though he could feel my body tensing for flight.
I didn’t dare look back at Aiden, but his deep voice pierced my heart all the same.
“And what did she say of him?”
“Our little brother is alive and well, still in possession of my whistler. Hopefully, he had the good sense to get out of Aquinon before Renwell looks for him.”
“I told him to,” I said quietly. I’d given him my gold from the heist as well, enough to buy food and lodging for a month.
“You’re the very best of friends, Ruru.”
“I wish you had been a better one.”
“You spoke with him?” A subtle demand lurked beneath Aiden’s question, tearing down the feeble wall that had separated us the last two days.
Anger sparked in my blood. Ruru had told me he wasn’t supposed to free me. He’d disobeyed Aiden because he felt he owed me his life.
I lifted my gaze to glare at Aiden. “Yes.”
Something flashed across his bronze face. Regret or disappointment, I couldn’t tell which.
“Why wouldn’t you have spoken with Ruru?” Maz asked. “Weren’t you with him while he bombed the Old Quarter?”
All the air seemed to leave the room.
Aiden didn’t break staring at me. And I couldn’t look away from him. It was as if our eyes couldn’t let go, now that they’d found each other again.
The last gaze Mother saw before she died.
Hot, bitter grief swelled in my throat.
His jaw clenched.
But then Maz’s other sisters and a few Dag men burst through the door, talking loudly.
Aiden spun away to check a bone-rattler’s bandages. I tried to escape, but Maz kept a firm grip on my hand.
“Not so fast, lovely. I want you to meet Davka and Sigrid.”
Sweat beaded down my spine. Gods damn it, this was the last place in the world I wanted to be.
Davka and Sigrid approached, both taller than Yarina but with the same long, golden hair, half woven into braids. They wore leather vests and sturdy pants tucked into dirty boots.
Sigrid wore a gray woolen jacket embroidered with crimson thread and an eyepatch studded with glossy metal. Davka left her muscular arms bare, probably because of the shiny ointment covering the burn marks on her skin.
Both of them had broad swords and axes strapped to their hips and backs. And both of them regarded me with more suspicion than Yarina had.
Sigrid sat next to Yarina while Davka leaned against the wall behind them.
“This is my lovely Kiera,” Maz announced, waving our joined hands. “She’s the one I was telling you about. The knife-thrower.”
Davka and Yarina leaned forward with interest, but Sigrid remained still.
“Did you really hustle a cattle herder from Winspere?” Yarina demanded, an eager smile growing on her lips. “And hit the target’s center without looking?”
I tried to smile back, but my heart was pounding so loud I could barely hear her. “Yes. I . . . I’ve always enjoyed throwing knives best.”
Yarina’s eyes darted around my body, and she frowned. “Where are they now?”
Shattered on the royal bedchamber floor by Renwell’s sunstone sword. Probably swept away with my father’s blood.
Sigrid’s remaining eye narrowed at me. “Maz said you were a palace guard before he pulled you out of that gods-damned Den with Aiden. Perhaps you can tell us how our Rellmiran enemies knew we were coming that night.”
My blood ran cold.
I felt more than saw Aiden pivot in our direction as the room went dead silent.
“Fucking Four, Sigrid,” Maz huffed. “How would she know?”
But the fierceness in Sigrid’s one-eyed gaze didn’t flicker. Gods, what had she been like with two eyes?
“She might know, brother,” she continued in the same steely calm voice, “because she didn’t infiltrate the Den with us. She didn’t join the fray until after we’d sealed it off and Aiden had blown up the tunnel to the palace.”
Maz twisted to look up at me. “When I heard you joined the fight, I thought maybe you’d found them after you were done with Ruru. To have Aiden’s back, like I asked, remember?”
The question almost sounded like a plea. As if he knew something was off and didn’t want it to be true. Or he was reading the guilt in my expression and my silence.
But I owed him the truth. He deserved to know why he’d lost part of his clan.
“No,” I whispered. “I came from the palace.”
I ignored the murmurs that echoed through the room, focusing on the tightness in Maz’s face.
“Why?”
“Because I was trying to stop Aiden from killing my father.”
Maz recoiled, but still held my hand. “Your father? But who . . .”
Suddenly, I couldn’t stand it any longer. The lies. The secrets. They murdered any peace of mind I’d once had.
I stared deeply into his eyes, wrapping my other hand around ours. “I was born Princess Emilia Torvaine. My father was King Weylin Torvaine. Renwell placed me in Aiden’s cell to learn his secrets and betray you all.”