Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
ARYELLA
I considered finding a way to meet your betrothed.
I could have frightened him into worshipping you. Threatened him, so that he knew I would be watching, and that if he hurt you in any way, I would hunt him down.
But I didn’t, because I didn’t want to take away your future, and I needed to be honest with myself. If I even looked at the man that gets to have you in this life, I would have fucking killed him.
—FROM THE BUTCHER OF NYRIDA’S LAST KNOWN LETTERS TO QUEEN ARYELLA I
The same cold, unnervingly real hands had returned to my nightmares. The morning after, I was about to go to the shower hall to check my neck for bruises when Valda burst into the cabin. Her irritated stare scanned the room before locking on me.
“Fera!” Her sharp yell nearly made me drop my hairbrush.
“Yes, Captain?”
The steady thump of her boots on the wooden floor demanded attention and submission. I rushed to meet her in the middle of the room without a single clue what this was about, but I didn’t want to risk Mavic and Mina hearing.
Her dark eyes bore into me. “Pack your things.”
“What?” I croaked. My breakfast swirled in my gut. This was it. They were kicking me out. I’d failed, and I’d have to reveal myself, no matter how stubbornly determined I was to finish Commencement. “Why?”
“You have new living quarters.”
I glanced back at Mina and Mavic by their bunk. She was demanding that I leave my only friends here.
“I don’t understand,” I replied.
“The number of complaints we’ve received about you is overwhelming.
” Her stare turned reproachful. “Your nightmares are keeping every single one of your bunkmates awake. I don’t know what hell you’ve endured, nor do I really care, but we can’t have you disturbing an entire cabin of cadets every night. ”
Yesterday, Elias had gone from angry to provoking, to kissing me, to what felt like genuine concern. Did he actually care ? “Does the commander?—”
“This was his idea. I’m only relaying the order.” Valda crossed her arms over her chest while something warm and slightly tolerable bloomed in mine.
No , I told myself. No tolerance for that asshole. He kissed you without your consent.
Valda sighed. “With that said, we can’t also be offering special treatment to random new cadets by giving them single rooms, so pick two or three others who you trust can tolerate sharing with you, have them gather their belongings, and come outside.
Lieutenant Yarrow will escort you to your new quarters. You have ten minutes.”
She turned and was gone.
I stared blankly at a knot in the wooden floor, refusing to look around the room. Because I could feel every pair of condescending, judgmental eyes locked on me like they always were.
Regardless, if Mavic and Mina agreed to it, having a room to ourselves sounded like reprieve.
Mavic leaned against the bedpost of the twins’ bunk, furrowing his brow in concern when I approached.
Mina looked up from her book. “What was that about?”
“They’re moving me to new sleeping quarters.”
“Why?” Mavic took a bite of his apple. “Your nightmares?”
“Mav!” Mina reprimanded him.
Shit. How long had it been going on? If my sleep talking annoyed the twins, I didn’t stand a chance with anyone else.
Mavic shrugged. “Mina and Marin both whine in their sleep all the time. Doesn’t bother me, but I know some people don’t know how to suck it up.” He winked at his twin. “They must not have sisters.”
“They want me to pick at least two others to come with me,” I said before I could stop myself. “Whoever can tolerate me.”
The twins shared a curious glance. Something unspoken passed between them. I wondered if they could speak internally like Shera and I could, or if their silent knowing was a result of once being in the same womb for so long.
“Valda said I have ten minutes,” I hurried out anxiously.
Relief consumed me when they leapt to their feet and shoved their belongings into bags. Most of the cadets hadn’t brought much to the Barracks, so it didn’t take them long.
Mavic threw their bags over his shoulder. “Let’s go see our new room.”
But I stood frozen. They were choosing the company of an outcast. They had already put themselves in danger helping me in the first test. Could I really let them do this?
When he realized I wasn’t following, Mavic grabbed my hand and pulled me after Mina. “Come on. I’ll take you crying out in your sleep for whoever the hell Gavin is over Finch’s obnoxious snoring any day of the week.”
My body went rigid. How much had I really been saying in my sleep?
“What’s wrong?” Mavic’s brow furrowed in concern.
There was no way Mavic knew who Gavin really was. I might have been the only one to call him by his first name in over four hundred years.
“The guy?” Mavic wore a mischievous half grin reserved for his teasing.
My dry throat scraped as I swallowed, then nodded.
He shrugged. “We all have old flames.”
“ That’s one way to put it ,” Shera chimed in.
I was startled by the sound of her voice. She’d been quiet since the first test. “ Just because your magical ears allow you to hear everything doesn’t mean you should listen. ”
“What else am I supposed to do all day?”
I blew out a breath, picked up my bag, and followed the twins out of the door, more than ready to settle in a cabin with fewer people.
The opportunity to break into Elias’s office and secure the key to the library’s hidden room finally came later that evening.
“I think Valda is leading the training tomorrow,” Mavic noted. We had just returned to our new living quarters after supper. “The commander is gone for a few days. Yesterday, I spoke to Sophia Bruta in passing. She said he had an errand . He left a few hours ago, I think.”
“I hope he took her with him. Maybe she’ll be eaten by a bear out there,” muttered Mina.
Mavic gasped at his sister. “Mina Reed!”
“He’s gone?” I asked.
“For a few days.” Mavic’s mouth tilted into a playfully evil smile. “Why? Are you going to miss him, Fera?”
“No,” I answered absent-mindedly. I might have found his taunting humorous if I wasn’t distracted by planning a break-in.
I sat down on my bed next to the twins’ bunk. Our new quarters were smaller than before. In lieu of the benches and tables, there was one small table. No fireplace, though, which meant nights were a bit colder.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about Elias making special accommodations for me, other than guilty that I was about to break in and steal from him.
Not guilty enough to stop myself, however.
Shortly after midnight, only a few guards milled about. In recent weeks, I’d become comfortable creeping around in the shadows and even lighter on my feet. Our new cabin was even closer to Elias’s than the first, so I arrived quickly.
I pressed my back against the corner adjacent to the door and leaned forward, checking left and right for others. When the nearest guard disappeared along the eastern wall, I retrieved one of Mina’s borrowed hairpins from my pocket.
One of the many subjects covered in Gavin’s books was lockpicking.
He was nothing if not thorough. Having already practiced on the bathroom lock after Mina and Mavic had fallen asleep, it didn’t take me long.
I slipped through the barely open door, locked it behind me, and spun around to take inventory of Elias Winterton’s living quarters.
I’d been too furious to take in much of anything after the first test. The curtains, partially open, let in just enough moonlight to illuminate a massive, luxurious rug with swirling designs spanning the entire length of the room.
A four-poster bed stood proudly to the right, adorned in crisp black bedding.
In the corner was a tall wardrobe. A matching wooden chest sat at the foot of the bed.
I was overwhelmed with the urge to not look inside it or else I might discover something about Elias Winterton’s recreational activities I wasn’t ready to see.
On one side of the room was his desk, perfectly polished with a matching chair and bookshelves behind it.
The shelves held ornate bookends and books organized by color.
Barely distinguishable in the moonlight, maps, pens, and stacks and rolls of parchment were spread neatly across the desk, not a single item out of place.
I hadn’t seen much the night I stumbled across Elias and his female “friends,” but based on the messy hair, disheveled clothing, and gratuitous noises, I expected this room to look wilder and more unkempt. Dirtier.
Nor did it smell sweaty and perfumy, as I’d thought it would. Instead the air was crisp, filled with an aromatic mix of mint and juniper that I unfortunately recognized as Elias’s.
I ducked below the window and crawled to his desk, then remained on my knees while sifting through his drawers. On the left, they were filled with parchment, journals, and pens. The right was much the same.
When I reached the final drawer on top, I shoved my fingers to the back and felt cold metal.
“Thank gods,” I whispered, my nose burning with emotion.
I yanked out a key ring with at least twenty keys.
The one I needed stood out: ancient, tarnished, cross-shaped.
I wondered when it had last been used. By the thick layer of dust on the library’s hidden door, it looked to have gone undisturbed for a while.
I removed the key, unsure how or when I would return it, if at all. Hopefully, he wouldn’t notice its absence. Breaking into his quarters to put it back would be twice the risk.
Eager to escape, I came to an abrupt halt only when the door handle jiggled. Under the bed was the safest place to hide, but the desk was closer.
The handle turned.
I silently cursed and threw myself beneath his desk, making myself small as the door creaked open and flooded the room with moonlight.
A steady, familiar gait closed in on the desk. I covered my mouth with my palm. Valda could not find me in here. I’d have to reveal who I was, and I still wasn’t ready.