31. Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter thirty-one
T he day was impossibly long. Full of concerned glances from the other concierges, none of whom suspected Quillian of any wrongdoing. And countless conversations, going over and over and over what happened with Traelen.
But none longer than the grilling from Janly.
‘What time did they leave?’ she asks.
It’s the first different question in some time, as well as the most inane. We’ve gone over and over Quillian’s arrest. Who were the Hunters with him, what did they look like, how did they bind him.
‘Jan,’ I say on an exhale. ‘What does it matter?’
She flicks her gaze around the interior courtyard where we stand, watching the Hunters patrolling the area. The acidic taste in the back of my throat turns my stomach. I haven’t seen them take Nix or River – yet – but that doesn’t mean they won’t find them. Or that they haven’t already and Traelen has just ordered the Hunters to stay.
A chill runs down my spine, the thought of any of them stuck in Vana Prison for the rest of their lives pressing in on me from all sides. But it’s the knowledge I will be here, so close to them but unable to see them, help them, that makes me swallow hard and hope I won’t be sick. Until Zale comes to get me, and then I will be completely out of reach.
‘I know you care about him,’ she says, ‘and he you.’
I snap my attention back to her.
‘Trust me when I tell you, you have to find a way,’ she says. ‘Quickly.’
‘What?’
A Hunter lumbers towards us and Janly draws herself up straight. ‘I’ll do what I can,’ she says before walking away. I stare after her before snapping my attention back to the Hunter. Just how much does she know?
‘How can I help?’ I ask the broad, bearded man before me.
‘Traelen said you’re in charge up here for now?’
I nod, trying not to look too disappointed. Heartbroken.
‘My men will need rooms for our stay,’ he says. ‘We can eat separately to the guests – prisoners – if you can set us up somewhere to eat together.’
‘How long do you think you’ll be here for?’
He runs his hand along his jaw, scratching gently at his full, red beard. His face is kinder than I would have picked for a Hunter. But I know enough about them to know what they do. They’re not military in the same way as Quillian and his team, but Nuntainia’s elite law enforcement. And I don’t want them here. Or anywhere near my friends.
‘Indefinitely at this stage,’ he says. ‘The transfers Traelen wanted done are complete—’
My chest feels like it’s cracked. ‘How – how many were there?’
‘Transfers? Three.’
‘And they’re all on the other side?’
‘They can’t worry you anymore, ma’am,’ he says, a tiny crease between his brows. ‘I’d put them out of your mind.’
‘Of course,’ I say, smiling tightly. ‘I’ll organise to get you set up.’ I turn to walk away, a hot restlessness starting to burn in my feet and running up my legs.
‘Holland,’ he says.
‘Pardon?’ I ask, looking over my shoulder.
‘My name,’ he says. ‘For when you need to find me.’
‘Sorry,’ I say, giving him a small smile that probably distorts my face. ‘It’s been a long day. Nice to meet you, Holland.’
The glass of water Blossom hands me is cool in my hand when I take it and gulp it down. Washing away the taste of vomit.
‘We’re fucked, Bloss,’ I say, pressing the glass against my forehead and leaning back on the tiles of my bathroom wall. ‘I should’ve got them off sooner. I—’
‘Had no ability to do that,’ she says frankly.
Turning to her, I knock the back of my head against the grey marble instead.
‘Why did it have to be so hard to find anything on the wards?’ I ask. ‘And now it’s too fucking late.’
‘They’re still alive, Lu.’
‘But they’d be better off not.’ I close my eyes as another wave of nausea takes me. ‘They’ll never be the same once the other side gets started on them.’
Blossom slowly sinks to the floor beside me, a hand holding her side as she does. The pink dress she’s wearing pools around her bare feet.
‘I should have called them out long ago,’ she says quietly, ‘when I first saw Quillian’s tattoo. Now they’ve gone, I feel like a door has closed. One we should’ve gone through.’
I turn my head on the tiles to look at her. ‘Me too. But Cortane will still take you, I’m sure that won’t change. I imagine she won’t like it, but they will be better off with at least one of them out of reach of Vana. She will go and she will take you.’ I don’t know how to form my thoughts around the fact I am now also leaving the island while three men I love are in Vana.
‘Yeah,’ she breathes, ‘I think you’re right. She’s kind of … cold. But I don’t think she’ll abandon us.’
‘Janly was asking me strange questions today,’ I say after a while. ‘Like she wanted me to give her their itinerary.’ I laugh hollowly and shake my head. ‘I couldn’t bring myself to tell her what they’d be facing – surely she knows what happens over there.’
Blossom’s brows start to furrow.
‘She could have a point, actually,’ she says. ‘There’d be a process they have to go through. Same as here when they get announced, assigned a concierge and all that. What if …’
‘What?’ I ask, too impatient to give her space to think.
‘Well … they’re going to have a magic suppressant of some kind over there right? There’s no Claudius to intervene like he did with Cortane. What if they haven’t had those yet?’
‘I don’t know why that’s—’
‘What are they?’
‘Nix is a Clayti,’ I say. ‘River’s Karaylia with strong Arkanan abilities. And you know Quillian’s Karaylia, too.’
‘River has wings?’ Blossom’s brows are now shooting for her hairline and I can’t help but smile. ‘You know, I always thought Clayti were supposed to be a bit more … grounded – pun intended.’
I laugh softly at her small joke at the earth-wielders’ expense.
‘But that actually makes a lot of sense – Nix’s … intensity, and River’s gentleness.’
‘I guess so, but what does that do for us? They’ll still be held over there and there are still the wards we don’t know how to bring down.’
‘No … but Cortane can still get in and out of Vana, right? The three of them, and me, could be a lot for her to portal at one time … we need to go see them. I have an idea.’
River is on the other side of the alcove when Blossom and I skid to a halt at the exposed bars. My immediate reaction is relief – that someone was here waiting for us. But seeing his face on the other side does something to the inside of my chest. Hardens it somehow. Another blow to my view of Nuntainia.
‘I don’t know if I’m pleased or disappointed that you’re here,’ he says. ‘But I’m not surprised.’
‘You were waiting for us,’ Bloss says.
‘Always. But I don’t have long – I’m supposed to be in the food hall.’
Her cheeks deepen in colour and she looks away.
‘Can you get the others?’ I ask, not wanting to ask the question that’s really burning on the tip of my tongue. ‘Can Cortane—’
‘Not easily, but we can get messages to each other – so far,’ he says.
My stomach sinks, an unfulfilled need to lay eyes on Nix and Quillian taking root. I squeeze my fists closed for a moment, taking the small sting of my nails on my palms to bring me focus. I look at Blossom, waiting for her to explain. When she looks back to us, it’s me she focuses on, not River.
‘How strong is Nix?’ she asks.
My mouth drops open to tell her it’s been too long for me to really know, but River fills the gaps.
‘Very,’ he says. ‘We were all chosen for our service based on our strength and skills.’
‘So it was more than his charm?’ I ask, remembering what he told me about being a liaison for the villages.
River scoffs a laugh, but it’s missing all of its humour.
‘There was never just one thing they wanted,’ he says. ‘Why do you ask?’ He looks back to Bloss.
Her looks between us, suddenly uncertain. ‘There’s a portion of the island that’s been fenced off because it’s too unstable for general use – Emeris told me he found it one night with one of the guards from here.’
River’s gaze starts to narrow as he tracks her idea.
‘If Nix could sever it from the island,’ she continues, ‘with us on it, he could move us beyond the wards.’
‘But we don’t know exactly where the wards begin and end,’ I say. But as the words come out, I wonder if that’s true.
‘No. But we’ve already agreed that marked is better than dead, so—’
‘We could go over the wards,’ I say, staring at her. ‘The picture – the wards – what if they don’t go all the way around?’
I blow out a breath and River closes his eyes.
‘It’s … not a terrible idea,’ he says, opening them again. ‘But you said “us”. That is a bad idea. No one knows of your involvement yet, Lu – you’re in the clear to go to the House.’
River’s still wearing the clothes he was in when I last saw him, not that that’s completely surprising. But suddenly I can’t think of anything other than those being the last clothes he’ll ever wear. How often do they get replacements here? Basic hygiene? The thought that Quillian might die wearing the uniform of a government that has betrayed him sends an angry chill snaking between my ribs.
‘That may be so,’ I say. ‘But it’s too dangerous to stay here now. The Hunters Traelen brought over are staying—’
‘Shit,’ River mutters.
‘—and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before our involvement in everything comes under greater scrutiny. I doubt there is a prisoner over there’—I jerk my thumb behind me—‘that hasn’t noticed some sort of connection between me and the rest of you. And there is certainly not a single person who will believe I have no idea why Blossom is suddenly missing.’ I think of the events where Traelen has quietly watched me work with her. ‘Definitely not Traelen.’
‘You need to go back,’ he says. ‘I’ll talk to the others, but if we’re doing this – regardless of the wards – we need to move quickly. Tomorrow night.’ He looks between us and Blossom breathes in deeply. ‘There’s no going back from this though, you know. If you change your mind before then, no one will hold it against you.’
‘Except us,’ Blossom says, taking my hand.
‘I need to see them,’ I say to River, squeezing Blossom’s palm against my own.
River glances around behind him, into the light filled space before the building begins.
‘I’ll see what I can do. If no one’s here in fifteen minutes, you need to leave.’
Blossom and I don’t talk while we wait, sitting on the rough concrete and dirt that’s been chipped away. The metal bars are old and I wonder how many times visits like these have taken place, who carved it out away from view of the guards.
My mind drags itself back to the wards and I rest my head back on the cold, curved slab that hides us from view. Running over all the things we found and searched in the Warden’s office. His desk, the files, the shelves. Nix even checked under the rug and the base of the couch. But nothing talked of the wards.
Little stones and bits of dirt skitter through the bars as Quillian skids to a stop. He grips the bars to steady himself and lifts his gaze to mine, all the air whooshing from my lungs.
‘I’ll give you some space,’ Blossom says quietly. She’s gone before I can stop her and I watch, heart in my throat, as she races across the open green space without me. I can’t see where she’s stopped, but I hope she’s waiting in the tree line for me.
The uniform I’d worried about Quillian wearing is torn across the front, his coloured tattoo exposed across his ribs. There’s an angry red mark across his face, but the skin’s not broken. Not there, at least.
He reaches out to take my hand. ‘Don’t look like that,’ he says softly, ‘it’s fine. We’re all fine.’
I search his eyes for any hint of a lie but he seems mostly concerned for me and my chest tightens at the generosity, but unfairness, of that. How long has he gone without being able to have any real concern for himself?
‘Blossom and I – we’re both coming. You’re getting off and we’re coming.’
‘River told me your plan,’ he says. ‘It’s so crazy, it might just work. But, you know, without being able to bring the wards down, we are very likely to be marked as we cross them – there is no guarantee there is an ‘over’.’
I nod.
‘And you still want to go?’
‘Yes,’ I breathe.
He pulls me closer, until I’m standing as flush with him as I can be with the bars between us. But it’s still enough to feel the heat of his skin in places.
‘It needs to be about you, Luka,’ he whispers. ‘You have to really want to fight a broken system. But to do so means you’ll be on the wrong side of it.’
I slip my hand into the rip in his shirt, sliding my palm around his side and Quillian sighs.
‘I want to fight,’ I say. ‘I can’t stand back and watch this happen to you. Or live in ignorant luxury over there while it continues to happen to other people. I can’t do anything about the ones I was naive to before. But I can make a stand now,’ I say.
The intensity in his face when he meets my gaze sends warmth running across my cheeks.
‘It … might also be a bit about you,’ I say. His exhale is loud and his breath reaches my face. ‘How would you feel if that was the case?’
‘Like I was being set up. Like I met you too late,’ he whispers.
A sharp pain digs into my breastbone. ‘Why would you think that?’
‘Because it’s not supposed to be this way, Luka. I’m not supposed to have attachments in this way.’ His face shutters. ‘And I wonder what it would have been like if we’d met long before all of this.’
We watch each other for a long, quiet moment. My hand still in his shirt where I can feel the movement of his breath. ‘Well,’ I say, ‘we can “suppose” all we like, but this is where we are and we’re getting off this island. Together.’
He stretches an arm through the bars and around the back of my neck, pulling me to him and claiming my mouth. There’s a desperation in the kiss. One that entwines itself with the desire running through my limbs. His fingers slip into my hair, sending a shiver down my neck, and I press against him harder, the bars biting into my flesh.
‘We can do this,’ I say, short of breath. ‘We can do this.’
Quillian kisses me again, his tongue finding mine and his teeth dragging over my lip as he breaks away.
‘I hope so,’ he says.