He scuffs, licking his bottom lip as he shakes his head. “You have this all wrong, and you are going to listen to everything I have to say.”
“Or what?”
“Or you are as good as dead here in these games.” His eyes linger on mine before scanning around us on alert. “I was thrown in here with you. I promise.”
“Why!” I hiss, my tone shifting to a high pitch as he cuffs my mouth within seconds.
“Shhhhh.” He leans towards me. “If you wake them and they see you on top of me like…this.”
His eyes trace me, down to my thighs that straddle him. “I mean, I’m not complaining.” He teases, his dimple creasing against his cheek.
I slam my hand against his arm and remove his hand from my lips. “This isn’t funny.”
“No it isn’t, Serene.” His eyes darken. “The Queen is up to something. She wanted me gone from the castle, which is why she most likely had someone follow me and listen to our conversation.”
“But why not just kill us then?”
His voice drops to a whisper. “She knows she cannot kill me. Florian would never marry Skie, but you…” He pauses, his mind racing with the possibilities of why the Queen didn’t kill me. “You, I cannot understand why. Women don’t compete in the games and if she wanted you dead, she would have done it herself.”
“Maybe it's all for a show.” I shrug.
“Maybe, but…” his lips form a tight line as he releases the dagger from my side, “she follows the rules and the written ways of the Realms and never strays from them. Her throwing you into the games is breaking the rules forged by the Gods, which means something else has to be going on.”
“Why are you telling me this?” My eyes narrow, watching the fire of the torches create shadows along his face.
“I think she fears you. She can’t control what she cannot see.” He hands me the dagger, placing it gently in my palms as he wraps my fingers around it. “And I want to understand why.”
“The Queen doesn’t fear me.” I roll my eyes.
“That is where you are wrong.” His eyes flicker, scanning my face as he faintly shakes his head. “I have never seen her panic the way she did the night she took you here. When she came for me, she had fresh, new wounds with the language of the flames. She went to themagain,and I believe she did not see the answers she wanted.”
“That doesn’t mean anything, Koen.”
“It means everything.” He lifts his head. “The oracles see all… why can’t they see you?”
“I’m not from Azure,” I hiss, leaning into him. “I told you this.”
“They believe they saw Tilly.” His tone softens. “Which means I can’t have you die in here, because I need to know how you are hiding from them.”
“I’m not doing anything.” My eyebrows narrow as I pull away. “I don’t understand how they can see my sister and not me.”
“I don’t know, Serene, but in a week, they let those who are competing free for a night before the first battle game.” He pauses, glancing around the dimly lit shadows of the dormitory. “We'll sneak off to the archives, and I will find what I am searching for. And maybe there is something there that can help you find Tilly.”
“And if we get caught again?” I tilt my head to the side, my midnight-black hair tickling against my cheek.
He shrugs. “We are already in the battle games. That's our punishment. She won’t expect us to try again.”
I tilt my head back, pushing off of him as I sit against his pelvis. “Fine. But we are telling Florian.”
He grunts as his lips rub between his teeth. “And before you tell me no,” I push against his shoulders, “we are doing it my way. Last time, you got us into this and now, youwill listen to me.”
“Fine.”
“Koen,” I whisper, my eyes dropping to my fingers that hardly wrap around his broad shoulders. “Why don’t women compete in the games?”
He sucks in a deep breath. “In honor of the last Deskyiara, the fallen Queen and her daughters. The games are created to destroy the curse, which was brought upon us by greedy men who wanted more power. And with that, the Gods demanded that we never shall bring a woman in the games, to forever remember the beauty and strength, but also, the gentleness of the Deskyiara women. The Deskyiara bloodline had magic and powers like no other has ever seen before… the Gods will forever punish us for killing them.”
“Seems likeyou menreally screwed up.”
