“I don’t understand,” he mutters.
“Oh, come on, Harrison. I thought you were smarter than that,” I say, stepping into the light.
His brows furrow with intimidation. “Where’s my daughter?”
“Yourdaughter? Last time I checked, you’re herkidnapper.Let’s not get it twisted.”
“Spare me with the formalities. I saved her. Loved her. Gave her a home she never would’ve had if she stayed here.”
Before I can think, my hand lashes out and grips around his windpipe. “You ruined her. Prolonged the inevitable. And it’s coming back tenfold.” I squeeze tighter. “Don’t you think for a moment you did anything different. What kind of life did you give her again? The one with the absent mother, a father who worked all the time and hid her true self from her? It wasn’t your call to make, Harrison. And now that you’re back, you will pay for your crimes. As for Kalliope? She so easily trusted my daughter, unknowing she was a pawn in a bigger game neither of you can imagine. Just like her mother.”
He lets out a strained noise, and because I’m feeling generous, I give him a breath. As soon as I do, he spits in my face and starts laughing maniacally. Quickly releasing him with disgust, I use my sleeve to wipe the saliva from my face.
“Looks like you don’t know everything,” he manages to say.
“What do you mean?”
He shakes his head as if I’m the clueless one in this situation. “You think I took her of my own accord?”
Instantly, I’m on edge, grappling to regain my composure, but it’s too late. He already sees my defenses splintering, and he takes full advantage. “What’s the plan now? It’s not like I know where she is, and even if I did, there isn’t a godsdamn thing you could do to me toevergive her up. But give it your best shot. I always loved seeing those threads come loose and watching you tailspin in your own failure.”
Failure.I failed.
Not yet.
“Who helped you?” I bellow. This can’t be right. It was him. All him. There were no other factors to consider. I went over them again and again, careful to never show my hand. My brain rifflesthrough the possibilities, and I come up blank.
“Tsk, tsk. You’re asking thewrongquestion,” he sings.
He thinks he has won, that he holds the final card and will watch me unravel to know what it is. Harrison thrashes in the chair, the legs rocking back and forth with the force as I unleash the excruciating convulsions within his mind. He topples backward, smacking his head against the concrete repeatedly to get them to stop.
But they won’t.
“Who. Did.You.Help.” My patience is running thin, and as much as I would love to see his brain smudged into the cracks, I refrain, knowing I need him to get my checkmate.
His body stills, and I yank him back upright and hold the blade I was concealing in my pocket against his throat.
He eyes me then the metal, bouncing between the two with a mixture of horror and calling my bluff. The blade digs in deeper, biting against his flesh until blood pools against it.
The name he mutters sends a shock through my system, like I’ve been electrified. It holds so much weight, even after all these years.
“Elizabeth.”
SEVENTEEN
Kallie
It’s a relief when we finally catch sight of the kingdom’s walls. Dusk is already bleeding into dawn, and who knows how long it’ll be before we’re allowed to rest. I’m so tired I actually consider sleeping right here for the remainder of the night. Would it be foolish? Absolutely. But I don’t think I have the energy to care. The only thing keeping me upright is Voraxis touching down behind me the moment I break through the tree line.
After Odeyssa’s admission, the air quickly became stifling. I want desperately to pelt her with questions, especially after listening to Sintharion’s and Rathe’s snide comments, and it begs the biggest question of all.
Why is he posing as a guard?
Surely Rathe has to know. Granted, he doesn’t seem like the brains of any operation going on here, but still. He got the sergeant title somehow.
Two guards flank the entrance as we approach, and neither of them pay us any mind. The towering wall ahead is constructed of pale stone, like cinder blocks worn smooth by time, encasing the town on either side. Vines snake up its surface in wild, elegant spirals, their blooms unfurling in a riot of color that shouldn’t exist in a place so fortified. The flowers—golden, violet, crimson—burst through the cracks, softening the edges of the stones. It should be comforting, this place. It wants to be.
Instead, it fills me with unease. Nothing is that alluring without hiding a few secrets. Surveying the area, my mind tries to conjure up a semblance of a memory, some sort of feeling of familiarity from when I escaped, but nothing surfaces. Despite the lingering uncertainty, there isn’t anything blatantly obvious. No inkling that I’ve been here before, nothing giving the impression this is where I was kept all those months.
