He sat, and held the plate in front of me, offering me whatever I wanted.
I shook my head. “What’s taking them so long?” I said. “We weren’t that far ahead.”
“They’ll be here,” Dario said.
“But what if?—”
“They’ll be here,” he repeated sternly.
But the only person who appeared was the mage to refill our water jug and to put out more fruits, and another serving of warm bread, this one accompanied by several dips.
Before I knew it, the hour was called again.
“Where are they?” I asked Dario, my mind already running through a hundred terrible scenarios.
“We should call,” he said.
“That could be dangerous.” We’d been waiting, desperate to make contact, but our voices coming through the vadati could be deadly if they were close enough for a soturion to hear. If they were hiding, one call could ruin their cover. The whole idea of the vadati was starting to feel more and more dangerous and foolish.
“Give me the stone,” Dario said. “I’ve had to do this before—make a call without alerting anyone else.”
I handed it over, and he took a deep breath before he held it close to his mouth. “Aiden,” he said. He spoke as quietly as he could and still have the stone pick up his voice. “Aiden?”
White clouds filled the clear stone, starting to turn blue, but then they faded. It had connected. But Aiden hadn’t answered.
I reached for the stone. “Meera,” I said. “Meera?” Nothing.
“Let’s try Tristan and Galen,” he said. But a knock on the door stopped us. It creaked open revealing a red-faced Meera and Aiden bursting into the room, out of breath.
The door closed and Meera looked frantically between me and Dario. “It’s just the two of you? Just you two?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Shit,” Aiden cursed. “Shit.”
“What?” Dario asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Did Tristan call you?” Meera asked, her voice frantic. “Did you hear anything on your vadati?”
“No,” I said, looking at Dario. “We didn’t hear a thing. Not even when we called you two.”
“Fuck,” Aiden said. “He tried to call us. But when we tried to answer, all we heard was a scream. His. And Galen’s.” Aiden pushed his fingers through his auburn hair, groaning in frustration.
I clutched my chest. “You haven’t heard from them since?” I asked.
I was suddenly dizzy, and had to walk over to the wall, holding onto it to keep from fainting. Because I knew—I knew they’d been captured. Ambushed by the Emperor’s men, just like I had been. Dragged back to the Palace by his soturi.
We’d been so close to escape. So close to freedom.
“Julianna?” Dario asked, coming to stand beside me. “Are you … are you okay?”
I shook my head. “We can’t stay here. They’ll torture our location out of them.”
“Gods,” Meera said. “What do we do? How do we help them?”
“We don’t,” I said, feeling numb. “We can’t. As soon as they finish using them to get what they want, as soon they finish their interrogation—it’s over. They’re dead.”
Chapter
