“I would like that, thank you,” I said, realizing that my stomach was feeling very hollow. I hadn’t had a real meal in days.
Boil stood, brushing his hair off his scarred face. I enjoyed that he didn’t care to hide his less desirable features. He wore the remnants of his past without complaint like I wore the remnants of mine.
“I’ll leave you to it, then.”
Vidar gave him a pat on the shoulder as he walked away. Inside the cage, Lyla was motionless. I wasn’t sure that she had even blinked. Vidar and I stood over her, waiting for some kind of indication that she was even breathing, but she looked even less conscious than she had before. I lowered myself in front of her, hoping she’d at least acknowledge me.
“She can sleep with her eyes open,” Vidar pointed out.
At his suggestion, Lyla’s smoke-gray eyes turned up toward him, veiled in the shadows of her brows.
“Lyla,” I said, drawing her glare. “Will you talk to me?”
“For what purpose?” she whispered flatly. “To help you? What reason do I have to help you?”
“What reason do you have to helphim?”
“There was never a reason, Dahlia. It simply was.”
“Yes, because he claimed you long ago. I know how he toyed with your thoughts.”
“You know nothing. A mere stroll in the darkness does not mean you know its secrets.”
“No, but you do. I severed your bond with—”
“You only made him angry,” she snarled. “You think you severed his connection to us? You’ve severed nothing. You cannot tell me you don’t feel him still. He’ll be a part of us forever like a scar you cannot erase.”
“I do feel him, but its mere remnants. And I know you understand that.”
She shifted against her tight binds, jaw tensing as if to bite back her words. Her gaze wandered into the trees, staring at nothing again.
“I understand nothing,” she murmured. “Ihavenothing. No thoughts. No dreams. Nothing.”
“You don’t hear what you’re saying? Without him, you don’t even know yourself. Your desires. Your needs or your wishes. Does that not bother you?”
“I have no desires.”
“But you could. Lyla, you said you hoped. In our dreams, you told me that, do you remember?”
“Do not try your games on me.”
“You hoped you would be pulled from the darkness.”
“I hope for nothing.”
“But you could! Because he does not hold the keys to your fate anymore.”
“Quiet yourself.”
“You could help us destroy him. Destroy everything he’s built.”
“Shut up!” She lunged toward the bars, baring her teeth and shaking the entire heavy iron cage with the force of her body when she slammed against the side. “You think there is a chance for you and your beloved hunter? You have not felt him wholly. You have not felt his power. The way he can split a mind and control anything he likes. That any of you think you can fight him is proof that he enjoys the game. Otherwise, this would all be done already. He is laughing in his solitude, certain we will return to his prison soon because we will, sister. Because we have no choice.”
She lingered close to the bars, staring into my eyes. I was so near to her that I could see tiny, brown freckles in her irises that set her apart from me.
“That is what makes us so different,” I whispered. “You are prepared to give up at every turn. No wonder he grew bored of you.”
I stood, turning my back on Lyla. Vidar had his hand resting on Lady Mary’s hilt, his fingers flexing around it like he’d been ready to draw his blade since we arrived. I began to walk, the angerand frustration following my failure with Lyla. I wasn’t sure I would ever get answers from her and it made me question why I asked Aleksi to bring her back or why I let her live in the first place.
