I keep walking.
Seris hasn't stopped shaking since we crossed into Discord territory.
She's pressed against Caius's side because she won't come near me. Won't look at me. Keeps her face turned toward his shoulder and her hands fisted in his coat while I stand three feet away with our father's blood drying under my fingernails.
So. That's where we are now.
The corridors blur past—stone walls, low light, the hum of Discord's underground passages.
Trigger pull.
Head snapping back.
Seris screaming.
Running.
Twenty-four years of flinching.
One trigger pull.
Should feel bigger than this.
"Medical wing." Renan appears at Koshin's shoulder. "They're ready for her."
Her. My sister. Who watched me put a bullet through our father's face and hasn't spoken a word since.
Caius shifts his grip on Seris, murmuring against her hair. She nods into his chest. Barely a movement at all.
"I'll stay with her." Caius isn't asking permission. His eyes meet Koshin's over Seris's head. "Until she's settled."
Koshin nods once.
Caius steers Seris toward a side corridor and she goes. Doesn't look back. Doesn't look at me. Just lets herself be led away until the dim passage swallows her whole.
I should go with her. I should be the one holding her together.
But she flinched when I reached for her. Actually flinched.
From me.
"Iowyn."
Koshin's hand closes around my elbow. I didn't hear him move.
"Come with me."
I don't ask where. Don't have the energy. My feet follow him because that's what they do now. Follow him. Gravitate toward him.
Renan peels off somewhere behind us. I hear his footsteps fade, then nothing but our own and the distant drip of water through stone.
The corridors narrow. The air warms. Steam curls around the corners ahead, and I know where we're going before we get there.
The bathhouse.
He pushes through the door and the heat hits my face, thick with moisture. The space opens up around us—carved stone, low ceiling, water steaming in a pool that takes up most of the floor.
"Sit."
