Aya’s hands curled into fists, if only to contain the tremors that had started racking through her.
‘Kakos could be searching for Aya, Majesty,’ Will interrupted, stepping between them. ‘We should leave. I doubt they had eyes in the market, but if word somehow spreads …’
Tell them, dammit.
But Aya couldn’t get her throat to work, couldn’t fight past the panic rising in her chest.
‘Go straight to the docks,’ Gianna replied.
The queen turned, and Will gripped Aya’s arm, pulling her alongside him as they followed her out of the cell. Aya stumbled at the clipped pace, her legs having trouble keeping steady beneath her.
‘Do not delay,’ the queen continued. ‘Stop for nothing. And do not let her out of your sight.’ Gianna turned to face Aya, her brown eyes softening slightly as she tipped her chin up. ‘We have waited a long, long time for you, Aya.’
Aya couldn’t fight through the emptiness in her head, couldn’t overcome the way her mouth refused to voice her resistance.
Will came to a stop before the door. ‘By my blood, I will keep her safe.’
And then he pulled her into the night, to the ship that waited beyond.
The roaring was back.
It rushed through Aya’s mind like a river, muffling the sounds of the crew readying the ship as Will dragged her onto the main deck.
Even his vice grip, which had felt as tight as an iron shackle as they raced through town, had faded to nothing but a mere whisper against the burning inside of her.
She hadn’t been able to form the words – hadn’t been able to get her mouth tomove, to tell her queen the truth, thatthere was no possibility that she could be the one the prophecy spoke of.
Not after all she’d done.
She’d failed not just Gianna, but her gods, and the devastation of that truth had kept her silent and numb.
She glanced up at Will, marking the tension lining his face.
He of all people would know she couldn’t be the Second Saint. He’d practically spat it at her in the tavern mere hours ago.
It’s not light that drives you. I’ve had the broken bones to prove it.
He’d had the words to damn her to the seven hells. But he hadn’t said a thing in the dungeon.
Why? Why was he going along with this when he knew—
Aya’s blood went cold as a thought took hold.
He knew.
Will was saying something. Something about the minutes they had left before they set sail. But she couldn’t hear him over the raging in her head.
He knew.
He knew she persuaded those wolves. Had deemed it a sign of darkness itself. But he hadn’t said a word about the incident to Tova. Or Gianna.
Just like all those years ago, when she’d sent him hurtling from that wall.
Will knew from the moment he fell that she was different. That there was something in her that wasn’t right. Hemusthave suspected it then. And he’d wanted her removed from the Dyminara. The easiest way to do it would’ve been to tell someone that her power had gone beyond her affinity. Beyond anyone’s affinity.
He’d called her dangerous.
Told Galda she was unpredictable.
