“Like I nearly died.” She looked past Josie to Cole. “Thank you for getting me here.”
“How did you know this is where I would be?” Josie pressed. Aleissande wetted her cracked lips, and Josie grabbed a cup of water. She helped Aleissande take a sip, her fingers sliding easily into the strands of hair at the back of her skull as she supported her head.
Aleissande closed her eyes as she settled back against the table, and for a moment Josie simply stood there, cup of water in hand, hovering at the general’s side. Cole coughed, and it jarred Josie into motion. She dragged her chair closer to the table, her fingers curling around the cup to resist reaching out toward Aleissande again.
Aleissande’s eyes fluttered open, pale blue and far less bleary than they’d been hours ago. “Aidon told me about Natali hiding Viviane. I assumed that meant this would be a safe place for you to run.”
Cole’s chair scraped across the stone floor as he dragged it to the table. “That’s who Josie is going to kill,” he informed Aleissande as he plopped back down into his seat. “Viviane.”
Aleissande searched Josie’s face, as if she could find the truth there. “As much as I’d love to witness that, your brother was right. She could be useful to our cause.”
It should have stung to know that Aidon hadn’t spared Vi’s life solely because of Josie’s heart. But it didn’t.
“The time for her to share her testimony has long since passed,” Josie bit out.
“True,” Aleissande conceded, “but there is still the matterof her raw power. It might not be limitless, but it is still strong. We need every fighter we can get, and if she can be convinced to join our cause…”
“Our cause,” Josie parroted, her leg bouncing. What cause could they possibly pursue now?
She leaned against the stiff wooden back of her chair, her jaw shifting as she asked the question that had been nagging at her for hours. “How many did we lose?”
Aleissande grimaced, grief and pain twisting her lips and flashing in her eyes before it gave way to the familiar steel of her gaze. “Enough.” She licked her chapped lips. “Your parents?”
Josie’s throat ached as she swallowed down her own grief. “Natali says they haven’t been seen since the coup.”
“The Bellare could be holding them for ransom,” Natali’s voice came from the doorway. They had changed out of their leathers and into their customary loose pants and linen top, the soft blues a balm against Josie’s nerves and the grimness of the training room.
They looked better rested, too, the bags under their eyes not so pronounced.
“General,” they greeted with a dip of their chin. “Good to see you alive.”
“Good to be so,” Aleissande answered.
“I’ll send for the Anima,” Natali remarked. “She’ll want to look you over.”
“Not yet,” Aleissande grunted as she heaved herself up, her elbows braced behind her as she tried to sit up. “I want to speak privately.”
“Careful,” Josie chided, her hand gripping her shoulder. “You should lie back down. Your stomach—”
“I’m fine,” Aleissande insisted, her shallow breath anything but. Josie pushed away the irritation that sparked at Aleissande’s typical stubbornness.
Bullheaded as ever.
Aleissande waited until Natali closed the door behind them and stepped further into the room before she spoke again. “I take it rumors of Aidon’s power beat us here.”
Aleissande kept her gaze fixed resolutely on Natali. Josie wondered if she expected her to press the matter, to retort with a childishI told you. She felt a stab of shame to know that if Aleissande hadn’t been a breath away from death, perhaps she would have.
It was baffling how such matters could sober one instantly.
“Clearly,” Natali deadpanned. “Though I do believe the cause was aided by the news of what transpired in Sitya with the Second Saint.”
Josie straightened in her seat, her brow furrowing as she remembered Natali’s words from earlier. “You mentioned revelations regarding Aya. I assumed you meant that she’d been kidnapped. Why would that bolster the Bellare’s cause? Their issue is with Visya holding too much power.”
“This is why sayings about assumptions exist,” Natali retorted dryly. Cole snorted a laugh, but Josie could not even manage a grin.
“What happened?” she demanded.
Natali sighed as they tugged a spare chair forward, settling into it heavily. “They say she attacked Sitya using the same light she displayed in Dunmeaden during her Sanctification.”
