“I drink shitty ale and listen to my men complain.”
He slapped Castor on the shoulder as his lieutenant burst into a fit of laughter and Kano chuckled along with him. But I just scowled at the Captain as he turned and walked away from our table toward another nearby.
I couldn’t get our last encounter from my mind. When he'd been ready to tear into me over my attitude and we’d been interrupted by none other than SaintAlosiaherself. Did his men know about her? Did they know about the madness and grief some of the Fallen had allowed their guilt to drive them to? If not, then how much did CaptainValinknow aboutPavosthat his men did not?
In the beginning, the Fallen fell into the wilderness of the land around this city.PrimaandValinwere one of the first pairs to compete in the Trials, let alone finish them and claim their victory. WasPrimaout there somewhere, having survived thousands of years in the desert? DidValinknow? Did he know his partner lived, that all of our partners lived? And had he watchedAlosiago insane instead of imparting to her the knowledge that might have saved her from her guilt? Would he have done the same to me?
I rose so suddenly my knee bumped the table, sending what little ale remained in my mug spilling over the edge. Castor cursed before reaching out to right the cup. Kano dabbed at the spill with a nearby napkin, muttering a question along the lines of ‘what’s wrong with you, boy’, but I wasn’t listening. I pulled my eyes from the Captain, lips curled in disgust, and turned away.
“Thank you for the ale, gentlemen,” I announced, my voice much colder than I intended it to be. “I think I’ll be heading to bed now.”
Neither of them replied as I whirled on my feet and strode out of the tavern.
I walked along the city border back toward the barracks. It wasn’t the most direct route but I wasn’t truly ready to lie down in my cot, not yet. There was far too much on my mind to settle for the evening. The alcohol seemed to be warring with my fury for control over my hazy mental state. But I kept walking,muttering to myself every now and then how overwhelmingly ridiculous this whole thing was.
I'd just passed behind one of the armories when the barracks I slept in came into view. I frowned at the figures in the dark moving toward the doors from all directions and moved to step out into the road myself but something held me back. A sensation, like the prickling at the back of my neck. I recognized it immediately.
Someone was watching me.
I turned around, expecting to find that Castor had followed me from the tavern, ready to either question me or scold me for my behavior, but no one was there. I faced nothing but darkness behind the vast armory. Brows wrinkled in confusion, I turned back to continue on my way. That was when I saw her.
She’dsnuckup behind me when I'd turned to investigate the darkness of the armory. She was short, that was the first thing I noticed, nearly a foot shorter than I was so that I had to look down to meet those glinting, very human eyes. My lips parted in surprise but, before I could say a word, her blade was at my throat.
My eyes widened in confusion. A human inPavoswould never dare threaten a soldier, much less a Victor. Then I noticed the cloak wrapped around her shoulders and billowing out behind her in the slight evening breeze.
Black.
“What—” I started.
The moment my mouth opened, her fingers were against my tongue and, an instant later, a bulbous object was shoved down my throat. I coughed, trying to dislodge whatever she'd fed me, but the foul taste was already spreading down my throat and into my chest. I could feel it working its way into my stomach, warmth spreading throughout my torso,amongstmy organs.
“Stay silent and live, Viper,” the woman hissed, lowering me gently to the ground and bending over me.
Her shoulder-length dark hair swayed as she turned side to side, eyes roving the night to ensure no one had seen.
“Who are—” I started, but my words were already slurring and the night around me was already becoming darker. I blinked, fighting to regain consciousness, but it was no use.
The woman pulled a knife from her boot before turning to face me, but then the darkness claimed me and I knew no more.
Chapter Eighteen
Adrian
“You can have me. You can take all I own, all I possess, everything I’ve ever had or will ever have. But please, for the love of the Geist, give me back my wife.”
– A Formal Request for Clemency for Delia Glen, Submitted by her husband Clark Glen
It always got harder to breathe near the end.
I held on anyway, maintaining the intangibility for as long as I could. I tried to distract myself from the strain by waving my invisible hand through the flickering flame of a candle sitting atop my coffee table. I watched the flame lick through my iridescent fingers in awe. No matter how many times I did this, I never got used to seeing physical things phasing through my body as though I wasn't even there.
I’d been practicing for weeks now. Every day, I sat myself on my couch and phased for as long as I could. Every night, I made my way back to the tunnel and entered Sanctuary again. I got further and further each time, able to hold onto my intangibility for a bit longer. At first, I was distracted by theDeckersgoing about their lives just the way I remembered. Then I sawthe Finnegan brothers and wasted more time than I intended just watching them hiding theirhome brews behind their ever expanding wall of sheet metal. I'd made it up the stairs once, the last time I'd gone. I’d gotten one glimpse of the Third Ring before exhaustion overtook me and, as it always did, the magic snatched me back to the Underground the moment I released my own.
I was covered in scrapes and bruises by now. The farther I made it into Sanctuary, the more forceful the magic became in pulling me back. More often than not, I landed in that dark stone tunnel with a shriek of pain and blood oozing from one part of my body or another. The worst of which had been a deep gash in my side when the magic had pulled me back too close to a jagged edge of the tunnel wall. I’d had to remain in the tunnel for hours afterwards, regaining enough strength to heal myself before I bled out on the dark stones.
But I was getting closer. I’d made it to the Third Ring now. Soon, I would be able to see Sophie and Graham and Harrison. After that, I would make my way up to the Second where I could see my brothers, my mother, and Dahlia. They wouldn’t be able to see me, of course, and I wouldn’t be able to speak to them. In fact, they would likely never even know I was there. I would be like a ghost, unseen and observing. But at least I could see them all again. At least, I could get good enough at phasing to check on them every now and then just to assure myself they were there, that they were safe and cared for asCosmopromised they would be. The thought made me unbelievably sad but I still went back to the tunnel every single night.
A knock on my door interrupted my concentration and my phasing dropped with a gasp as I desperately gulped in the air around me, blinking back to reality. I took a moment to catch my breath before rising from my place on the couch.
