In one fluid motion, I reached out with the wrist Bade did not hold and caught the blade. Then I slammed it into his gut.
Bade’s eyes went wide as he sat back on his heels, still straddling me. He looked slowly down to the knife protruding from his stomach and the growing pool of blood against his abdomen, soaking into my pants, in shock.
“I’m sorry,” I wept, pulling myself out from beneath him and crawling forward through the blood. I swiped his dropped blade aside and slid forward until my head was against his chest and my tears were soaking through his shirt just above where his blood was soaking through below. “I’m so sorry.”
“Tell him,” Bade said softly, a rattle behind his words I knew meant he didn’t have long. “Tell him I loved him.”
Then he breathed his last and slumped forward against me.
“No,” I whined, gripping his head in my hands and holding him up. “No, Bade, no. Fuck!”
I had to get the knife. I couldn’t leave it here to be found and connected to me. This was a First Ringer dead on the Second Ring right outside of the House of Harlowe. Bade would be found, questions would be asked, and I had to make sure those answers didn’t lead back to me, to my House, to Milo.
We are creatures of our Houses, Olympia. We do as we’re told.
I was sobbing when I wrenched the knife from his gut, wiped it off on my bloodied pants, and rose on shaking legs. That was when I remembered my forearm and the blood I’d lost too. I sidestepped, off balance, and nearly fell right back over into the puddle of blood growing beneath Bade, running in grooves through the pavement and toward the House of Harlowe. I breathed heavily as I stared up at the lights illuminating the House of Harlowe’s courtyard, the lights emanating from within the House itself. They wouldn’t let me in and I couldn’t risk going up to the First where the gods only knew how many Vipers were after me in the night. Bade was the best of them. He’d known where to find me. But that didn’t mean he was the only one after me.
Woozy, I stumbled to the side and caught myself on the gate. I blinked at the iron gripped in my bloody hand. When had I gotten back here?
I looked up at the stairs ascending to the First and turned toward where I knew those descending to the Third would be. I needed help and I wasn’t going to find it going up. Resolved, I stumbled forward a step.
Get to Avus,I sent out the moment I had the strength to do so.Get to Isla. Tell her to send Pax down to the Second. Milo is with Jude. Something is…he might be in danger.
Olympia?Luca replied after a moment. I could hear the confusion in his tone, the concern.What is it? What’s wrong?
Get to Avus,I repeated, stumbling once on the stairs and nearly falling down them all. I gripped the wall for support for a moment to catch my breath and left a bloody handprint there when I moved on.Get to Isla. Send help for Milo. He’s with Jude.
Olympia.
Please, Luca.
I’d tell him about Bade. I’d tell him exactly what happened and let him decide if he could ever forgive me for what I’d done, but not now. That was a conversation best had in person when I wasn’t covered in the blood of the man he’d loved, when I wasn’t dripping blood of my own all over the cobblestones of the Third Ring.
It smeared against the door to the apartment building as I fell against it. It was blessedly propped open as always. I pushed with all my might until it budged enough to slide myself inside. Then I started up the stairs.
I collapsed more than once and had to pull myself up with the strength of my will and desperation alone. I knew I was bleeding all over the stairwell. I knew I was leaving a trail right back to the scene of the crime that had occurred on the Second. I knew now all hope of slipping away quietly into the night had vanished. But it didn’t matter, because it was about survival now.
My vision was narrowing to a blurry pinprick of light as I made it to the fourth floor and crawled toward the door at the top. Darkness had closed in around the edges and I could feel consciousness slipping away. I had only moments. In a blind panic, I lunged forward, slamming into the door with all my might before crumpling to the ground beneath it. I watched the blood gathering on the stones in front of me as I listened to the rushing steps from inside the apartment. But just asthe doorknob above my head began to shake, just as the door whooshed open and released a welcome burst of cold air, the darkness claimed me.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Milo
“As thrilled as I am to see you sleeping for once, you’ve missed breakfast.”
I blinked against the light of the morning sun as my wife tossed aside the curtains covering the giant wall of glass in our room and turned to me with a raised brow. As her words sank in, I practically leapt out of bed, reaching for my glasses and sliding them on before marching straight to the closet, still yawning.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” I called out from the racks of clothes which now held both mine and hers.
“You were out so late last night I thought you could use the rest,” she answered, accusation heavy in her tone. “I expected you to come find me after your meeting with the rebels and tell me what happened but instead I got Luca running into my room in a panic to say I needed to send Pax down to the Second at once. What happened last night, Milo?”
“I have no idea why Olympia sent Pax to find me,” I replied, still irritated with my cousin’s decision from the night before, as I slid myself into a new freshly pressed suit for the day. “I toldher I was fine on my own but you know how they all are when it comes to my safety.”
“You’re the Heir. It’s their job.”
“I suppose.”
Isla appeared in the threshold just as I was tying my tie. She looked me over with that shrewd, wifely examination I was beginning to become accustomed to before stepping forward to help straighten my jacket and finish the tie my clumsy fingers had already begun to struggle with.
