The unhappy growl shivered dust free from the walls and ceiling. “I didn’t do it on purpose, Anna, so you can quit being rude about it. It’s not like they were locked in. And they have had fresh clothing, bedding, and food delivered to them. I have seen to their every needafterhaving them rescued from the slave market.”
I stabbed a finger at him. “Stop. Just stop. Don’t take your righteous, holier-than-thou attitude with me. Yes, you got them out. Yes, I’mappreciative of that fact. But you’re forgetting the bigger picture, Casimir Dvorak.”
He swayed back like he’d been slapped at my use of his full name.
“And that point is that the markets only existbecause you allow them to. Clippys like me and my friends are treated like nothing more than loaves of breadbecause you allow us to be.None of your actions would be necessary without laws you allow to exist. So just stop. Okay?”
The temperature between us plunged to zero.
“You think I’m the bad guy,” Caz said in a stiff, restrained voice. “But you don’t know everything.”
“I know enough,” I shot back.
Was I being too hard on him in an attempt to keep him away from me? To cover my own fear at the situation between us? The fact that he and I might—
No. We weren’t. I could never be with someone like him. Someone who enabled the poor treatment of those weaker instead of being their protector. Too many nights being woken up and forced to flee. Leaving everything behind and starting over, simply to ensure we didn’t end up with collars around our necks.
Up ahead, I could hear voices. Eager to be reunited, I hurried ahead, trying to leave Casimir, and my problems, behind me.
“Milly?” I called out as I rounded a corner andsaw the first of the rescued slaves. “Ella?”
Heads turned my way, but I didn’t recognize their faces. So I ignored them. I had to find my friends and make sure they were okay.
Poking my head in the cells, I kept calling their names. I tried not to notice the comfortable bedding and cozy, brand-new looking clothing that adorned each of the rescues. Casimir was still a jerk for sticking them in the dungeons.
“Are you looking for someone?”
The woman approaching me was a firecracker in a tiny form. Her eyes blazed with curious intensity, a brilliant golden-brown that seemed to miss nothing. A button nose helped offset what I was sure had to be a whopper of a resting bitch face, but she seemed bright enough toward me that I doubted she made it her personality.
She was short, but her shoulders rounded and her legs were clearly layered in muscle, even under the baggy pants that she somehow kept from falling down.
“Yes, my friends Milly and Ella,” I said, amazed at the vibrancy, the energy pouring off her. Most clippys lost that at some point after fighting the system long enough. But she hadn’t. Not yet at least, and I hoped she never would. Hollow Earth needed more like her.
The woman frowned. “I don’t recall anyone by those names as part of our group. What do they look like?”
“Milly is a couple of inches taller than I am, bright blonde hair, thin in an almost childish way. Large bark, and will back it up with a bite. Loud talker. Eyes like chocolate.”
The woman thought and then shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. The other?”
“Ella is a bit bigger than you, but still small, almost mouselike. Quiet. Keeps her head down a lot. Sounds smart when she talks because she is. Brown hair down to her chest, wavy, almost a tangly mess. Eyes to match. If you’ve looked her in the eyes, you’ll remember her. She has that effect on people.”
I didn’t need a response to know she hadn’t seen Ella either.
“Damn.”
“I can ask around, see if anyone saw them or knows what happened.”
“Thank you …”
“Aubrie.”
“Aubrie.” I nodded, trying to keep the disappointment from my voice. She bore no responsibility to my missing friends. “My name is Anna. This is … Caz. If either of them show up, please tell any of the guardsmen.”
Aubrie glanced down the hallway where a pair of beefy dragon shifters stood, backs to the freed slaves and swords at their sides. They were conspicuously devoid of anything that wouldshow what they truly were.
Citadel guards, the personal retinue of the ice tyrant himself. I was right that Caz was trying to prevent them from having any idea of his involvement.
“I will.” Aubrie frowned, looking down at the ground and smudging invisible dust with her toes. “Can you tell us what happens next, Anna? Where will we go? We’re doing our best to put on brave faces, but none of us have any idea what to do.”
