He looks at Martin and back at me. Tilts his head to the side, doubtful, visibly rejecting the idea of leaving me.
“Leave,” I say between my gritted teeth.
But his eyes burn like two suns into mine.
“Get out!” I scream, and my body shakes with an internal sob. Venomous tears swell in my eyes, clawing over my lids.
The muscles in his shoulders go rigid.You have to leave.They could send more men. He’ll never make it out fast enough with me. I’ll only slow him down.
“I said get out! Get the hell out!” I fire my words off like arrows slicing into his flesh. Heat spills over my face and chest, burning under my skin as I thrash against Martin’s hold. My world burns around the edges, blisters from the hot rage I release into the thirteenth room to get him to walk away.Save yourself, damnit.
“I said leave, you bastard!I hate you!” It’s those last words that strike us like the sickle. He stumbles back toward the door, repeatedly blinking like he can’t process my indignation. A short choppy breath as he forces the door open, never taking his eyes off of me.Please, go.I beg with a river of tears. As he disappears from the doorway, I split at the seams, suffocating on my own sobs.Oh God, I’m never going to see him again.
With groaning men around me on the floor, cursing, panting, still trying to understand what happened, Martin grabs my forearm and walks me out of the room into the hallway. “You’re coming with me.”
I don’t object. My heart and soul are still in shock, standing in the mess of blood, waiting for Dessin to come back for me. I know my actions in causing his escape will have repercussions. I know I am to pay for letting him leave, but I am not bothered by that. The only thing I care about is that he is safe. That I saved him from being executed.
Prancing down the hallway with my elbow locked in Martin’s sweaty grasp, Ruth exits Chekiss’s room, closing the door behind her.
“Skylenna?” She gasps, and my reflection is a mess of sweat, gray tears, and blood splattered across my legs and shoes. “What is this?” she shrieks at Martin.
“Out of our way, child,” he grumbles, blusteringpasther.
“Unhand—her!” Ruth stumbles behind us. “Skylenna!”
Goodbye, my friend.
He whirls around to face her, bumping me into a wall in the process.
“Another word out of you, and I will have you thrown from the premises, leaving your penniless family to grovel in the Bear Traps outside this city, where your names will be forgotten.” His predictable sneer is back. Ruth has suspended her steps forward, watching me with pain-stricken eyes.
“Tell them I said goodbye,” I say. I don’t have to point at their rooms for her to know. Chekiss and Niles.Take care of them.
She nods slowly.
I’ll come back for you, soul sister.
56. The Previous Host
Martin leads me to the gravel driving path in front of the asylum doors, shimmering with a dark-orange sunset. He ushers me into his buggy. I sit, alarmed and confused, into his passenger seat. “What’s happening?” I ask breathlessly.
“I know where he is going.” He starts the engine, and our buggy bounces over the gravel as we exit onto a scenic dirt road. “Are you that naive, child? To not know that I would have you followed?”
Dessin was right to threaten that couple. They worked for Martin.
“I must say, when I followed you to the forest, I worried I’d see a little more than I bargained for. A naked encounter. A murder suicide. Or perhaps seeing his bull-like body assaulting yours with a friendly weapon. But the other council members would not listen to me. You walked on water in their eyes. So, I had you followed. I’d bet my wife’s expensive wardrobe that he’ll be there waiting for you.”
I stare at the dark landscape through the windshield—the rolling hills, the moonlit fields of grass. “And what exactly do you think will happen when you see him?Alone. This is your death sentence, and you know it.” I wipe my damp palms on my uniform. I want this day to be over. My life is about to spin out of control.
“Demechnef sought me out to administer a deal. They clued me in on this monster they created and set a course for a plan to obtain him.” He adjusts his hands on the wheel. “Since taking him as a child and turning him into their ideal weapon, they did their jobs a little too well. He learned of loopholes, such as our asylum. We have what you call an invincible little force field around us. Demechnef cannot touch us. Back when the laws were written, religion took over science, and it was strongly believed by our leaders of the faith that the asylum had as much immunity as the church.”
He takes a turn at Nocturne Road, and my stomach churns at how close we are. I look down at my feet, my brain glitching, rummaging through all I’ve learned, hoping to find a way out of this.
“They told me if I could find leverage to hang over his head, I could control him. And if I could control him, I’d become a Demechnef bureaucrat. It’s been my dream since I was a boy.”
The buggy jerks, and I am yanked forward, my hands slamming on the windshield. I whip my head to the side to gawk at Martin, whose mouth is hanging open as if he’s been struck by lightning. I follow his eyeline past the wheel and into the stream of the dim headlights to Dessin standing strong and hardened like a gladiator walking through fire, with DaiSzek by his side. The great beast I met in the woods.
“Devil’s crop,” Martin whispers under his breath. He pulls a knife out of his console and scoops me up from my seat onto his lap. “To answer your question, this is how I expect to take him on. Using the leverage I found.” I’m hauled from the buggy with him pulling my back to his chest, using me as a shield with a knife to my throat.
