I fought to catch my breath, a new tiredness rolling through me that mirrored Res’s own.
“We can’t rest,” I said. “We have to warn everyone about Razel.”
Outside, voices echoed from the upper corridors. How long had we been gone? They would still be searching for Ericen, sure the prince had escaped for some nefarious purpose.
I stepped forward and nearly stumbled, but Ericen was there. A Jin soldier spotted us, calling for help. Another soldier jogged down the hill, but a second form shot past them both.
I caught Kiva before she could knock me to the ground, barely registering her touch before she’d pulled back, demanding, “Where in the Saints’ name have you—” She stopped, having noticed Ericen.
His gaze landed on Kiva, and he smirked. I barely had enough time to step in front of her, digging in my heels to keep her from shoving past.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded of him, then to me, “What is he doing here?” Her voice was wild, her eyes alight like the glint of flame against steel.
“Not now, Kiva,” I said, my voice dead. “I need to talk to everyone. Now.”
Kiva shook her head and kept shaking it, and it was only then that I realized how pale she was, how tired looking.
Unease crept up the back of my neck, my gaze lifting to the compound at my back. It was deathly quiet.
“Kiva, what’s going on?”
Her lips parted to respond, then snapped shut. She was still shaking her head.
There was something sprinkled across her uniform. Pinpricks of red, like bloody mist.
I swallowed hard. “Kiva?”
“One of the mercenaries escaped,” Kiva said, her voice hoarse. “He attacked Elkona.”
Twenty-Four
The world turned. I stared at Kiva, not really seeing her, a single word resounding in my head like a funeral drumbeat.
Dead dead dead dead dead dead.
My jaw worked, but I didn’t have the breath to form words.
Distantly, I heard Ericen ask, “What happened?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know,” Kiva snarled. She lurched forward.
The motion snapped me from my daze. I slipped reflexively between them, barely aware of my body moving. Kiva’s heat, her fury, pressed against me, suffocating. I felt dizzy.
“He’s been with me the entire night,” I said.
“That doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved in the attack,” Kiva said. “Couldn’t you tell during the fight, Thia? They weretargetingher. He probably fed them information! How else did they know who she was, that she was here? He’s the reason she’s barely holding on!”
“Right. And then I stuck around to take the blame in hopes of being executed.”
Ericen’s flippant tone sparked something inside me. I shoved him back a step, surprise flitting across his face. “This isn’t a joke! I don’t know how to convince them you weren’t involved.”
“Are you so sure I wasn’t?” he sneered. “It is, after all, in my blood. To lie and trick and betray.”
“You were trapped in a prison cell and then with me the entire night. I know you weren’t involved. I—” I stopped, facing Kiva. “Did you say barely holding on? Is Elko still alive?”
“For now,” she replied grimly.
* * *
