“Now that you are here, it is not conducive for your training if you and the other Initiates are fearful,” he said. “It is counterproductive to progress. It is unfortunate that we have lost two, but it causes more harm than good if you are all terrified of being here, as I am sure you can attest to. Or at least this is what the Aurkai have decided upon.”
I twisted my hands together. He was right. I was scared, and it wasn’t helping.
“But what if there’s a reason to be terrified of being here?” I asked quietly.
A stiff silence held the air between us hostage. Blake was good at hiding his feelings, but I could tell he wasn’t convinced they’d died of natural causes either.
“I saw Skylar with Malakai last night,” I said.
Blake’s head jerked up. “Where?”
“In the catacombs,” I said. “They were… together.”
Blake’s jaw tensed. “You were in the catacombs last night?”
Shit.
He looked at me slowly. “Anywhere in the catacombs you saw Malakai was far too deep for an Initiate to be venturing.”
He stood, a sense of urgency in his demeanor. “You must not speak of this to anyone else, especially the other Aurkai. You will be cast out and never able to return. You are lucky I showed up and not one of the others.”
My eyes snapped on his with incredulity.
“Why did you show up? And why are you helping me?” I asked.
Tension formed between us like a secret spoken aloud, but too soft to hear.
Blake’s eyes were a dark, stormy shade of gray. There was an edge in his demeanor—the way he leaned forward, his head tilted down, his lips pressed into a thin line.
There was much he was not saying.
“If you recall, I was not the one who found you.”
Ezreal’s silent, predatory presence flashed through my mind, causing an uncomfortable pulse to rip through my body.
He was right, but what did he mean? I kept my mouth shut, hearing the warning in his tone, but why?
Blake looked into the distance, deep in thought. “It is astonishing that you were not subjected to the memory conditioning. The fewer people who realize that, the better off you are. Speak to no one. And under all circumstances—stay away from Ezreal Kalmont.”
I swallowed painfully and recognized my cue to leave, but Blake’s words stopped me.
“Anna, Nightfall is a dangerous place,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “But I will keep you safe.”
I didn’t move, stunned, trying to process what he was saying. Before I could ask, he swept past me to another room as if he hadn’t said anything at all.
It was strange, because even if he hadn’t said it—I already felt that way.
Chapter 14
What Stirs Within
ANNA
Ithought about what Blake said. That Nightfall was dangerous—a fact that had been presented but not detailed in the macabre reality that it was. And the other part—that he’d keep me safe.
I hadn’t just heard him say the words; I’d felt himmeanthem.
But then he just left. I didn’t understand him, this play—none of it—and it was really getting on my nerves.
