All I’d wanted as a youngling was to spend my life on tiptoe, performing. Now, that would never happen.
“Do you think he knows?” Zuriel asked quietly.
Our light mood darkened. “He could. Maybe that’s why he knew where to find us. Maybe some other Seer under the Korona’s control showed me to him?”
Heraphia picked at a cuticle. “If that were true, he would have used his Command on us in the middle of the night rather than approaching during the day.”
“I could have spooked him after I saw him in town,” Zuriel mused, drumming his fingers on the table. “He could have thought if I returned we’d all be gone by the time he made it there, no matter the hour.”
“Either way, it doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “I can never allow our bond to snap into place.”
All of us were silent for a long moment.
“Which is why we need to get far, far away from here. Maybe we can go to the coast and hire a ship to take us to Deli,” Zuriel tossed out.
“Except that’s a huge risk. We have no money, and any captain would take one look at Heraphia and me and knowwhywe were fleeing. If the Elessarum hasn’t maintained a reliable ship all these years, there’s no way we can make it happen now.”
Zuriel’s hand curled into a fist.
I understood it, I truly did. The anger. The frustration. Thehelplessness.
I wasn’t trying to be negative; I was bracing myself for the oncoming squall.
Staying alive and free were proving increasingly difficult.
Heraphia covered her mouth, trying to hide a yawn. Zuriel’s attention snagged on it anyway. “Let’s go to bed. We can speak more in the morning, after our minds and bodies are rested.”
We cleaned up our meal, putting all the dishes back where we’d found them and arranging the chairs like they’d never been moved at all. The entry still held our belongings, and we scooped them up on our way to the opposite side of the manor. All of us too tired to speak further, we wound through the maze of halls until Zuriel found his room. Normally, I’d stay in the guest wing, but right now, distance was our enemy.
So I claimed a disused room across from his. The moment the door swung shut behind me, I raced to the attached bathing chamber and turned the taps for a bath.
To put it nicely, I stank. And I couldn’t sleep in my own filth.
When it came to cleanliness, I could be a bit…fussy. Which made life on the run so much harder.
I opened a large window beside the tub, allowing the dusk breeze to filter through.
Inhaling deeply, I stood on my toes, arms reaching toward the sky. On the exhale, I dropped, taking a few leaping bounds across the tile floor. I lost myself to crescents, airsteps, and waterfalls for a few brief minutes, trying to dance away the terror that dug into my marrow.
The bath nearly overflowed by the time I remembered to check on it again.
Stripping out of my clothes, I sank into the water, groaning. Violet-scented soap washed layers of grime away, and I had to drain and refill the tub twice before I finally felt clean.
Afterward, I used the remaining bathwater to rinse my clothes, then laid each piece out to dry.
Returning to the sleeping chamber, I yanked the sheet off the four-poster bed. Then, I grabbed linens from a nearby cabinet and fitted them over the mattress and pillows.
My eyes were heavy, leaden things when I rested my naked body against the plush feathers. Yet that stagnant wrongness clung to the air, like static before the first strike of lightning.
Fear fought with fatigue when all I sought was peace.
Respite was within reach, yet it slipped through my fingers each time I snatched for it.
I debated about going to Zuriel and Heraphia’s room and climbing into bed with them. But I had nothing to wear, and that would have been awkward.
My feet hit the cool floor. I padded to the wardrobe and yanked on the hook. Inside, more linens waited, but among them was a silky robe. I shrugged it on and tied the belt around my waist.
Honestly, both had seen me in less. And I them.
