“But I have never believed in anything more than I believe in you.”
Tears spring to my eyes. I slowly nod at him. I don’t know if I believe in myself right now, but his faith in me gives me courage.Thank you,I think, but I don’t say it.
I don’t need to.
Larus returns to help Felix, whose dark skin has taken on a pale, greenish hue as he’s woken, and I check the arena floor for Adria so we can return to the palace together.
I’ve had enough of the tournament for one day.
There’s no sign of her near the sword-fighting ring, and no scorch marks leading away from it, so I take it her battle with Quinn was purely verbal. She probably guessed that I would return with Larus, so I head into the tunnel we entered to take a chariot back on my own.
I spot her there, standing against a wall just past the tunnel entrance. If I hadn’t been able to see in the dark, I’m not sure I would have noticed her. “Waiting to pounce?”
“Something like that,” she says. Her voice sounds rough, but that’s not unusual. Where there’s fire, there’s smoke. She must have gotten into something with Quinn after all for there to have been enough fire involved to make her voice hoarse.
“You alright?” I ask. I see no obvious burns, though her clothes are a bit disheveled.
“You should see her.” She grins.
“Come on.” I want to tell her what I’ve learned about Ronan and what I’m thinking about Quinn, but I can’t if she turns her to toast before I get the chance.
“I’m not heading back just yet.”
I roll my eyes and keep walking. There’s no point in arguing with her when she takes that tone. She just can’t help herself. “Keep an eye on her,” I say. “She could be up to something.”
“Like what?”
There are a few people making their way through the tunnel, so I don’t tell her about my suspicions that she could be leaking information about Ronan, and that if she is, she may even be an ally. “She’s keeping an eye on us,” I say, echoing Larus’s words. “Try not to kill her before we can find out why.”
“Look at who’s giving the orders now,” she says. She mockingly bows to me, and I give her a rude hand gesture. “Before you go, those shadow-born girls,” she says. “What does he think happened to them? Are you going to help him find them?”
That’s odd. She showed no interest in them before. “Did Quinn ask about them?”
“No,” she says, sighing impatiently. “Just tell me what he said.”
“We found one of them. No sign of the other.”
She doesn’t seem surprised when I tell herwefound them, even though I hadn’t told her that part of the story yet. “Got it.”
I really don’t understand why she’s asking, unless she’s thinking that his shadow-born spies have been compromised in some way. Maybe she even had a part in it without telling me.
“Do you know where she is?” I ask. I remember the sound of Vesper’s mother’s voice, her worry and fear for her daughter. If Adria did something to her…
“For fuck’s sake, no. Now fuck off, before Quinn comes back.”
I shake my head and leave her there to play whatever stupid game she’s playing.
Fucking Adria. When they go low, she goes straight to hell.
Chapter Seventeen
Back in the palace, I’m hanging my armor to dry in our chambers when there’s a soft knock at the door.
I must look like hell because Taran’s mouth falls open in shock when I open it. “He wishes to see you.”
Hedoes, does he? “Tell him after I bathe.”
Taran shifts his weight, his armor clinking from the movement. “He said to bring you to him right away.”
