And I’d learned far more than I could bear over the past few weeks. Enough that I’d run from Triton’s manor instead of following the trajectory laid out for me.
Enough that Ursuline had done the same.
However, it was still to be seen whether or not rattling the snake’s den would prove our undoing.
Chapter 25
Iblinked my eyes open, darkness surrounding me. Warmth did as well, a foreign sensation. Those muscular arms wrapped around me, and those tentacles rested across and between my thighs. I’d never experienced this sort of bliss before, the sense of calm, of quiet without the ache of loneliness. In this moment, a completeness drifted over me, and I didn’t want it to end.
“Awake?” Ursuline’s voice was husky and low. I twitched in surprise, and a laugh rumbled through their chest. “I’ve been drifting in and out, but I’m…vigilant.”
“Worried, you mean,” I said, pushing up to sit so I could see them better. Their tentacles tangled with my legs, the contact enough right now. Ursuline propped themself up on their elbow, and their serious gaze confirmed my concern. “Are we safe here?”
“Sofia’s competent,” they said and then let out a sigh. “But I don’t believe we’re truly safe anywhere. We both breached contracts—yours a social promise, mine in writing. And Frederick’s type of revenge…” They shuddered.
“Explain it to me,” I asked, my fists tightening on the sheets. Ursuline’s lips flattened, and I had the feeling they would try to spare me. “Please don’t leave me in the dark. I’ve lived there long enough.”
Ursuline pushed up to sitting as well, and they sank against the headboard. Tension simmered in the air between us. “There’s a reason I took the contract on the surface. My middle sibling, Jaris. They’d caught Frederick’s attention back then. They were bright, gorgeous, snagged everyone’s eye, but his was dangerous. However, they’d received a job at the castle, and we needed the money. I wasn’t comfortable with them going, but Mom and Dad supported their choice—we were barely able to scrape for food.”
They paused for a moment, and I clutched the sheets a little tighter. My stomach churned with unease at where this story might be going.
“He…forced himself on them,” Ursuline choked out, venom flashing in their eyes. “After that, Jaris left their employment at the castle. All that brightness, that beauty, had been smothered out, leaving them like a ghost wading through the house. Mom and Dad didn’t know what to do. And Frederick wasn’t satisfied with breaking them once, no, he showed up on our doorstep, prepared to drag them back to the castle. So I offered a trade—my sibling’s safety, my family’s well-being in exchange for servitude.”
“He never…” Bile rose in my throat, and a cold sweat broke over me.
Ursuline shook their head. “Physical blows during his tantrums early on, but once I formed my safety nets here in Peregrine City, he knew better than to lay a hand on me. Triton had his sights set on others. I was forbidden to return home, but my family has maintained steady communications with thesurface ever since to ensure their safety, that the Tritons have been upholding their end of the bargain.”
I swallowed hard. Fuck. The horrors their family had been through, what their sibling had experienced… Frederick had always made me uneasy, a darkness to him that I hadn’t been comfortable with, but I never could’ve imagined the lows he’d gone to. And his family all surrounded him and supported him. Did they know the terrible things he’d done?
“Except now I’m wondering whether he did hold up his end of the bargain,” Ursuline said through gritted teeth. “If he hasn’t…” They didn’t complete the sentence, just cast their gaze downward.
I reached over and placed my hand over theirs, squeezing tight. “You did everything you could for them. No one can take that away from you.”
Their dark eyes glittered like shattered shards, but they looked up at me. The haunted expression punched me square in the chest. I couldn’t imagine the pain they’d endured, the agony of being apart from their family, knowing the horror their sibling had suffered. Having to work for the monster who’d broken them.
“You’re the strongest person I know,” I murmured, the truth slipping out of me. “But you’ve got to be carrying the heaviest weight too.”
They swallowed hard, the sound clicking in the air. “You’re the first who’s made it feel less heavy.”
My brows drew together. “Me? I haven’t done anything.” Instead, they’d constantly been doing things for me—pulling me out of bad situations, offering company and compassion when I needed those the most.
They leaned in and brushed a kiss to my cheek. A shiver raced through me.
“You don’t see how bright you shine,” they said. “Your acceptance, your unerring kindness. The creativity that explodes from you. There’s a purity to you that’s almost painful, a beauty I didn’t think still existed in this ugly world.”
My eyes heated, and a tear slipped out. No one had ever made me feel this valuable, made me see myself differently. Only Ursuline.
“Is that why…sunshine?” I asked. The nickname filled me with warmth every time they used it.
“Even back then, I knew I wanted to be around you,” they said. “I just didn’t realize how much you’d transform my life.”
“Same,” I murmured, my cheeks flushing.
A headlight passed by the window, causing the beam to filter through the blinds into the room. I wrinkled my nose. Who was driving around at this hour?
When I glanced back to Ursuline, they were tuned in on the window.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
