After we kissed.After you looked at me like I was precious.
Lina held out one hand; it was Cynthia who spoke next, knowing Ione wouldn’t be able to see it: “She is missing two fingers on her left hand.”
“I returned to Soliz to try to stop Castor from coming anywhere near you,” Lina said hastily.“It took six phalanges before they believed the lies I fed them, about laying low and not knowing anything important about Oseidos or – or you.”
Her breath hitched and she stood, advancing a step even when Cynthia angled a knife towards her.Closer, limned by the light of a nearby lantern, Ione saw that her hair was pulled back, out of her face.And instead of the soft summertime dresses she had always seen Lina wearing, she wore trousers tucked into boots, a long-sleeved woollen shirt.Fireproof, practical, an outfit for fighting.
For running.
“Castor is egotistical enough to believe I actually came back for him.But after the raid on Hearthstone, everything became so much bigger than Castor and his grudge, and I – I couldn’t – ” She wavered, her eyes burning into Ione’s.“There was no stopping it, Ione.I’m sorry.I’ll never not be sorry.I came back to warn you, get you out, and from there – ” Lina’s jaw tightened, uncertainty flashing.“From there, play it by ear.”
Nothing else came, until Cynthia grabbed Lina’s arm and shook her.“Warn us about what?”she pressed, “Stopwhat?”
Lina paled.Swallowed.“I’m not the only one who snuck in while the ward was down.”
Thunder rolled overhead, making Lina recoil.“I’m begging you,” she hissed to Cynthia.“Either come with us or go and warn the high priests, but please, gods, let me get Ione to safety before Castor finds her.”
“You – you’re insane,” Cynthia managed over an incredulous laugh.“You think I’d just let youleavewith her?”
With a desperate noise Lina grabbed Cynthia’s hand and pressed it against her neck.“Do you feel that?”she challenged.“The binding ward Kai put onto me when he found out what I was?”
Cynthia wriggled, pulling back.“I don’t feel anything – ”
“I can’t hurt you, any of you, or I’ll forfeit my own life.”She released Cynthia and rounded on Ione, desperate, eyes darting to the window.“Please, Ione – ”
Ione stirred, awakened, and tentatively lifted a hand to Lina’s neck.
There, faintly – razor-thin wardstrings, the slightest hint of Kai’s signature, as familiar as her own now.A hint of malice, the threat of death.
“I believe her,” Ione murmured, and at once Cynthia whirled, aghast, and Lina slumped with relief.She sent Cynthia a look, her friend, her seleneschal, and Cynthia sheathed her knives.“Alert the guards.”
“But – ”
“Now, Cynthia.”
Lina took Ione’s hand as Cynthia sprinted back towards the stateroom, the gentle warmth of her coursing through Ione’s veins.“Can you run?”she asked, gesturing at Ione’s dress, her silk slippers.
Halls flew by in a blur, their footsteps reverberating through the strange nighttime silence.“Where are we going?”Ione asked, breathless, the hem of her dress gathered in her free hand.
“To Llyr’s crypt,” Lina said.“Behind Oseidos.It’s remote enough that no one would think to look there for you.”
“And then?”
Determination darkened her voice.“Then, I’ll come back up here and see what I can do about Castor while Rigel isn’t here to stop me.”
Cold air slammed into them as they launched out of a side exit.“I made good time,” Lina was saying, helping Ione down the stone steps and towards the plaza.“They’re waiting until midnight, until everyone is either asleep or too drunk to know what hit them.”
She paused at a crossroads, looked left and right, tugged Ione behind her down the left path.A high, keening alarm splintered the nighttime peace, and then another, another, each guard station flanking the altarhouse ringing to life.
“There’s Cynthia,” Ione said, and Lina laughed and hugged her.
“Thank the gods,” she breathed into Ione’s shoulder, making her shiver.“They’ll find them.They’ll stop them.Menon above, with half the Mahina clan here, Castor will be obliterated.”She cupped Ione’s cheeks, smiled through tears.“I’m so sorry I disappeared on you.I’m so sorry for what you must have felt.”
Ione smiled back, sniffling.“Don’t do it again or I’ll take it personally.”
Lina released a shaky laugh and kissed her cheeks.Kissed her.Held her tight and let Ione breathe her in, feel their hearts pounding as one, a steady drumbeat beneath the wailing alarms overhead.
Lina gently pushed herself away and unpinned the veil from Ione’s hair, her grin illuminated by more and more lamps being lit in the houses and shops lining the street.“Now,” she whispered.She dropped the veil, let it glide down the path, carried on the wind.“Let me get you out of here.”
