The woman went to James first, and when she came to pour water down on Ahnna, she said, “I see he’s not dead.”
“Which means Carlo will let you live another day.”
Instead of water, the warden spat down on her but Ahnna only lifted her middle finger and smiled.
Yet her smile retreated as Katarina appeared above her. “I was gone for a matter of but days and yet so much excitement occurred. Iknewthat imprisoning you two together would prolong your usefulness, and it pleases me to have been proven right.”
Ahnna’s hands turned to ice, and it suddenly became so very hard to breathe.
“Your brother and his Maridrinian wife are a perfect match,” the queen of Amarid continued. “It was truly a thing to behold watching them work together to extract more from me than I wanted to give. Three ships full of grain for every ship filled with wine, which means my profit will be slim indeed.”
She smiled down at Ahnna, teeth encased with gold and jewels. “The seas are high but not so high as to trouble my captains, which means the ships will sail tonight. One with wine. And three with grain laced with a very special poison. It takes time to take effect once ingested, and then it slowly eats through the stomach.”
“You’re a fucking monster,” Ahnna hissed, but her voice shook with rising terror. “There is no hell deep enough for the likes of you.”
“History remembers the victors, Ahnna Kertell,” Katarina replied. “Which means that it won’t be long until Ithicana, and its people, are entirely forgotten.”
49
James
James didn’t offend Ahnna withplatitudes. The situation was dire, the time short, and the chances of success slim—to say otherwise would be an affront to both her intelligence and her fortitude.
Because despite being quite visibly sick with fear, Ahnna had not given up.
The moment the sun set, they scrambled to clear the rubble from the small opening she’d blasted.
“You need to be careful of your arm,” he warned. “This is going to be tight.”
“Fuck my arm and get pulling,” she snapped. “We need to get out tonight.”
The chances of that were slim to none, but James only reached through to take hold of her ankles. He pulled slowly, mindful of the rough rock beneath her, but stopped as her hips stuck. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You think hearing that my family and all my people are dead won’t hurt? If you can get my ass through, the rest will be easy.”
He tugged on her legs, carefully shifting her from side to side, but her hips were still stuck.
“James,” Ahnna hissed, “with the utmost respect, grow a pair of balls andpull.”
Gritting his teeth and grimacing, he tightened his grip and leaned back, using his far greater weight as leverage.
For a heartbeat, he thought it wouldn’t work. That nothing short of breaking her pelvis—a line he wouldnotcross—would get her through. But then Ahnna’s hips started to edge through the small opening. She was entirely silent, except he felt the muscles of her legs go rigid, betraying the pain she was suffering.
He pulled harder, knowing that his hands would leave bruises on her skin. Except there was no turning back now. No pushing her back through.
Come on!His toes dug into the grooves in the stone floor of his cell, and then he abruptly fell backward onto his ass as her hips slid through.
“Almost there.” It sounded like she was forcing the words between her teeth.
Scrambling to his feet, he eased her the rest of the way through the gap. James lifted her upright, wishing he could see her face in the blackness. Ahnna slipped her unbroken arm around his neck, and he pulled her tight against him, feeling the rapid thunder of her heart. With one hand, he tentatively reached down to touch her left hip and felt the warm dampness of blood. “How bad?”
“Nothing a swim in the sea won’t cure. We need to get to work.”
Yet for all her words, she didn’t let go of his neck, her nails digging into his shoulder as she slowly steadied her breath. An irrational part of him wanted this moment to last forever, because she was back in his arms. Yet all too soon, Ahnna pushed away.
He heard her digging in the rubble for a sharp piece of rock, and then she whispered, “Lift me up.”
Mindful of her many injuries, James knelt on one knee and helped her climb onto his shoulders. Holding tight to her thighs, he carefullyrose, noting that she was much lighter than the prior times he’d done this, this ordeal having taken its toll on her. “Can you reach?”
