“If you ever do that again, I swear—”
“What?” I asked. “They would have seen me, and we would all be dead. It worked, didn’t it?”
“It wasn’t worth the risk.”
“Vincent,” I said softly. “They would have overpowered us and taken you. I was doing—”
My words were cut off as his lips slammed down on mine. He kissed me as if we weren’t in a sewer, as if Elianna weren’t present. He kissed me like a dying man, desperate for air, and maybe that was exactly how he felt. Vincent pulled back and shook me lightly, terror still gnawing at him. He rested his forehead against mine, both of us trying to catch our breath.
“Never you, Cami,” he whispered. “Do you hear me? Lie, cheat, bargain, or steal, but never endanger your life. Never you. Especially to protect me.”
“Umm,” Elianna said, folding her arms over her chest. “Sorry to ruin the moment, but if Nismera is sending her armada, we are not safe anywhere.”
I swallowed the growing lump in my throat. Elianna wasn’t wrong. I only heard whispers of the powerful force she commanded and only saw their ruler once at that damn gala.
“Where could we hide now?” I asked. “If they own the sky?”
“We are currently her biggest concern,” Vincent said. He steadied me and dropped his hands but didn’t step out of my embrace. “She will be relentless.”
Elianna chewed on her thumb and started pacing away from us. The sound of rushing water down the center drain and the moisture dripping from the manholes masked the sound of her small shoes.
“Not just for us,” I said, pulling the medallion out of my pocket, “but this.”
“Can’t you just get rid of that damned thing?” Elianna snapped, her hair sticking out of her braid. She tugged at the cloak and nightgown she wore and stomped toward me. One slender, pale finger pointed at it. “Toss it or sell it, and let’s be done. We can run, hide, and get fucking lost in these realms—”
“I never knew you’d be such a coward,” I snapped, my hand closing over the medallion the best I could. “She gets this, and the world, all worlds, are damned.”
“So?” Elianna held up her hands, a coat of moisture in her eyes. “You have no idea what you’re up against. Nismera is unstoppable and untouchable. She has been for eons. What do you think you or anyone can do against her, against her legion and armada?”
Vincent stepped in front of me. I hadn’t realized that I’d stepped toward her. Call it lack of sleep or my worn, brittle nerves, but I was growing tired of her and her selfish ways. Vincent held out his hand. He didn’t touch me, but his palm hovered just inches from my stomach, keeping us apart.
“Coward,” I snapped again. “I won’t damn this world because I’m scared and don’t think for a moment that I am not terrified. He is, and so are you, but it’s what we do when fear threatens to turn us numb that tells us who we are. It tells me exactly who you are that every time things get hard, you give up or lie or run away.”
Elianna scoffed and folded her arms. She shook her head and lifted her chin, trying and failing to look the part of the prestigious council member she used to be. “I may be a coward, but at least I’ll be alive. This?” She pointed toward the medallion. “This is suicide.”
“The way I see it, we’re dead anyway,” I said, tucking the medallion into my pocket. The weight of it pulled on my jacket and lay heavy on my soul. “It’s better to die by what you think is right than to live under a lie.”
22
MISKA
Several handmaidens whispered as they bathed me. Goosebumps rose across my skin as the icy water splashed on me, and I yelped when the brush they used scraped over my backside. My lips crumpled, and I tried to distract myself by looking around this bright, large world I’d been stripped and tossed into.
This bathroom was as enormous as the bedroom the soldiers had shoved me into earlier. I had beaten on the door, twisting and pulling at the knob until my palms and knuckles burned. I had searched the room, shoving the windows open one after the other, only to discover how high up I was. The wind cut sharply through my hair as I hovered over the sheer drop. Even if I tied all the linens from the bed, the makeshift rope would not be long enough to help me escape, nor did I know what waited at the bottom. Clouds obscured whatever lay below, and all I saw beyond was a vast expanse of trees and mountains.
I was desperate to find a way out but soon learned there may not be one. My thoughts of escape died long before I heard the footsteps of soldiers out in the hall. They escorted the maidens into the room, leaving before I was stripped bare and forced into the washroom.
I covered my whimpers as my head was jerked from side to side, rough hands pulling at my hair and impatiently ripping a brush through the long strands. Dianna often brushed the knots from my hair before bed while telling me stories about her home world. She was never this rough, but they were not her, and they didn’t care if they hurt me. I wouldn’t cry, though. No. Dianna wouldn’t cry. I sniffled for the last time and squared my shoulders. Dianna had been through tougher things than this, and I would be strong like her.
When they finished bathing me, they hoisted me out of the bath and dried me off. I fussed at them, insisting I could do it, needing them to stop touching me. They ignored me and shoved a dress over my head. The slippery, pure white fabric fell to the floor, just covering my feet. One of the maidens pulled at the laces, tying them so tight at my back that my breast bunched and my ribs ached. They spun me around, moving me as if I were an unfeeling doll, and began styling my hair. Three sets of uncaring hands pulled and twisted in different directions before securing it in place with small silver pins. Finally, they finished and gathered their things, all but fleeing my room.
My body trembled, and I stood for a moment, trying to process the violation and calm myself. Slowly, I walked to the large silver-framed mirror that took up half my bathroom wall and stared at myself. I truly looked like the young woman Dianna said I was growing up to be. I closed my eyes and bit into my lower lip so hard I was afraid I might draw blood, trying to stop its quivering.
I’d finally had freedom and a family, yet they had taken it all away. Kaden and Isaiah had dragged me from my home, kicking and screaming. Cameron hadn’t hesitated to protect me, but it had ended with him lying twisted on the floor, his throat a tangled mess. My healer’s heart had called for me to help him and ease his pain. It had been torture not being allowed to go to him. Even as Kaden had bound and secured me to Isaiah’s spiked back, I’d prayed he was okay and had survived. My chest hurt too much to think of the alternative.
We’d fled into the night, and after what felt like hours of flight through icy mountains and barren plains, we finally landed before a gaping portal. A handful of soldiers gathered around us, and I knew the second I saw her legion where we were going. They had obviously gotten word to her long before my kidnapping. I’d fought back my sobs, knowing that I would probably never see my home again.
I blinked, studying myself in the mirror once more. No. I wouldn’t give up. I wouldn’t back down without a fight. Dianna and Samkiel had been training me to protect myself. I’d find a weapon and fight like hell to escape. Dianna would fight. They all would. I would be what she saw in me. I was no longer the lost or forgotten girl from Jade City, and I wouldn’t be bullied or ridiculed ever again.
