“We need to get to Quilimar as fast as we can,” Euyn says, and I nod. He limps around, packing up.
“Why?” Gambria asks. She’d been leaning against a windowsill but steps forward now.
Euyn doesn’t answer, so I do. “Because if what we think is happening is actually happening, then we’re all fucked.”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Tiyung
Idle Prison, Yusan
I’m sleeping against the wall of the cell when I stir. Ailor is shaking me awake.
“What—”
“Shh,” Ailor whispers.
Hushed voices echo outside the door. It’s not Hana—that much I know. The voices are male. But I’m groggy and miss some of the conversation. It could be guards, judging from the light bursting through the transom window and tray slot. More likely, it’s assassins.
“But which one is it?” one asks.
“What do you mean? There’s only one target in there,” another voice whispers.
“I see two.”
“No, this is Tiyung’s cell. It should only be him in there.”
I swallow hard and sit up straight, now fully awake. This is it. The night I die. Hana bought me as much time as she could, but tonight I’ll walk the Road of Souls.
I quickly pray to the gods to spare Sora. I pray that what I told Hana was enough to save all of them and not information I never should’ve given to a spy. I pray that Lord Yama has mercy on me for my failings and allows me to see Sora again in my new life. I pray that her next life will be kinder to her than this one.
“Give me your collar,” Ailor says.
“What?” Stunned, I grab onto it even though jewelry won’t do me any good as a dead man.
“Give it to me now!” he insists, whispering sharply.
I didn’t think jewels meant that much to him, but I suppose people show their true colors in the end.
Disappointed, I go to remove the collar, but I’m apparently not fast enough. Ailor pulls it off me and throws it on his own chest. He sits close to where the door will open, leaning against the wall like he’s resting. The lantern is off, but I can see him clearly from the light of the meal slot.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
“Tell my boy I love him,” he says.
Before I can ask what he means, the door opens and light bursts into the cell. I duck onto the floor to protect my eyes. The pain is intense because there’s not one torch but two. If they’re supposed to make this look like I died in my sleep, they’re failing miserably.
As I lie on the ground, I wait. I expect a blade through my back or hands around my neck. I should’ve stood like a man, but instead, I can’t get my limbs to work. I stay on my belly, waiting to be dragged out. Or to be stabbed and die like a pig in this cell. I only hope it’s a quick kill shot.
I hold my breath, trying to find peace in my last moments. Boots shuffle around. There’s hard breathing and the scrape of metal as a blade is drawn.
Sora. Her long black hair. Her smile.
She is my last thought.
But then the door swings shut and locks. By the time my eyes adjust again, the assassins are gone.
What in the gods’ names just happened?
