But he’s so alert, so still, that I scan around, too.
It’s all white snow, and then it’s pitch black where there’s woods. I’m not sure what is up with this guy. There’s nothing out there.
I grit my teeth. “But Aeri—”
“Shh!” he hisses.
My hand balls in a fist. No one tells me to shut up. Not ever. Tension fills my body like a crossbow being cocked. I don’t really like Mikail, and at the end of the day I don’t trust him. I still don’t get why he tried to destroy the crown. I still don’t think he’s telling us everything.
I’m ready to knock him out, and then I see them: eight eyes shining just past the tree line.
Zaybears.
I uncurl my fist and rake a hand down my face. Ten Hells. We’re fucked.
Chapter Seventeen
Tiyung
Idle Prison, Yusan
It’s hard to tell if it’s day or night, but I lean back against the stone wall and cross my arms to go to sleep. I rest a lot to maintain my strength and to pass the time. I sleep sitting up, of course—the straw bed is laden with vermin.
Sometimes, when I’m very lucky, I get to dream of Sora. Her laugh. Her smile. Her voice. I get to be in her presence again. I imagine dining with her at that table in Aseyo. Her gorgeous face and her brave spirit that would stand up to the God of War himself.
The next thing I know, we’re back in her room in the Fountain Inn in Tamneki. I know it’s a dream because I can freely kiss her, make love to her, and I can’t do that in reality—not when her body is likely poison. Still, we were able to satisfy each other that one beautiful night, to be more intimate than just tumbling into bed.
In this version, she smiles and asks me to stay with her. I do, even though somewhere in my mind I know it’s the morning we are supposed to kill the king.
A sound pulls me back to reality, back to the dungeon floor. I shake my head. No. I’m not getting woken from this for some stale bread. Not this dream.
Then I realize it’s not the sound of a meal tray. It’s the door opening again.
I come to and slowly open my eyes as Hana walks in.
“That’ll be all,” she says to the guard who opened the door. Her tone says she significantly outranks him.
The guard nods and closes the door.
Zahara, she called herself. She gave herself a new name along with a new life.
She has another lantern in her hand, and raindrops cling to her cloak. I think it’s rain. I can’t imagine it’s lake water, so the monsoons must’ve started.
Hana observes me for a moment, then sighs and tosses down a cloth sack. It falls open on the ground in front of me. Food! Inside, there’s cured meat and cheese bursting from paper wrappings. It’s enough calories that I won’t starve for days, maybe a week.
She is keeping me alive.
I would think that she was trying to poison me, but she wouldn’t need this much food to do it. She could put tabernacle in my water, and I would be dead in seconds. I want to scramble to the sack, but I hold myself in place. I’m certain this gift comes with strings. What does she want in return? My stomach groans, my hunger not caring about the conditions, but I won’t do a thing that will hurt Sora.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask. “Why are you being kind?”
A cold stare greets me. “Because I’m not like your bloodline.”
She doesn’t demand information or anything else. She just watches me.
“I… Thank you,” I say.
I tear into the paper, unwrapping the rest of a sausage and hard cheese. My body is so eager for sustenance that my hands shake.
