Chapter Thirty
Royo
The Temple of Knowledge, Khitan
This plan is shit.
We’re all gonna split up again like we learned nothin’. Every time we go separately, it all goes to the Ten Hells. Now, Aeri and I need to get an egg from a vicious parrot in the mountains. Just her and me alone for up to a sunsae.
I’d rather deal with a rotting, hundred-year-old corpse.
I spin my axe like a top as I sit with it between my knees. I can’t be alone with her for that long. Whatever I tell myself, however strong I want to be, I know I’ll break. Those eyes, that smile, that carefree happiness, not that I’ve seen much of it these days. And more than that—the way she makes me feel. She pretends like I matter to her, like she loves me. I’ve managed to mostly keep my distance, and I can remind myself that she’s a liar and an actor. But alone with her, I’ll fall for her all over again. I strangle the axe handle. I can’t do it. My heart won’t survive a second betrayal.
Mikail is over by the fountain. He’s in the middle of an intense discussion with Euyn, but I need a word with him. Euyn and I can swap places, like he said. It’ll be better for everybody.
Okay, it’ll be better for me, and what’s the difference to him?
Mikail and Euyn are so focused on each other that they don’t even notice me walking up to them.
“Null,” Euyn says.
Mikail shakes his head.
“Wehave tokill him,” Euyn whispers.
“I’m sorry?” Mikail says.
Euyn’s eyes dart to the side. “He knows too much. And they will come back—they will realize there should have been ten priests. My sister will murder him like the rest of them, or torture him, and he will give away our locations. It’s a kindness to kill him now, cleanly and without pain.”
Mikail stares at Euyn, speechless.
“Who are we killing?” I ask.
They both turn and face me. Euyn’s cheeks flush, and Mikail looks annoyed at best. Furious is more accurate, his jaw clenching, his eyes hard.
“No one,” Mikail says. “I don’t kill people if I promised them safety for their aid.”
“Mikail…” Euyn says.
“No.” Mikail’s sharp voice echoes through the fine space.
Aeri flinches, and Sora pauses. I look down at my new boots like they suddenly got real interesting.
“If your sister chooses to break the edicts and spill blood in the temple, that is on her,” he continues. “Be more than your family.”
Euyn reddens. “I am the crown prince of Yusan!”
Mikail leans forward, his features hardening. “You arenothing.”
Euyn stares like he was just smacked in the face. Nobody moves.
Well, this ain’t the time to ask.
I go back to the table. Aeri is tracing her finger over a map of the region, and she resumes asking questions as the priest shakes his head yes or no. He’s leaning a little closer to her than he needs to, if you ask me. I feel my blood rise and heat warming my face, but I clear my throat and focus on something, anything else.
Sora is closing a book on Khitanese poisons. I guess she doesn’t know the ones here like she does in Yusan.
“We need to leave now, Sora.” Mikail wanders over, his normal self again, as if he didn’t just break from Euyn. I’d worry more about what the change in their relationship means for all of us, but we gotta survive the missions for it to matter.
