My chest sags as if there’s a weight attached to my ribs. The fatigue and despair I’d kept at bay engulf me. She didn’t come. She either couldn’t or wouldn’t, and I don’t know which is worse.
I try to be thankful that she was here at all. Her visits were a blessing from the gods. But blessings lifted create a new type of pain.
More time passes, and my chin dips to my chest. I shake my head, blinking awake, trying to stay up. Hana not appearing today could mean that I die tonight. The guards might try to kill me in my sleep.
The worry keeps me awake, but eventually, even on the fear of death, I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. I lean my head back against the wall and extinguish the lamp. I murmur a prayer that Lord Yama won’t claim me tonight, and then I say the prayer that has become my daily wish.
Gods, please, just let me see Sora once again. But if you can only protect one of us, let it be her.
With that, I fall asleep. I must be out for a while because the keys have already turned in the lock when I stir. The heavy wood-and-iron door swings open and nearly hits me. I scramble to my feet, pressing myself up against the wall.
Is it Hana? Please be Hana.
It’s not. It’s the guards, and they carry a torchlight.
My heart thunders, and the pain behind my eyes is intense from the flame. I can’t see, blinded by the fire. With my eyes tightly closed and my hand over them, I try to ready myself for my fate. I won’t cry, try to flee, or beg. I’ve promised myself that much—to have an honorable death in the end.
I stand upright, ready to be pulled out of here. Ready to die facing my executioner.
But no one touches me. Instead, they throw someone else in. As my eyes adjust, a man trips and lands on the dirty stone floor with a groan. I have a cellmate now. I have no idea who he is. But I think he’s here to kill me.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Mikail
The Western Pass, Khitan
Euyn rights himself as I try to keep Sora from killing him…again. I hold her as gently as I can, restraining her at the elbows, but she struggles with all her might to reach him. If I’m honest, a part of me wants to let her go.
I need to figure out if I heard him correctly. We just lost the sleigh and barely survived an avalanche. It’s been an eventful minute and a half. Did he really say that Sora and her sister’s indentures were never legal? That he knew this the whole time? That—yet again—he’s more of a callous monster than I imagined?
Stars, I really thought we’d hit the low already. Apparently, there’s an Eleventh Hell.
Sora stops struggling and controls her breathing. From the look in her eyes, though, she’s ready to throw him off the cliff, even if it means falling with him. I stay ready, because someone willing to die to commit murder is the most dangerous kind of killer.
Euyn holds snow against his jaw where Sora hit him—and he’s still half buried.
“Sora,” I whisper.
She exhales and looks away. I leave her for the moment, assured at least for now that she won’t try to kill him. I stoop down and help dig Euyn out, using my arms like shovels.
“Tell me because I got distracted—did you just say that Sora’s father never signed the indentures?” I question him as I drag the heavy snow to the side.
“That is what he told me,” he says, meeting my gaze. “I wasn’t able to confirm it, what with being locked in Idle Prison and all.”
I study his face—he’s telling the truth. Chul said this, but Euyn dismissed it.
“You didn’t think to mention it while we were in Yusan?” I raise one brow.
He blinks. “What good would it have done?”
I stare at his confused expression. I can’t figure out if he simply has no empathy or if there’s a reason it wouldn’t have mattered.
Sora comes up next to me, seething by my shoulder.
“What good?” Her hands ball into fists at her side. “I could’ve freed Daysum! She wouldn’t be trapped in a pleasure house right now! She wouldn’t be—”
She lets out a haunting scream, and I jerk my gaze up at the mountains, worried she’ll start another avalanche. But Sora doesn’t care at this point.
