“Team spirit is paramount.” But that excuse isn’t even a bit true, and it sounds as weak as it is.
I have a date with the Emperor tonight. He’ll want me to do things. Things I can’t stomach anymore. Things I’ve been doing for the last five years. It’s the unwritten, unspoken contract.
But tonight, for the first time, I’m not going to be there when he arrives.
Maybe it’s madness, now I’m so close to being made a free citizen. He promised me, at the end of this season, he’ll finally set me free. Now more than ever, I should be doing everything I can to please him.
But since Robin arrived…
Seeing him has brought everything back—those early days, what I used to be… what I’ve sunk to. Robin’s spirit, the way he talked to me, what he accused me of wanting to do to him.
It’s stuck a seething pit of shame so deep inside me it feels like I’ll never scrape it out. Like it will grow and grow and swallow me whole.
I had no choice.
I need to get back to Atrea.
I need to find my family.
“If you change your mind—”
“I won’t.”
“You should.” He leans in so close it makes me ill. “He could never fuck you as good as I did, Marco.” A sick chuckle sounds in Jason’s throat before he slouches off back to Max and René, where he whispers something that would no doubt piss me off even more if I could hear it.
What do I care, anyway?
They’ll all be dead soon enough.
Cas lands on the ground, freshly bruised but steady on his feet. Maybe too steady. Did he jump? I wasn’t paying enough attention.
I can’t let them know that. “Good game. Next pair, Max and Andreas, up on the log.”
They both groan, Cas lets out a long sigh, but it’s Robin who catches my attention.
He hasn’t moved from standing on the tree, and his eyes are on me. It’s like he’s… waiting for me?
“Good work, baby bird. You’re a natural.”
It’s fleeting—the slightest curve of his lips. But it’sthere.
An almost-smile.
And it’s one inch from fatal.
So I bark at them, “Cas, baby bird, the rest of you, you’re going to pick a tree and climb it, no tools. First to the top gets a drink of water.”
Chapter eight
Marco: Safe Haven
Going by the little silver clock on Evander’s wall, the Emperor’s been waiting for me for an hour now. Unless, with some luck, he’s gone back to his palace.
I’ve never disappointed him, not once in five years. I’m not sure what he’ll do about it. All I do know is my heart’s beating faster with each tick of that clock, and Evander’s cheap potato vodka, which tastes like shit, has yet to kick in.
At least this is a safe place to hide out, Evander being one of the two people in this entire city I’d ever trust. In all my years held captive in Victora, he’s never let me down.
A clink sounds as the bottle taps against my small glass, my refill just as unsteady as the first.
