“Hello, Father.Yes, there seems to have been a mix-up.”
Father?I must have heard that wrong.
“Look at that face.Caught up in a bar fight, I heard,” Orlik laughed.Helaughed.“Come along, son.I’m sure that’s quite a story.”
Son?
My head spun.Suddenly I was watching the scene unfold at the end of a long tunnel.My entire body went cold.
I couldn’t have heard what I thought I just heard.
I barely registered what was happening.I was only vaguely aware of the guards opening the cell and Darion simply walking out, right up to Orlik.Like they were family.
But just as Darion passed, his eyes locked with mine.No one could possibly see me in the shadows, but somehow he did.His eyes widened with panic for only an instant, and then his expression smoothed over as if nothing had happened.
Orlik and Darion walked side by side down the corridor.
Then Orlik paused.
He tilted his head.
He started to turn in my direction.Like he sensed me.
“You think my face is bad?”Darion said.“You should see the other guy.”
Orlik turned back toward Darion and barked out a laugh.“I knew all that combat training I paid for would come in handy, but not like this.”
And with that, they continued down the corridor and out the door.
And I was alone.
I’d never been so alone as I was at that moment.
I was frozen in place.
And then I collapsed to the ground.
I couldn’t breathe.
I started gasping for air.My lungs deflated.A wave of panic flooded me.I was suffocating, like that night on the River of Souls.Only that night, a warmth had saved me—a warmth I now realized had been created by Darion and his Ember.He had protected me.He had saved me.Tonight was the exact opposite.
Just when I thought I would black out, I finally managed to take a large gasp of air.I coughed, choking on my own spit.I pounded my fist against the floor.
How was it possible?
The Butcher was Darion’s father.
My heart shattered.
Chapter thirty-three
Never Again
Isatontheground,unmoving, unable to think.
I might have just sat there and waited for the guards to find and kill me.That seemed preferable to living with the anguish in my heart.
But then my words to Elena echoed in my mind:
