Page 159 of The Lure of Wolves and Whispers

Everything I’ve done has been to keep Finn safe.

To keep heralive.

My sister looks at me like I’m a ghost. “Maeve?”

The Lady of Shadows punches her across the face, and a cry bursts from my bloodied lips. My sister’s head whips to the side, the raw crack of Finn’s jaw rattling my bones.

“And to think, all Aoife had to do was follow you out of the castle and wait in the shadows. Your guard led her right to that hovel you call a home, after your pleas to find your dear sister. The gardai weremorethan happy to fetch her for us after Aoife told them where to go.”

The Lady of Shadows leans in so close I can smell her perfume. Roses, cloying and sickeningly sweet. Her black eyes gleam.

The light burns down to almost nothing. Just haunting spasms against the darkness, fighting a losing battle to hold out.

“You know exactly how to make sure none of this happens to her,” she hisses.

My resolve wavers. I could tell her one thing, surely. One thing wouldn’t put everything at risk. One thing might be enough.

Will it ever be enough?

A deafening crack seems to ripple through the rock, a shockwave from somewhere in the distance, and tiny pebbles of dust sprinkle over the table. I feel the grit in my wounds, see the smattering of them in Finn’s hair.

Then the wick of the candle flickers, darkness snuffing out the light as the sound of fingernails trail over metal.

And my sister screams.

THIRTY-NINE

Drip.

Drip.

I can’t clamp my hands over my ears. The shackles make sure of that. They make sure I heareverything. All the sounds I’d give anything not to know.

Finn screams. Again and again and again. I hear her bones crack, and I scream right along with her.

I plead,begfor it to stop. For the Lady of Shadows to turn the tools back on me instead.

There’s one moment, just one, where she leaves us, both strapped to our chairs.

I hear the creak of metal, and the slam of what has to be the iron gate caging us in here. The sound of Finn’s breathing is wet and horrible, but it’s all I have of her now. There’s no way to reach across the feet for her or even see her in the pitch black.

Pain pulses with every heartbeat. Never easing. Never fading.

Still, I manage to rasp, “You never told me.”

Shame sours in my mouth. That those are the first words that come out of me, after everything. But if we’re dying here…

Finn’s wheezing staggers. “Told you…” There’s a wet splatter, like Finn’s spit out a mouthful of blood. “What?”

That simple word is so ragged with pain, it steals what’s left ofmy breath. I try to force the words past gritted teeth, my shrieking jaw. “What our father did.”

For the first time since Finn was brought here, there’s only silence.

It’s just as painful as the screams.

Finn sucks in a sharp whistle of a rasp. “You would’ve run.” Rope strains, groaning in the dark. She doesn’t waste time asking how I know. “Couldn’t. Protect you. If you ran.”

“I wouldn’t.” I shake my head, not that she can see it in the pitch black. My cheek splits, fresh blood oozing from the torn skin where one of the spymaster’s punches slammed into me. “Iwon’t. Not without you. Not ever.”