Page 5
But Xan—Lyxander—knows. I’m not sure how or when it happened, but he must have seen something. Is that the reason he took me?
A chill settles in my bones. Gritting my teeth, I shove the thought aside, my steps quickening as I pace.
“Focus, Aella.”
I don’t know where this ship is heading, given Calliope, my old mentor from the Muse, made the arrangements, but I do know she selected them specifically because they planned a clandestine departure. From the glimpse I got yesterday, we’re following the same eastern seaboard route that I traveled with Alpha Flight barely two months ago. So we’re taking the eastern inlet into the Sarathros—the passage dividing the three kingdoms beyond the Sorrows—and I can rule out Reveza as our destination. The quickest route there would be northwest. That leaves two possibilities: Corinth, the largest port city in Eretria, or Intana, the closest port in Arkhadia. Both are sizable enough to give me the cover I need. When the ship docks, I can slip into the chaos and disappear. Escape first, then survival. And after that…what?
As much as my heart aches to return to the Sorrows, I can’t. The Eagle will have pieced it all together by now. My disappearance coinciding with a prisoner’s escape from the Aviary’s dungeon is all the confirmation he’d need. I have no doubt he’s already sent a Flight to follow our trail, but if he can’t find us, I know where he will turn.
Nyssa.
She was ready to leave if it came to that, but was she warned in time to escape? And if she did get away, will Lark be a suspect too? And what of Myna? She was on guard duty in the dungeons when we broke Lyxander out, and I can only hope the unconscious state they would have found her in was enough to silence any doubts.
I rake my hands through my hair, trying to steady myself, trying to breathe through the uncertainty of it all.
The door to the cabin creaks open, and I turn, narrowing my eyes as my captor steps through and closes the door behind him, then glance away as the sharp click of the latch makes me flinch.
“Scheming, little bird?” Lyxander says. He leans lazily against the door, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised slightly, as if he’s genuinely curious about my answer.
“Depends,” I say, eyeing my dagger strapped to his waist. “Planning your next betrayal?”
“Is that what you think this was?” He pushes off the door, the cabin shrinking with every step he takes, and I fight the urge to back away, to give him an inch I cannot afford. Still, I’m forced to crane my neck up when he stops a few paces from me. I’ve never felt short before, but this man must be near seven feet tall.
“What else am I supposed to think?” A bitter laugh escapes before I can stop it. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? People I care about—people who helped me free you—now have targets on their backs.”
“I didn’t ask for their help,” he says.
“No, but they gave it anyway. Because I thought you deserved a chance to live. And this is how you show your gratitude?”
His mouth hardens before his expression smooths over. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“You did. You could’ve disappeared like you were meant to. But instead, you took away my choice.”
Just like my father. The Eagle. Keres.
The names splinter through my mind like shards of glass, each one lodging deeper and scoring sharp streaks of pain in their wake. And Raven—Raven, whom I trusted more than most, who shattered me in ways I’m not certain I can piece back together.
My heart clenches painfully at the thought of him, the ache so intense it feels like it might split me in two. I curl my hands into fists at my sides. “Why?”
“The truth is, I still need your help,” he says, and the intensity of his gaze holds me captive. “But more importantly, you need mine.”
“I don’t need anything from you.”
Lyxander hums, tilting his head to the side as he considers me more closely. “Your theïkós. It rages inside you, claws beneath your skin. Yet it either refuses to answer your summons, or you’re too afraid to summon it at all.”
It takes all of my will not to react.
So, it is my theïkós, then. Does he plan to use it, to warp it to his own will? Am I the one to be reduced to a weapon?
“I don’t have any magic.” The lie tastes sour, but I swallow it down. Drowning in the same poison I’ve been feeding myself for years. “Whatever you think you see, it’s not there.”
He takes another step forward, and I flinch, my spine colliding with the cabin wall. The impact reverberates through me, and my breath snags, muscles coiling tight.
Trapped.
“Don’t lie to me, Aella.” Lyxander’s voice drops low, a rumble that seems to vibrate in my middle. “I can smell the storm on your skin, sense it testing the limits of your control. Only a blind man wouldn’t see the tempest raging in your eyes.”
I open my mouth to retort, but the words die on my tongue. My thoughts spiral, unbidden, back to the first time I saw him—chained, muzzled, and locked away in that wretched cage. His eyes had been like thunderheads, bright, brimming with suppressed power, as if the storm within him was too vast to be contained.
