Defy the Sun (Beware the Night #2) - Jessika Fleck Page 0,22
sit on the stone floor. “You better count your lucky stars and pray to your god tonight—that could have easily been you up there.” He makes sure my bindings are tight, that I’m tethered to a metal hook in the wall. “Dorian’ll be by. Eventually.” And he marches out without a glance or second thought.
I lean my head back against the cold stone wall. Try to wipe the sound of Arlen being stabbed out of my head. That cry. It wasn’t one of the enemy or a monster. It was that of a man dying. Taking his final, painful breath.
Dorian’s wrong. What the Sindaco’s doing, it’s exactly like the Offerings.
My eyes strain through the sting of tears as I make a promise to myself, to Veda, here and now: I will get to you.
I might have been trying to escape up there, but there was something more to my plan.
If I can return as heir, escape the Night a hero, resume my post, repent to the High Regent, and accept my position, I’ll have power.
I’ll find her.
Return her here safely.
Then?
My heart drops.
We still won’t be together, but I can work from the inside … Seek out information … Infiltrate Raevald’s plans … Sabotage …
Sucking in a deep breath, my head pulls away from the damp cave wall.
I count five, six, seven mud beetles scurrying across the floor.
Stupid things. If Veda were here she’d scold me for not catching them. “They’re like gold!” she’d say.
But that was before.
CHAPTER 6
VEDA
I don’t sleep more than a wink or two. It’s rare that the cries and explosions of battle keep me awake at night.
Now I realize why: Being in the High Regent’s personal palace provides me both protection and absolute prison.
But last night was different.
I swear, on two occasions, the walls around me shook and the acrid stink of what can only be described as burned metal filled the cell. It must now permeate all of Bellona if it’s reaching me here, beneath Imperi Palace.
When Imi left last night swiftly and quietly, she said she’d return today.
But she hasn’t yet.
I’ve not received any food or a lantern or a bucket to wash with. Even the Death Shadow dog’s yet to visit. This should probably give me peace—finally being left alone—but it’s the opposite. Something’s wrong, I can feel it.
I pace the tiny cell, attempt some push-ups, jog a few small laps. I’m slowly regaining some of the strength I’ve lost. Minutes, hours pass by without so much as a gust of cool air or clap of a footfall on stone.
Then, finally, the tray is shoved beneath the door. Not a word nor candle.
It’s a single crust of bread and a literal sip of water.
But I don’t hear her walk away either.
I sit in front of the door, eat the bread, and drink the water. I want to say her name, ask her what’s wrong, but I don’t dare. I’ve no idea if she’s alone or, honestly, if it’s even her on the other side of the thick wood.
When I return the tray to the other side, I hear that it’s lifted and footsteps leaving.
Quickly, I drop to my stomach, peek under the door.
Imi’s back is to me. She’s walking away.
* * *
SECLUSION IN A dark room is a strange thing. I’ve slept more these past days than I think I have in all my seventeen years. At least it feels that way. When I’m awake, I worry, I feel pain, I dwell on the impossible, I speculate over a hundred should haves and a thousand what ifs. But when I sleep?
I escape.
Until I wake up. Realize I’m trapped between four walls, still under Raevald’s thumb. Worse, his floor.
It’s then, when I force my eyes open, I startle, scramble backward on all fours until I hit the wall.
Imi.
It’s not that I fear her, but that the last thing I want to see upon waking is the flash of black and red on the other side of my eyes.
“Did I scare you?” she asks, the gold glow of the lamp beneath her chin, casting her face in distorting shadows.
I nod. And now I am genuinely afraid because her tone is … different from last night.
She takes a step forward, gazes down upon me. “Anything you’d like to share with me?”
“I … I don’t think so. You know where I’ve been, no new information here, I’m afraid.”
She nods slowly, raises her eyebrows like yeah right.