loud—banging pans together or shouting for attention. When her geoeia had manifested, she’d become a nightmare. Madoc would walk headfirst into dust storms of her making or have to catch stones she hurled his way. When she was happy, everyone was happy. When she was mad, everyone needed to hide.
But as Madoc wrapped her in a blanket that a servant had brought out to air, he realized it had been her soul that had taken up so much room. Without it, she was no more than the bones that had carried her.
With trembling hands, he bound her arms to her sides and smoothed down her hair. Fighting the bile that clawed up his throat, he covered her face and the marks on her legs. He needed to take her home to clean her up; then they could bring her to the burial fields outside the city, where her body would reunite with the earth over time. But the thought sickened him.
He longed for the void to take him over so that he could feel nothing, but it denied him. With every breath, he swallowed glass. Each brush of her cold skin burrowed ice through his bones. She was broken, and pale, and bloodied, and everything about her was wrong.
And it hurt. It hurt to touch her. It hurt to look at her. It hurt not to find Petros and siphon the life out of him. It hurt not to chase Ash down and demand the truth about what had happened. It hurt because maybe he was too much of a coward to do any of that. Maybe that was why he hadn’t gotten Cassia sooner—not because he’d put his faith in Geoxus, or because he’d thought incriminating Petros would set her free, but because he’d been weak.
He wouldn’t be weak now. She needed him to tend to her, so he would.
When he was done, he felt as if a hand had closed around his throat. His breath came out in a fractured sob.
He forced swallow after swallow until the tension subsided. He would not cry here.
He removed his armor and left it on the ground.
“All right,” he said. “Let’s go home.”
He picked her up, rested her fragile head against his chest. She weighed practically nothing, but still his arms and lungs trembled with the effort.
Petros’s guards didn’t stop him. They opened the gate without a word and closed it behind him. The crowd was gone now; only a few servants remained to clean up the mess.
At dawn, you need to put the Kulan girl down.
Ash.
Ash had come here when he’d told her not to, and now Cassia was dead.
He crossed the street, stopping when someone stepped into the light of a nearby torch.
Elias took one look at the bundle in Madoc’s arms and caved forward, arms around his waist. He shook silently, and tears streamed from Madoc’s eyes.
“Get up.” His voice broke. “We’re not doing this here.”
Elias got up.
They walked home, taking turns carrying their sister.
By the time they reached the stonemasons’ quarter, the ache in Madoc’s chest had stretched to his arms. No one had bothered them on the roads—it was too late for most to be out, and those who were seemed to recognize that they should be left alone.
He and Elias hadn’t spoken, but there were words Elias wanted to say, Madoc could tell. Every so often, Elias’s breath would grow rough. He’d punch his thigh, swallow a sob. Maybe it was better that he didn’t speak. Their failure had cost Cassia her life.
The taverns and brothels were beginning to close as they made the final turn down their alley. Elias led the way, head bowed, and when they entered the courtyard, Madoc was surprised to see the lights in the house still lit. As if expecting them, Danon rushed outside, Ilena on his heels.
They were dressed strangely—wearing too many clothes, maybe all they owned. Ilena had a bag over her shoulder, and it fell with a clatter on the ground, baskets and utensils rolling free.
Were they leaving?
A sharp pain jabbed at his empty stomach.
He looked to Elias, wondering again why he’d been at Petros’s—but Elias only shook his head, the hair falling over his eyes, and rushed toward their mother.
“No,” Ilena said, and all the questions died. “No.”
She turned to go back inside. The bag was left on the doorway.
“Is that . . .” Danon’s gaze bounced between them, horrified. “What happened? You said we were all leaving!” Elias ignored him, pushing by to follow Ilena