A Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes #4) - Sabaa Tahir Page 0,125

wise about these sorts of things.”

Zacharias takes the horse from Tas and throws it a few feet away. He rolls onto his stomach, rocking toward the horse, perplexed that he does not appear to be getting closer to it.

I cannot help but smile. My first since Keris murdered Livvy. “He’s never done that before.”

Zacharias loses interest, rolls onto his back, and puts a foot in his mouth.

“He’ll be running before long,” Tas says. “For now, feet. Quite tasty, apparently.”

“Very tasty.” I pick up my nephew and tickle his toes. He flashes two teeth at me and giggles.

“Ah, little one.” I narrowly evade his fist as he lunges for my braid. “Determined to ruin Auntie Shrike’s hair, I see. Tas, why don’t you go get lunch and some air. You shouldn’t be cooped up in here all day, little one.”

The boy leaves and I walk Zacharias into my quarters, dismissing the Masks within. My nephew flops toward the window, toward the light. But I keep him well away and in the darkness, where it is safer. Where no errant assassin’s blade can touch him.

This is no way to live, Livia said. But it is all we have. I hear footsteps behind me, a familiar gait. I do not turn.

“Soon you’ll walk in the light again, nephew,” I tell Zacharias. “Auntie Shrike will make you safe. You’ll ride and run away from your tutors and have great adventures with good friends. Auntie Shrike will destroy all of your foes. I pro—”

The words die on my lips. Because I promised my sister I would keep her safe. I promised myself I would not let anything happen to her, not after what happened to my parents and Hannah.

“Make that promise, Shrike.”

Harper stands beside me, greeting the Emperor with a rare quirk of the lips and a kiss to his head. Zacharias offers him a tentative smile.

“Look your nephew in the eyes,” Harper says, “and make a vow.”

I shake my head. “What if I can’t keep it?” I whisper because the alternative is to scream, and if I kept silent as my sister died, then I can keep silent now.

“You will keep it,” Harper says.

I shake my head and call out to Coralia, who takes Zacharias from me. Harper follows me as I leave. It has been easy enough to avoid him this past fortnight—I’ve had months of practice. Before he says something that makes me come apart, I speak.

“Bring Quin Veturius to the small chambers off the throne room,” I say. “I want his thoughts on what to do about Pontilius—what are you—”

Harper takes my hand and brushes a finger across my lips—sh. He pulls me in the opposite direction of the throne room and down a set of stone stairs. Near the bottom, beside a pile of rubble and just before an enormous, recently restored tapestry, he touches part of the wall and the stone moves away.

I know this passageway, and it leads to a dead end, with a few storage closets in between. Rallius has the palace guard check it twice a day.

But of course, Harper would know that. I understand why he’s brought me here, and I am so grateful I want to grab him and kiss him right here with the hallway door hanging open.

Oblivion is what I need right now. A way to escape this feeling in my chest, like if I say Livia’s name aloud, my heart will wither and die. Harper is a distraction. One I am desperate for.

He releases my hand once we’re in the hallway and lights a torch. When it flares, we are moving again, past a storage room filled with rubble and wood and into another, which is larger than I realized. It is big enough for a rope pallet and a small table with a lamp. In one corner sits a club and a pile of large stones.

“Is this where you sleep?” I ask him, eyeing the cot, but he shakes his head.

“Only ghosts down here, Shrike.”

The room is cold, though I hardly feel it. I unhook my cloak, but Harper shakes his head and hands me the club.

“Ah.” I glance down at it uneasily. “What am I doing with this?”

“I found this place when we first came to Antium, after you told me how my father died.” He looks me level in the eye.

“I don’t understand.”

“I came here to shout into the darkness,” he says. “To scream and break things.”

“But you’re always so calm.”

“Always, Shrike?” He arches a silver brow, and