But I don’t need words, because I know that voice.
I’m up and on my feet in an instant, wine cup left behind on the bench as my steps take me deeper beneath the pavilion. I skirt around the tables, clinging to the opposite wall of the cave, trying not to draw attention to myself. The first tunnel I come to is wider, and there are crates sitting just inside, supplies overflowing.
I start to head inside of it when the voices lift again, and I realize they’re coming from the fissure that’s tucked into the corner and bathed in shadows.
“Another one? How many is this now?”
I recognize Ryatt’s voice instantly, though it’s hissed out between the clenched teeth of palpable anger.
“Six,” I hear Slade answer.
“Six? Fucking hell. How long are you going to ignore this?”
My steps falter, eyes going wide.
“We still have time.”
A bitter laugh comes from Ryatt. “Keep telling yourself that.”
“What do you expect me to do?” Slade’s voice suddenly snarls.
“I expect you to protect Drollard. I expect you to not bring in a threat. To go be a fucking king.”
“Stop insinuating that I don’t protect Drollard. I do everything I can to ensure its safety,” Slade snaps back.
I suddenly feel very awkward, just standing here listening in on this conversation. I turn my head back to where Lu is, finding her still half turned toward the woman, though she keeps shooting me curious looks.
I’m about to turn back around when I hear Ryatt say, “If that were true, then you wouldn’t have brought her here.”
I freeze. He’s talking about me?
“Auren is not a threat,” Slade all but growls.
My heartbeat begins to drum heavily in my chest.
“We all saw her in that ballroom. If that’s not a threat—”
“She won’t do that here.” Slade sounds so sure, but my entire body goes slick with anxious sweat.
“You don’t know that,” Ryatt counters. Slade starts to reply, but Ryatt cuts him off. “You don’t. And I want her gone.”
A sharp twist of pain jams in my stomach, and I look away, though instead of my gaze catching onto Lu again, this time I see the villagers. See all the people who I could hurt if I lose control.
Suddenly, fifty-seven doesn’t seem like such a small number.
Shame crawls up my neck and grips me by the throat.
“It’s not up to you, Ryatt,” Slade says, his voice gone low with the kind of anger held beneath the lid of a simmering pot. “And she’s making progress.”
“Yeah?” Ryatt snips back. “If she’s making so much progress here, then why haven’t you told Auren the truth? Why haven’t you told Auren about her? Are you ashamed?”
There’s a long, heavy pause.
That heaviness falls through my stomach like a rock down a well, cracks echoing in my ears every time it slams against my nerves.
Why haven’t you told Auren about her.
Told Auren about her.
About her.
The rock lands hard, shattering into the spoils of dread.
Her.
CHAPTER 34
AUREN
Ryatt’s sentence is still reverberating in my head when a hand at my elbow makes me jump. I whirl around to find Lu standing at my side with a frown on her face. “What…”
“I will when she’s strong enough. I can’t overwhelm her with this,” I hear Slade say.
Lu’s black brows vault upward when she realizes I’ve been eavesdropping.
“She—”
Lu clears her throat. Loudly.
I’d glare at her, but to be honest, I don’t want to hear anymore.
Why haven’t you told Auren about her?
Are you ashamed?
There’s a pause, then footsteps, and then I feel him right at my back.
I don’t turn around. My shoulders are stiff, my emotions like turbid waters beneath the falls, clouded with churning sediment, roiling with thoughts that fall out of my control.
“You guys do know that voices carry when you’re in a Divine-damned tunnel, right?” Lu drawls.
Movement in the corner of my eye has my gaze catching onto Ryatt’s face. The anger that he spewed seems to have emptied him out, because instead of hate on his face, there’s remorse instead. He opens his mouth like he’s going to say something to me, but then he shakes his head and turns, walking away.
Lu looks over my shoulder. “Who pissed in his porridge?”
Braving his expression, I turn, letting my eyes flick up. “You didn’t tell me you were bringing Auren out tonight,” he says to Lu.