I can barely breathe. “Don’t touch me.”
“You are losing a lot of blood,” Vann says roughly. “I didn’t fight half a kingdom just to watch you bleed out.”
I can’t make out Arion’s expression from here, but I know he watches us closely. He watches how Vann moves to me, how he holds me up.
When Arion speaks again, I can almost feel his rage. It is the only thing that keeps me from yanking away from Vann.
“Tomorrow, we shall have to make the trials that much harder, no?”
The crowd agrees.
Vann presses harder on my wound, his hand shaking. I notice his fear in that moment. I’m starting to feel cold.
The heat from before drains out of me. Tomorrow…How am I even supposed to last the night?
“You can hate me later,” Vann says. “Just stay alive for now.”
Then everything tilts, and the world goes dark.
Chapter 33
CASTIEN
“Afirst win is to be expected,” Arion says, sitting upon the throne that was carried back by a horde of servants. Half a dozen other lords and I are seated in the audience hall.
The other elf that was attending to Arlet, the one they call Warden Thorne, is here as well. I watch him for a minute. He once worked for Mrath in her most trusted circles. He’s a defector.
But something about him still seems strange. He doesn’t seem overly excited about the king. He wasn’t disgusted by the torture earlier, either.
The other lords murmur their agreement with the king.
“Tomorrow will be an excellent show!” one says.
City lights burn through the nighttime and glimmer in the window behind Arion. I watch the king on that legendary throne, and think of what Liana had tasked me to do.
Find a seed on Vann’s person.
Arion had granted me leave to interrogate him when I’d asked. I had been rough with the Enduar, necessary to avoid suspicions. Except that when I searched his body, I found nothing.
Liana will not be happy about this.
The corner of my mouth quirks up.
Perhaps that could be fun.
“Tomorrow, you will simply have to set more beasts on them. The people loved the spectacle. Apt vengeance for what the human whore did,” the lord of the North Court chimes in.
Arion seems placated by this comment. “True.” Then he addresses the rest of the room. “We have successfully rooted out as many of Mrath’s assassins as we could find, but our pursuit of my sister has still been unsuccessful. This has led me to believe that one of us here is not loyal to me.”
Liana had come with Mrath’s troops, but they didn’t know about her connection to me. Only half against her will, I put her up in one of my safe houses in the city. Thankfully, she remains untouched.
There is a wave of shock through the other lords at Arion’s reveal. I glance at them out of the corner of my eye and see several of them playing up the act. They don’t know it’s me, and I don’t believe any of the others are loyal to Mrath.
My gaze catches on one man, Lord Fleanth, who looks like he might sweat through all the layers of his clothes. Perhaps him.
I might ask later, if he survives.
My face betrays nothing. I feel no need to act in front of the king. If he suspects me, I shall know soon enough. Whatever he might send against me would be a problem to solve in the moment. Not now.