Page 13 of Daughter of No Worlds

Serel’s hands were at my shoulders.

I didn’t hear him. I was still looking at Esmaris’s lifeless eyes. They stared through me, past me.

“Look at me, Tisaanah.”

Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.

Warm, calloused fingers tilted my chin. Serel’s big, watery blue eyes were the opposite of Esmaris’s in every way, and the sight of them was a gulp of fresh air that rattled through my soul.

I said the only thing that came to mind: “He’s dead.”

Serel flicked his gaze to Esmaris. He didn’t ask me what happened. Perhaps the scene — the pile of coins on the desk, my blood, the whip, the crash that had drawn him into the room — told him everything he needed to know. But he didn’t so much as flinch at the sight of the body. Sometimes I forgot that my sweet, kind friend was no stranger to death.

“Can you stand?”

I nodded but didn’t move. Esmaris’s clenched fist still tangled in my hair. With shaking fingers, I pulled it free. His hand was so warm that I thought he could grab me at any moment.

I killed him.

I killed Esmaris.

Me.

The terror hit me like a wave, knocking the breath from my lungs.

Serel helped me stand up. The movement set my back on fire, and I let out an involuntary whimper. Tears stung my eyes, though I refused to let them fall.

“I know,” Serel murmured, voice clenched. “I know.”

“What am I going to do?” I whispered.

I always had a plan, always had a goal. Even in the darkest moments of my life, I could count my options. Now I couldn’t even think. Couldn’t breathe.

I would never have my freedom.

Esmaris was dead.

They would know that I killed him.

I would be executed.

And so would—

My eyes shot to Serel. “You shouldn’t be here. They’ll know, they’ll—”

“Sh,” he murmured, a small, comforting noise. He was looking from Esmaris, to me, to the whip, mouth drawn into a tight line.

Think, Tisaanah, I willed myself.Think. This isn’t where it ends. It can’t be.

But my thoughts were mush. I just kept seeing the look in Esmaris’s eyes as he fell. That whisper of betrayal.

I was so consumed that I didn’t realize what was happening as Serel drew his sword and plunged it through Esmaris’s chest. The sound it made wrenched me back to reality. A sickening, wet crunch that I knew, even in that moment, I would never be able to forget.

“Serel, what—”

“The blood could be his. Anyone could have killed him. Now they won’t know who.” Serel yanked his blade from Esmaris’s body. More blood spurted onto the floor.

I gagged, swallowing acrid bile. Serel picked up the whip and coiled it tightly, hanging it at its place inside the closet as if it had never been touched.

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