Page 83 of Realm of Thieves

“Andor,” I whisper, holding my aunt tighter. “Andor, you can save her.”

He pauses briefly, finding me from the corner of his eye, but then he growls at the man. “Tell me who sent you or I’ll drive this dagger right into your tiny little brain.”

The man smiles at him like he knows Andor will kill him.

Like he wants that.

We will get no answers.

And it doesn’t matter anyway.

“Andor!” I say again, louder now. “Please! Save her!”

Andor sneers at the man, his face going red, the knife’s tip starting to shake against the man’s temple. “Tell me!”

“Andor!” I call out again. “He’s never going to tell. Just kill him and help me! Please, she’s dying!” I’m yelling now, the sound coming out of me like some awful rabid beast.

Andor relents for a moment, looking down at the ground with a small shake of his head, and I fear he’s about to let the man go. But then he lets out an anguished roar, pulling back enough to drive the rest of the dagger into the man’s head.

I look back down at my aunt to see that her eyes are no longer just glassy.

They are still.

They are blank.

She’s staring at the ceiling, at nothing.

There is nothing.

“No!” I scream, squeezing her shoulders so hard that I know it must hurt.

But she doesn’t react.

She is stillness.

She is death.

Lemi walks over slowly, sniffing my aunt’s feet, then lies down beside her, ears back, letting out a mournful whimper that nearly shakes the whole house.

This can’t be it.

“Ellestra,” I whisper to her, giving her a shake. “Auntie. Please. Come back. We can save you.”

But the tears fall from my eyes and splash onto her face and she is so, so still.

“I’m sorry,” Andor says. He sounds like he’s in another world, but he’s standing behind me. I feel his presence and I’m angry. Angry he wasn’t quicker. He should have killed that man right away and maybe he would have had time to save her.

But the anger sparks and flames and burns inside me, and it morphs into hatred for myself.

Because this is my fault.

This is all my fault.

“Brynla,” Andor says gently. He places his hand on my shoulder as he crouches down beside me, but I barely feel it, barely hear him. “Brynla, I am so sorry. It happened so quickly. There was a knock at the door and she told me to stay where I was in the kitchen. I heard the voice, she seemed to know the man but there was something off and by the time I got to the parlor…”

“She’s gone,” I whisper, brushing my aunt’s hair off her face. I’ve never seen her still before, not even in sleep. She was always scowling,always moving, always busy with something. She didn’t suffer fools and at times she was tough to love, but I loved her all the same. She saved me from the Daughters of Silence, she saved me from ending my own life when I realized nothing would bring my father or my mother back. I wouldn’t be here without her and now…now she’s gone.

It’s not fair at all.

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