Page 24 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
“What do you think they were talking about?” Bella put both elbows on the table and leaned in toward me.
“We can’t hide here forever,” I muttered, as much to myself as to her. “They’re going to take us somewhere else.”
“They said she’s not going to stop.” Bella pursed her lips and cocked an eyebrow. “Are they talking about you? Or the queen? Or someone else?”
I thought about that for a long moment. “At first, I assumed they were going to take us to the Blaze Queen and Raven’s Bane Castle. But now they’re talking about us hiding here?”
“Hiding? From what?” Bella said in a hushed breath.
Rosa came and began pulling plates from the table, completely uninterested in our whispers. She even hummed to herself.
“Do you know what’s going on?” I asked her, deeply expecting an answer.
“I don’t gossip with guests.” Her hands wiped the crumbs before me onto my empty plate.
“So we’re guests now?” I grabbed my plate, and she tried totug it away. Her cold gaze hit mine. “What is going on here? Why are we here?”
Rosa snatched the plate from my vice-like grip with far more strength than I expected from the aged woman.
“You think I made it this far in my life by gossiping and betraying Prince Cade’s orders? Think again.” She leaned in so close I could smell the tobacco on her breath. The feeling made me feel sick. “You may think you know the world and know what Allovan is like. But you have no idea what is going on behind this war. There are things I hope you never have to see and know. I pray that for you girls. And I pray the prince can figure out what needs to be figured out. Time is not on his side, and for the sake of all of us—I pray he succeeds.”
“Succeeds in what?” I asked, pressing my gaze even closer to hers. Our noses nearly touched, and I could feel her deep groan.
Her fingers grabbed me by the chin forcefully, squeezing. “Presumably, figuring out how to keep you alive.”
My life? Why would he be trying to save me? I thought he was just taking me to the capital? And it didn’t seem like he was trying to do anything except avoid me and be a dick.
“What do you think?” Bella hunched over her elbows, leaning toward me.
“I think we’re in way over our heads, and I feel terrible it’s all because of me. If only I could use this magic somehow to get us out of here. Get us new lives somewhere else. Somewhere far, far away. But I can’t…”
“Don’t talk like that.” Her hand hit my shoulder . “We’ll figure it out. They don’t seem… completely awful. Better than Garris at least…”
“We don’t know that… yet.” I popped my knuckles under the table, staring down at where my plate had been. “This new life has just begun, and I have this terrible feeling something awful is going to happen.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Ever since that thing spoke in my head, I just feel like there’s something out there, lurking, waiting. Something so powerful and dangerous that it somehow spoke to me from somewhere so distant that they’d have to be a god or something. Or… I’m losing my mind.”
I thought about the turtle… or tortoise, rather. My head sank into my hand, and I shook it.
“You’re not losing anything,” Bella sighed. “We’ve got each other. That’s what matters most. We’ve been all each other has had since we were kids. We’ll get through this. Just hang in there.”
My gaze crept over my shoulder back to my room, and where the huge tortoise had been.
Did I make that whole thing up in my head? There’s no way that thing was real. I mean, how in the Infernal Depths could that huge thing get in there and then just… vanish?
“Maybe we should get some sleep.” Bella yawned, complacent from a soothing meal after such a long trek upon the dragons’ backs. “Who knows what tomorrow is going to bring?”
I nodded, and her hand left my shoulder, with her fingernails skirting down my arm.
We went to our rooms while Rosa scrubbed dishes, muttering to herself with her back turned to us. Bella and I exchanged brief glances, but with a great yawn, she disappeared behind her door.
I did the same. “You in here?” No response. No tortoise. “You sure you’re not in here?” A minute later still nothing. “That’s it. I’ve officially flown the coop.”
CHAPTER 11
Ocean waves took me.
