Page 18 of Firedrake Betrayal
“Question?”
I looked away, but I was thinking. Getting that key off him won’t be easy. Escape has to come now because it won’t come later if it involves getting hold of that key.
Outfitted in our finery, I try to look placid in my beautiful dress, matching black heels, and the gaudy ruby and gold necklace as we ride the elevator down to the lobby.
The door smoothly slides open, and we step out of the elevator and into the lobby. A man in a smart navy-blue suit rises from behind a square slab of white marble to the right side of the building’s front door. “Mr. Alarik.”
The concierge, presumably, and the marble slab must be his desk. I don’t see a phone, but there are a couple of maps on the end and nothing else.
“We will walk to the restaurant,” Dominik says.
“Of course, sir. It’s a beautiful evening,” the blue suited man says, giving me a closed-mouth smile. “Madam.”
As Dominik escorts us past the marble desk, I look at him.
This must be his first taste of freedom. I slept as Dominik showered, shaved, and dressed. Did he go for a walk as well? What must that have felt like when he spent literal decades in a glass cell?
He must feel my attention because he peers down at me. “What is it?”
I look away.
“Nothing,” I lie.
If I start thinking about the fact he was a prisoner for so long, I’ll feel bad for him. Sympathy might lead to forgiveness, and he doesn’t deserve my forgiveness.
“You can talk to me, Jade,” he says.
“No, I don’t think I can.”
I feel his gaze on me as we walk through the white and marble lobby to the suited doorman standing beside the black framed glass front doors.
He opens one side, murmuring, “Good evening, sir. Madam.”
And we step out of marble and luxury glass into noise and smells and people.
The concierge was right. It is a beautiful evening, the sky a pretty bluish-purple and still mild enough not to need a coat, but I’m not slowing to appreciate the view. It’s the people passing by, making me want to turn around and run back to the apartment I’d been so desperate to escape moments before.
So many people.
I was so concerned with how I would escape Dominik that I hadn’t considered people would be on the street. Stupid, really. New York is busy. Everyone knows that.
Everyone but me, apparently.
I slide right into quiet panic. My chest is tight. I can’t draw enough air into my lungs, and all I can think about is all the times Dad warned me that the world wasn’t safe.
Yet here I am.
New York.
One of the busiest—probably most dangerous—places in the world.
The traffic never moves. Eyes swivel our way, linger on Dominik’s face, and then on my gaudy necklace. Yes, it’s ugly, I want to say. It’s why I picked it.
But I still can’t breathe.
Maybe that isn’t why they’re staring. They’re winding up to attack me. Or cage me. Atticus Chira could be right there, feet away, and I wouldn’t know it until he grabbed me.
Dominik’s hand presses on my lower back and his mouth brushes the shell of my ear. “Breathe.”
