Page 8 of Reap the Night
“Liar,” he said.
I squeezed my eyes closed, not wanting him to see past my shields. “I want you to be kind to Ariella. Don’t hurt her. Treat her with respect.”
“Orina—”
“If you value me at all, you’ll promise me that. You’ll promise me and you’ll let me go.”
“Look at me,” he demanded. I opened my eyes and fell into the golden abyss of his gaze where shadows waited to dance with me. “Orina Lighthart, you have saved my life and my dignity,and I am in your debt. I will give you a peaceful year as watcher. I will give you your space and allow you to leave my castle. Consider this my repayment, but I will not,cannotvow to do anything more.”
My heart ached, stomach quivering as I drank him in. “I suppose that will have to do.”
He stroked my pulse with his thumb then released me. “Goodbye, Miss Lighthart.”
“Goodbye, Ezekiel.” I forced my legs to move. To take me away.
This was for the best. This was what he needed, what webothneeded. He had a destiny, and I wasn’t a part of it.
I wantedto say goodbye to Leo, but when the door closed behind me, he remained inactive. I stroked his cheek anyway, whispering a goodbye before retreating down the corridor.
I couldn’t leave without seeing Ingrid. I found her in the kitchen as always, working dough as if her life depended on it. She stopped as soon as she saw me and rushed over to envelop me in a hug. Up until now, I hadn’t known it was possible for her to touch the living, but she carried plates and cups and kneaded dough, so obviously she was able to manipulate her environment, but still, her embrace was cold. The icy chill of the dead. I leaned into it anyway, taking what comfort I could.
“Oh dear, my sweet dear,” she said.
“It’s fine. Everything is going to be fine.”
“Yes, yes, it will be.” She cupped my face with her spectral hands, and frost whispered across my skin.
“I need to speak to Ariella before I leave. Do you know where she is? Do you know where they’re keeping her?”
“Yes. I’ll take you to her now.”
She led me to the lower levels of the castle, toward the dungeons, and my heart sank. Had Ezekiel put Ariella in the dungeons? I was about to ask Ingrid when she took a sharp left at an intersection and stopped at a wooden door. Not the dungeons, then, something else.
“These are guest quarters,” Ingrid said. “Forcaptiveguests.”
“I see…”
Ingrid unlocked the door with the key that was still in the lock and stepped back for me to enter.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to find, but it wasn’t this sobbing, broken woman curled up on the floor by the bed, her dark hair with a tangle around her face, her eyes red raw from crying. She scrambled up at the sight of me.
“Please…You have to help me,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ve done wrong. I don’t know why I’m in here. I think he wants to kill me. He wants me dead, and I have no idea why. Please help me.”
“He won’t kill you, I can promise you that.” And I was certain that she wouldn’t be in this room for long. “He’ll move you to better quarters.” Maybe he’d put her in my old quarters, or would he put her closer to his quarters?
I didn’t want to think about that.
“I’m afraid,” she said. “I’m meant to be a vein, but I’m afraid that he’ll drain me.”
“He won’t.”
This seemed to calm her a little. She wiped at her face with the heels of her palms. “How can you be so sure?”
“I just…I know he won’t. Trust me. You can relax here. You’re safe here.” But was she? If she went all dark, then Hemlockand Ordell would kill her. “Listen to me, be calm and patient. Exercise tolerance and you’ll be safe. I know it.”
“You live here?”
“I did for a while.”
