Page 127 of The Rebel and the Rose
Offering a wan smile, she sat back, folding her hands in her lap. ‘Better?’
‘Better,’ he rasped.
Caruso eased off Ransom, keeping his hand twisted in the back of his shirt as he rose from the floor. With relief came the full, unvarnished truth of what had happened back at Marvale. And with it, a rage so quick and violent, Ransom could taste it between his teeth. ‘Andreas,’ he hissed. ‘That malevolent prick got inside my head.’ A silver-tongue indeed. With a few choice words, he had tied invisible strings to Ransom and used him like a puppet. ‘He compelled me to flee Marvale. To comehere and kill you at all costs.’ His own flesh and blood. Andsaints, he had almost done it too. He scrubbed his face, horror making his stomach lurch. ‘I almost killed you, Anouk.’
‘Andreas almost killed her,’ said Nadia, with her own dawning disgust. ‘You fought it, Ransom. You fought against his thrall with everything in you.’
And still it had taken Caruso to restrain him.
Hell’s teeth.
‘Lucky I’m so damn strong,’ said Caruso, puffing out his chest.
Nadia rolled her eyes.
‘Lucky I’m a saint,’ Anouk said, pointedly. ‘This could have been one hell of a shitshow.’
‘For an acolyte, you sure curse a lot,’ said Nadia.
‘I’m a dab hand at lying too.’ Anouk smirked. ‘Since I’m not Marianne Adina either.’
In the ruins of that damp prayer tower, a hundred and more questions crowded in on Ransom – there were stories to be traded, histories to be told. How had Anouk come to be in this place all by herself, living under a fake name, a fabricated vocation?
But this was not the place, nor the time. Not as the night darkened and the mist around them thickened. Nadia was on her feet now, examining the anchor stone behind Anouk, yanking at the rusted chains that bound her there.
Anouk reached for his hands once more, the light in her eyes filling him with hope. ‘Look what fate has done for us, Bastian. It brought you back to me. After all this time, brother.’ Gripping him by the shoulders, she pulled him close. ‘Now we can leave this place together and begin again.’
‘That might be trickier than you think.’ Frowning, Nadia turned from the anchor stone. ‘I don’t suppose the Mother Superior gave you a key?’
Ransom shook his head.
‘We were supposed to dump her with the anchor stone,’ supplied Caruso.
‘Callous old bat,’ muttered Anouk.
Eager to be of use – and to get his sister the hell away from this creepy place – Ransom got to his feet. ‘Leave the anchor stone. It’ll only sink us on the way back. I’ll go and get the key.’
Caruso stepped out of the tower, joining Ransom.
They didn’t have to go far to find Mother Madeline. She was standing where they had left her at the end of the peninsula. Illuminated by her dying lantern and with the rising wind tossing her robes around her, she looked like an angry ghoul.
‘Is there a problem?’ she called out. ‘I told you that girl was trouble.’
‘We need the key,’ said Ransom as they marched towards her. ‘Hand it over and return to the priory.’
Mother Madeline took a step back, gripping a brass key that hung around her neck. ‘What do you need it for? Just dump the body along with the stone.’
‘No,’ said Ransom, fast losing the only shred of patience he had managed to conjure. He hated this woman for chaining up his sister – for beating and starving her, before marking her for dead – just as fiercely as he hated the prince who had chained up his mind, casting him from Marvale like a skipping stone. ‘Give me the key. I won’t ask you again.’
She looked between them, aghast. ‘Sweet Saint Alisa, you intend to free her, don’t you?’
‘I’m getting bored,’ warned Caruso. ‘You won’t like me when I’m bored.’
Ransom extended his hand. ‘Now.’
Her lips thinned. Again, she backed away. ‘I refuse to let you help her. Irefuseto allow you to take what belongs to this priory. Irefuse—’
Crack!
