Page 75 of Bosse
He had to be able to see her. Why else would he be staring so hard? Then he blinked and seemed to shake off whatever he’d been thinking.
She leaned against the wall to keep her knees from buckling and control her breathing.
Then her internal alarm clock warned her to move or be caught outside her room.
Never stopping her don’t-look-at-me chant, she took careful steps to her room, opened the door, and pulled it closed, locking herself in. She’d made it. Relief had her laughing quietly like an insane woman. The chant she’d learned as a child had worked when the one her mother had tried to teach her never did. Her mother had warned that the simple don’t-look-at-me spell would not last long enough to help her evade someone hunting her—only the no-one-can-see-me spell, which held more power.
But it also required greater power, which Alifair had never had. She’d practiced for six months and finally admitted defeat.
Then came the knock at her door.
She was not dressed for bed.
Taking a moment, she asked, “Yes? I’m not dressed to open the door.”
“You will open the door any time we order you to.”
While he instructed her, she’d taken advantage of that time to shrug off her coat, then yank her shirt, shoes, and pants off she’d intended to wear for an escape. She leaned over to snatch her plain tan-colored shirt off the bed and put it on, buttoning it as fast as she could. Then she stepped into the dark beige skirt with elastic at the waist. Clearly, Krol spared no expense for his slaves.
The guard shouted, “Do you not understand?”
“No, I understand.” She tossed her coat and other clothes in a corner. Let them think she was not tidy. She unlocked the door and opened it slowly to find the guard Eriko had spoken to upstairs staring daggers at her door, then at her.
“Follow me.”
“May I grab my coat?”
He grumbled under his breath and nodded. “Be quick.”
Where was he taking her that she couldn’t get dressed first? She didn’t have her special scent on either.
She shoved her arms into the coat, intentionally leaving her shoes off. Then she returned to the door, closing it behind her.
He took off at a fast pace. He still carried the key for the stables.
Was she going to the stables? That couldn’t be good. “Could you please tell me where I’m going? I don’t even have shoes on.”
Without turning around, he said, “You don’t need shoes. It is time for your meeting with Eriko.”
He wanted to see hernow?
A cold chill washed over her.
Eriko was going to interrogate her about Bosse’s escape. She had never been good at lying.
