Page 89 of Tell No Tales
Vadim hoped so. If anyone deserved a second chance, it was the young earth weaver who'd never had the opportunity to live as her authentic self. He'd never seen himself as paternal, but he wanted to adopt her and spoil her rotten, so she had everything she ever wanted and more.
"And here you were the one trying to talk me out of running an orphanage,"Klaus said through their link.
"I never tried to talk you out of it."He'd asked why there were so blessed many orphans in Embertide, and he still wasn't satisfied with the answer. Ending the conflict between weavers and the empire would go a long way toward saving lives, but it wouldn't save everyone.
"We need healers,"Klaus reminded him."If they were allowed to do their damn jobs, they could save more lives."
Vadim couldn't argue with that.
Nola and Yvette led the way down the narrow stairs, Yvette with her dagger in hand, Nola with her hand on her sword hilt. Vadim had left his sword in his trunk onStarlight Specter,not wanting to draw attention to himself, but he was most vulnerable to physical attacks. He could dodge well enough, but sometimes it felt more useful to block.
He didn't block when Klaus reached for his hand. He loved the warmth of Klaus's fingers between his, and the slide of his smooth palm. It distracted him from thinking about the number of times Hesse must have traveled this passage alone. Vadim hadn't known it existed, nor had he needed to know. Hesse had offered to introduce him to his aging father, but Vadim had declined each time. What was the use? The emperor would only find fault with Vadim and tell his son to stop associating with him. At least this way, they'd had their time together in peace.
In mere minutes, they crossed beneath the busiest part of town. It led into a network of tunnels Vadim hadn't known were there, so far beneath the surface that even Klaus couldn't have seen the weaves. Thankfully, Klaus didn't detect any undead milling about in the tunnels, either.
As they walked, Vadim wondered when the tunnels had been built. They must have been commissioned by the empire's founding fire weavers since one led directly to the palace's royal wing. If Vadim wasn't mistaken, they would enter the palace just outside Delilah's sitting room.
Vadim snorted as he realized his own ignorance. It had been Hesse's sitting room, but he'd never entered the palace while Hesse was alive. Of all the fucking cowardly things he'd done in his life, avoiding the man after his coronation was probably the worst. It would have hurt, yes, but he could have spent precious time with Hesse, time he would kill to have back now.
Hesse would have liked Klaus's spunk and his quick wit. He would be happy for Vadim, he was certain. He would also tell Vadim to stop fighting his own happiness.
"Wait." Klaus drew them to a halt as they began to ascend at a gradual incline. "Hugo's in his room, with two guards inside the door."
"I can take care of the guards," Vadim said.
"No," Nola said. "That would be too fucking obvious. 'I don't know what happened, General Coryn. One minute we were fine, and the next, passed out on the floor.' She'll take Hugo to the country estate, and we'll miss our chance."
"What do you suggest?"
"We wait until they leave him," Nola said.
"Leave?" Vadim shook his head. "They never leave him."
"They don't even give him privacy to dress for bed?"
"Why would they?" Vadim shivered as he recognized Coryn's words coming from his mouth. They'd had that exact conversation five years ago.
"Because he's their fucking emperor, that's why!"
"He's not allowed privacy." Vadim swallowed hard. "Except behind the screen." Hesse had a similar screen in their dorm room, one he now knew had hid the entrance to the tunnel they'd just come through.
A plan formed in his mind, one he wasn't exactly comfortable with, but they had time. "Do any of you have any paper?"
"I have the list I sent to the market with the boys," Nola said. "Why?"
"I'm going to need your dagger," he said to Yvette.
"Fuck, you are truly insane," Nola said. "You'd better hope the boy trusts you."
"What type of weavers?" he asked Klaus.
"Earth and air."
The best elements to suppress Hugo's fire, if he ever had a chance to reclaim it and attempt to burn the palace to the ground.
"Convenient," Vadim said. "They won't know."
He took off his jacket and ripped a strip off the bottom with the help of Yvette's dagger. He didn't want Hugo to bleed to death. Just enough so they could communicate.
