Page 86 of House of Crimson Hearts
I nestle in against her chest. “When we were younger and I visited at the weekends, every Sunday night she would stand like that, rubbing her hands together because she wanted to tell me not to go.”
“She loves you,” Octavia says, her voice reverberating through her chest.
“I know.” I peel myself off and look up at her. “I do know that.”
“But?”
“But what she did…” My fingers skim the scar on my neck. The only reason it’s healed is because of the herbs the Academy used. Beneath the surface, I’m still wounded. “I nearly died, and I know she didn’t mean it, but that’s not something you just forget.”
She nods. “Would you like a distraction?” She opens a carriage door for me to step into.
I narrow my eyes as I sit in the corner of the carriage and lean against the wall. “What did you do?”
“I have a confession to make… I’m glad you agreed to move in,” Octavia says.
The carriage jerks forward and rocks us from side to side as the horses clip-clop along the underground tunnels.
“And why is that?” I say, raising an eyebrow. From where I sit opposite her, I put my feet up on her seat, and she tuts at me and flicks them off.
“Heathen.” She glares at me.
“What, I’m tired. And you did it in the club. Stop prevaricating. Why are you glad I agreed?”
She huffs at me as I’m about to put my feet back on her seat and yanks my shoes off. “Now you can tuck your legs up.”
She flips around and leans her back against the sidewall of the carriage and takes her shoes off, resting her shoe-less feet on a pillow at the end.
“I’m glad because, for one, you are potentially a dhampir, and we don’t know how the city will react when the new dhampir awakens.”
“And for two?”
“Two, the city is on edge. Look at the market just now… didn’t you feel the tension?”
I did. I can’t disagree with her.
She continues. “I’d rather our team stuck together.”
“Why do you think anyone will have a problem? We’re only returning our city to what it was.”
She laughs, a barked thing all hard around the edges and gravelly. “And you think those vampire nobles and Cordelia are really going to be okay with a shift in the political power lines?”
“Then why is she even doing it?” I swing around and nudge Octavia’s feet out the way so I can put mine up on her side of the carriage.
She moves but by the time she folds her legs over each other, her toes are so close to mine that the air between us warms, and I have to drag my eyes away from the distraction.
“I don’t know. I tried to ask her before we left. But she gave me some bullshit about the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“Meaning, she’s made some kind of agreement with the Chief?”
Octavia nods and scratches her cheek, her eyes going wide. “I’ve been wracking my brains to work out why she isn’t strategising with me. We always work together to plan attacks and defensive moves.”
“Should I be listening to this as head of security?”
“You’re not the head right now, you’re my teammate.”
I huff, but she continues.
“I plan with Mother, Dahlia implements with the army. But as far as I can tell, she’s blocked us both out. Which means she’s worried. I don’t think she knows who the enemy is. That’s why she’s being evasive. There’s someone else out there more powerful than her, and it’s unsettled her.”
