Page 165 of Unrivaled
La’Angi Keep
The rage was like a storm inside of me, stealing my air, whipping it from my lungs.The smell of his fragrance still clung to my skin as the reek of his burning flesh filled my head.Get.Him.Out.I pressed my fingers to my skull and held in the scream purely so he didn’t have the satisfaction of hearing it.I sucked in air and clung to the sure knowledge that his ownwillingly offeredandutterly senselessBlood Oath could very wellimmolate his flesh.
I’d scrub the burn marks off the rug myself if it came to it.
I hurled my blanket onto my bed.My muscles, muscles unhappy from sleeping on the ground, send agony spearing into my back.
He.
Hadn’t.
Even.
Been.
Good.
The scream was in my chest, pounding at my heart like waves at the cliffs below.I knew I’d survive those waves.
I knew they’d never abate.
I went to the bath and emptied it, pulling the stopper so hard the chain shuddered in its moorings.The buckets I hauled up made my body weep.I should’ve left the asshole to sleep on the rug by himself like adog.A slobbering, useless, pathetichound.All I’d wanted was to get out of my head for one night.One night.He didn’t even have the grace to give methat.
“Fuck you, Luca.”I hissed as I snatched up a bucket, flinging the water into the tub so hard it splashed back onto me.
The worst part wasn’t that he’d betrayed me.
The worst part was I’d let him.
I turned to get another bucket and my eyes fell on a tub to the side, full of water and Isolde’s dress.
It was covered in blood.
Ice swept through me, chasing away the rage.The bucket fell from my hands.I’d seen her, below.She was okay.The steps gave way before me.I was back in the common room that reeked of burning flesh and charred hair, and she was clinging to the wall, gasping like she’d been stabbed.Her eyes were bloodshot.I grabbed her without thinking.
She flinched with a guttural cry of pain.She shrank.
I dropped her like a hot coal, stepping back, the world whirling around me.She wasn’t wounded.Not that I could see.She was shaking.One hand came up to ward me off.
I fell back another step and realized my heart was roaring like a steppe cat in my chest.“Isolde,” I said, but her name became a plea.
“La’Angi,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut.“La’Angi.Autumn.Audrey’s tower.”
“You’re with me,” I said, seizing onto the strategy she’d offered us both.“My tower.Common room.It’s autumn.Tourney time.”
“Tourney.”The word shook.
“Autumn,” I offered again.“My tower.Yours, too.Tourney.”She nodded jerkily.Lost, I sought desperately for anything else I could do, but bit back the words.She wasn’t bleeding, not now, but she was pale as death, with big dark marks beneath her eyes.“Our tower,” I said, gently.“It’s autumn.They’ve brought in the harvest.We’ve apples a-plenty.You’re in La’Angi.”
She nodded and made a weak flicking motion with her hand.“I know.I’m fine.”
She was so far from fine that I couldn’t possibly quantify it.“Can you come upstairs with me?”I asked her.
She nodded, her jaw set.She didn’t move.She was shaking.
“Can I take your arm up the steps?”I asked her.
I heard her swallow.She nodded, then stopped and shook her head.
