Page 9 of The Deathless One
“It is.”
He put it in his mouth and bit down hard. At his yelp, his father smacked him upside the head. “Not so ’ard.”
“Feels real, too,” the boy grumbled, rubbing his head as he slid the ring into his pocket.
His father stared at her a little too hard. A woman with a diamond ring of that size wasn’t likely to end up in the sewer system. She braced her shoulders and stared right back at him. He could look all he wanted, but he would never guess who she really was.
“Now, what are we calling ye, then?” the man asked.
Those eyes never moved from her, dancing over what was likely a very dingy gray gown, if he could see the small bits of it revealed through themud. Her hair had frozen in place, but she could feel sore spots on her scalp where the tiara had ripped strands out. She looked terrible, and she knew it. That, fortunately, would work in her favor.
“Alyssa,” she muttered, reaching out her hand for their help. The name had belonged to her first governess, an elderly woman who had passed away years ago. “My name is Alyssa.”
“Anders and Pike.” The old man pointed to himself and then his son. “We’re only getting ye out, lass. That’s it.”
“That’s all I need.”
He took her offered hand, and he hauled her out of the muck like she weighed nothing at all. She landed on her hands and knees on the walkway, staring through the grate at the dim murk below her. Neither of them offered to help her stand.
They turned from her, walking into the darkness as though the dim green light was plenty for them to see by. She could barely see her own hand held up in front of her eyes. But she tried to follow them, with her hand on the wall and her breath shuddering in her lungs.
She’d lied to them—and to herself. Jessamine needed so much more than help getting out of the sewers. She needed a safe place to stay, someone to listen to her who wouldn’t sell her out to Leon’s men. What if she’d been asleep for a few days? Her knees were shaky enough to make her think something strange was happening here. She shouldn’t have been able to survive the fall, let alone live through the water filtration system.
Swallowing hard, she recognized she couldn’t say any of this to these people. She didn’t even know if they were leading her out of the sewers or deeper into the darkness. What if they weren’t trustworthy?
Suddenly she noticed the twitchy way Anders kept looking back over his shoulder. Pike kept touching her ring in his pocket, rolling it between his fingers as he looked back at her as well. For some reason, the constantly rippling fabric made her nauseous.
What were they thinking? That she would be easy to rob? Were they going to betray her?
Like everyone else.
The air in her lungs froze as her heart rate sped up. She couldn’t think beyond the utter terror that she’d trusted the wrong people again. But who could she trust? It seemed everyone in this damned kingdom would give her up to Leon in a heartbeat. Someone had introduced that man into the castle. Someone had to have been working with him, because there wasn’t a chance that he’d flipped her court so easily on his own.
Killing the queen should have made the guards rise up. Someone should have fought against Leon. There were plans in place in case someone tried to take the life of a royal. Her mother wouldn’t have let that happen withoutreason.
There was no air left. She was suffocating in the sewers, and these people would do whatever they wanted and then they would toss her body back into the sea.
A dark voice whispered in her mind. A voice like the sound of rustling velvet and slithering snakes.I want to see you burn your kingdom down and rebuild it in my name.
She’d made a deal.
She intended to keep it.
The first ladder they passed by was her opportunity. Neither man looked at it. In fact, they’d crossed the channel long before the ladder came into view, slogging through the muck to get to the other side. Hiding the ladder from her? Perhaps. She swore she could hear the moaning sounds of the infected echoing down the tunnel, and she refused to allow yet another person to trick her.
“?’Ey!” Anders shouted the moment he noticed her bolt in the opposite direction.
The water was up to her waist this time, harder to get through. But adrenaline rushed through her veins, strengthening her, urging her forward. Jessamine hauled herself up onto the other side and lunged for the ladder.
She clambered up so quickly she thought the others might not have even gotten across yet. All that was left of her was a faint smattering of black sludge as she grabbed the ring of the vent above her head, twisted itin a circle, and shoved hard. The opening flooded with light, burning her eyes and sending the world into sparkles, but she didn’t care. She was free.
Jessamine tumbled out onto the street, turning at the last second to close the vent behind her. Instead of the two people she expected to see, all she saw was a dark figure standing at the base of the ladder.
The frightened, fluttering heart in her chest recognized him before her mind did. She knew that dark shadow, the broad shoulders and thick fingers that held on to the rungs. But this time, she could see his eyes. Nothing else. Just those black, soulless eyes that stared so deeply into her own.
Looking at him was like looking into oblivion.
Then she heard it again. The thunder of her own heart, beating in her ears and casting out all other sounds, warning that she stared at a predator. She was looking at death itself, and she needed togo. Jessamine, why aren’t you moving?
