Page 124 of Foul Days

He really, truly needed her.

“What about him?” one of the yudas asked.

Kosara’s moment of triumph quickly fizzled away when she saw who the yuda was holding. One of her long, curved talons was pressed against his neck. A trickle of blood dripped down his skin. His dark eyes were wide with panic. Asen.

You stubborn idiot, Kosara thought loud enough that he might hear her. When I tell you to run, you run!

And yet, she couldn’t help but let a small, bitter smile cross her lips. Asen was still here. He hadn’t left her.

“Him?” the Zmey asked. “Who’s he?”

“Nobody,” Kosara said quickly. “Just an acquaintance. He’s not important.”

“He stinks of magic.”

“He…” Kosara scrambled for an explanation. “He, um…”

“I want it,” said the Zmey. “Give it to me.”

Asen opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again. Through his T-shirt, his fingers gripped the talisman he wore around his neck.

“Give it to me,” the Zmey repeated, stepping towards Asen.

Dear God, please, just give it to him. Don’t make him angry with you.

Asen didn’t move. His mouth still hung open, but no words came out.

The yuda snatched the talisman, gripping it between her talons. Asen reached to stop her. Too late. The yuda threw the talisman towards the Zmey, its long metal chain flying behind it.

The Zmey caught it in his fist and let it dangle while he inspected it. It looked like a simple ring band. As far as Kosara could see, it had no writing on it: no magic symbols and no runes.

“What the hell is that?” she said, not really expecting an answer.

Asen didn’t look at her. His eyes were fixed on the talisman. “It’s my wedding ring.”

* * *

“You’re married?” Kosara had to shout, so he’d hear her over the wind howling through the cage’s bars and the screams of the yudas hovering outside. Their prison was located at the top of the palace’s tallest tower. Everywhere she looked, Kosara saw dark sky and flickering stars.

“Kosara, please,” Asen said. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

He looked terrible. The bags under his eyes had acquired an unpleasant purple tinge. He kept running his fingers through his hair, over and over, making it stick up in all directions. As if the Zmey had taken a lot more than a simple ring.

“Really?” Kosara said. “And when would you like to talk about it, exactly? You could have mentioned it at any time at all. For example, you could have told me before you stuck your tongue down my throat!”

“I never did that. I don’t remember any tongue.”

“That’s not the point!”

“Kosara, please.”

Kosara rolled her eyes and moved as far from him as she could, which wasn’t all that far in the cage. She slid down to the floor. The metal bars were freezing against her back.

Far below, the gardens shifted and blurred, their paths tangling together and separating again. The grass rustled softly, and the leaves chimed like tiny bells. Beyond them stretched the dark expanse of the sea. The sound of the waves crashing against the rocky shore echoed in the night.

And beyond that, was Chernograd. Its lights seemed so close, Kosara felt as if she could reach out and hold them in her palm like fireflies. Yet, she knew that they were very, very far away. A labyrinthine garden, an uncrossable sea, and a palace full of monsters away.

The Zmey had taken her moon yarn. Without its guidance, Kosara would never find her way out of here. Frankly, she struggled to see how the situation could get any more dire.

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