Page 149 of Nocturne

I leaned back against the wall, careful not to let the rough stone press too hard against the brand on my back. The wound hadn’t been given time to heal, and Bapo ensured it never would. Whether it was the lake, the whip, or some other form of punishment, he always found a way to keep it raw and bleeding. At least they gave me a salve—a leaf smeared with some kind of ointment—every night to stave off infection.

“I’m starting to think escaping this place isn’t going to be easy,” Willow muttered, her gaze fixed on the ceiling.

I scoffed. “What made you think it ever would be?”

“My training.”

“What training?” I looked at her with curiosity.

Willow looked at me and contemplated for a few seconds before she shrugged to herself and muttered,‘What the hell.’

“I was trained to be a spy for an assassination group. It's too bad that I was never given real training like my sister.”

I should’ve been shocked, maybe even appalled. But nothing surprised me anymore. My curiosity was fleeting, a shallow ripple against the deep ocean of despair I lived in.

“So, you’re here to spy?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she admitted. “My sister was about to take on one of the toughest jobs, and I thought I could help. Scope out the land, give her some intel, maybe make her job a little safer.”

I snickered. “What good is a spy if they get caught?”

Willow cracked a smile. “Touché.”

That’s how it was with us—finding dark humour in the midst of hell. She once called one of the guards a limp-dick bastard. He looked ready to kill her, but Bapo had strict orders not to harm the pregnant ones.

“In my defence,” Willow continued, “I was watching for the throne’s guards, not some deranged cult.”

Her words made me laugh, a sound that felt foreign and out of place.

After a moment, I shared something, too. “I have a sister. She’s probably tearing the world apart trying to find me.”

“Why are younger sisters always so feisty?”

Her comment cracked me up, and for a moment, the weight on my chest felt lighter.

“Your sister,” I asked after a while, “she’s trained to be an assassin?”

Willow nodded, pride lighting up her face. “The best there is in the group. She’s in a league of her own.”

“I hope she’s okay.”

Willow’s expression softened. “If she’s not, it’s because she’s using every resource she has to find me.”

“Is it wrong that I hope neither of them comes anywhere near this place?” I muttered, tapping my head lightly against the wall.

“No,” she said firmly. “But knowing her, she won’t stop.”

I nodded. My sister wouldn’t stop either.

“If the roles were reversed,” I said quietly, “we wouldn’t give up on them.”

“Never,” Willow agreed.

We lay down on the cold, hard ground, the chill numbing our wounds.

“I hope she gets here before it’s too late,” Willow whispered.

“Me too,” I said. “For both of us. For all of us.”

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