Page 47 of What Is Dark Within Me

“What is it?” she asked in a whisper.

“It’s nothing. I’m sorry. The battlefield made me a little emotional.”

“You can tell me,” she said. “We’re friends.”

It was a strange thing to admit. Aside from Violet, Aleja hadn’t had many people to speak those words to in a long time.

“I know,” he told her. His voice was brighter now that they were back at the edge of the forest. “I wanted to say thank you. We didn’t know each other back then, but it meant something to me that Our Lady of Wrath would accompany me to that place. I was just a foot soldier. I had little say in my fate, back then.”

“Liam, I’m not—I’m not her anymore. I can’t remember.”

“Be glad for it. Both you and the Knowing One had to make choices to end the war that… well, it’s not my place to say. Like I mentioned, I was just a foot soldier and the Dark Saints that disagreed with his choices left this place ages ago.”

She paused, watching him amble forward on the trail. “Choices like what?”

“He hasn’t told you?”

“I know he was supposed to be punished, but he won’t say for what.”

The faint red glow of the moonlight illuminated Liam’s profile. “I wasn’t in those war rooms. I didn’t know what the Astraelis’s plans were, what intelligence you had. Every war contains thousands upon thousands of stories. I can only tell my own, and I too would have done anything to save those I cared for. The important thing is that the war ended, and we survived. Come on. I’ll walk you to the edge of the grounds.”

She didn’t push, even if she was curious and knew in her heart that Liam would give her the answers she wanted, when Bonnie and Nicolas wouldn’t. But it was the sorrow on his face, visible even on the shadowed game trail, that stopped her.

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “About your friends. About everything.”

“None of it wasyourfault,” he said.

Aleja almost answered, almost pushed for him to clarify, but by the time she found the courage they were close to the edge of the gardens and Liam squeezed her hand before turning back to the woods. “Thank you again,” he said. “I haven’t had the courage to visit that place in decades. See you soon, firebird.”

* * *

The following morning,there was a note slipped under her door when she woke up. The sky behind the curtains was still in its perpetual shades of sunset, streaming in through the window in beams of red and gold.

Meet me in the garden. We have a lead. —N

Instead of his usual lapel pin, Nicolas wore a small silver brooch in the shape of a snake’s skull. Aleja wanted to ask what the hell all that was about—why he seemed intent on playing up the fact that the good portion of the world saw him as evil incarnate—but she decided not to break the rule she had made for herself this morning after waking from a dream where his head had been buried between her thighs. She was not going to speak with him about anything except what was necessary.

You’re going to break that rule in about two seconds, said the voice.

The voice was wrong. It took six.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

“Keeping my distance. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

A woman with gardening shears acknowledged them with a nod, then tottered toward the rose bushes, as if she wanted to be nowhere near when Aleja exploded in flames again.

“Did Garm find something?” she said, as Nicolas led her into the palace and veered left, toward a set of stairs she swore hadn’t been there before. Paintings and small sculptures dotted the hall, all of which had the same theme: satyrs and nymphs chasing each other through meadows and ponds full of water lilies. Their pastel pink and blue tones were at odds with the bloody red palette of the floors below.

“Yes. He’s found our mysterious doctor. We’ll leave shortly, but I’d like to meet with Amicia first. Only three Dark Saints remain in the Hiding Place, and she arrived from her palace this morning. When she comes to visit, she stays in her own wing along with her devotees. Our bargain should protect you, but signal to me if her influence becomes overwhelming. She doesn’t like to suppress her power unless necessary,” Nicolas said. He gestured toward another wide stairwell.

“Geez. She sounds scary,” Aleja said, wishing she could examine a swooping chandelier made of dark pink crystal and glass that seemed to defy physics.

“It’s the opposite,” Nicolas said with a smile. “Amicia comes on a little strong, but she means well. Just try not to touch her. Maybe don’t hold eye contact for too long.”

While the galleries in the eastern half of the palace were usually empty aside from the occasional cat, here, Aleja heard voices murmuring behind closed doors. She had counted around ten unique individuals avoiding her in the gardens, but perhaps most of the Hiding Place’s residents lived in the settlements in the hills.

“Be glad her devotees are keeping the doors closed today,” Nicolas murmured, in response to a question Aleja hadn’t asked.

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