Page 69 of No Greater Sorrow

The sword was unwieldy in Aleja’s hand. She wondered if any of her old fencing training would kick in if she were forced to use it. “Why are you finally being nice to me?” she grumbled.

“Honestly? It was pathetic seeing you writhe around in that medic’s tent, and yet, you’re like a sopping wet kitten I can’t help but take care of. Be careful, Aleja. The last Trial is always the worst. We can have a proper row when you’re a Dark Saint.”

“Fucking great.”

“Just survive it and we can pretend this never happened, okay?” Orla’s brilliant hair reflected the dawn light—red on red.

Garm nudged her side. “We should go.”

Taddeas and Bonnie looked too stricken to speak, but they pulled Aleja into a tight hug. Aleja’s body was so bruised that it hurt, but Taddeas looked worse off than her. His left eye was swollen, and the pale scar that cut across his brow had warped into the shape of a wave.

When he opened his mouth, she knew he was going to apologize for whatever had happened while they were away. “Don’t,” she blurted out. “Nothing was your fault. When I come back from the Trial, we’ll figure out a way to pay them back.”

“Okay,” he said, so low and quiet, as if the shyness that used to plague him in her presence had returned.

Aleja let herself be led away by Bonnie next. “I have to tell you something,” she said, leaning in close. “Violet and I, we…”

“What?Oh,” Aleja said. Dammit. She should have seen this coming a mile away. Violet always did have a weakness for a woman who could cook. “She didn’t tell me.”

Another thorn shoved into her heart. She was so used to them that the sensation was almost comforting.

“Please don’t blame her. I asked Violet to keep it quiet. There was so much going on, with the Astraelis and the Trials. I didn’t want it to become another distraction.” Bonnie sighed. Even her curls seemed to deflate, falling limp around her face. “I know no one will believe me, but I swear, Violet wouldn’t betray us of her own accord. If she went with the Messenger, then there is something else going on. Something she didn’t think she could tell us.”

Violet is a good actress, Aleja wanted to scream. Violet used to smile convincingly for pictures while her body was beset by cancer. They’d known each other for years, and yet Violet had still managed to hide the fact that she’d drunk water from an Unholy Well in an attempt to cure herself of the illness she wasalsoconcealing.

Aleja kept her mouth shut. Bonnie, for the first time since Aleja had known her, looked as vulnerable as Aleja had felt when she first saw the tattoo spreading across Nicolas’s chest.

“Maybe she’ll come back,” Aleja said. The words were bitter in her mouth; a lie that was understood to be a lie by everyone listening, but no one called out because acknowledging the truth was more painful than accepting the falsehood.

But after a moment, Bonnie’s eyes hardened. “Stop it. I’m old, Al—the oldest among the Dark Saints. The years of my life can be measured in the thousands. I don’t want sympathy, and I don’t want kind lies. I just want to you make me a single promise. You donotlet Violet die, no matter what you find out. Even if it’s all true, even if she betrayed us, you bring Violet back as a prisoner of war. But you don’t let her die.”

“I’ll try.”

“That’s not good enough. I need you to swear to me.”

“Bonnie, I?—”

“Swear it.”

“Fuck, okay. I swear.”

“Good. I have your word as a Dark Saint, then?”

Aleja knew this meant something important. Something with a magic of its own. “Yes. You have my word.”

* * *

As she walkedalongside Garm to the field where the Avisai grazed, Aleja ran through the most likely scenarios for the Trial in her head. If the previous one required her and Violet to betray each other, then perhaps the last would force them to cooperate despite the anger simmering between them.

But Nicolas looked as though he could barely stand on his own as she approached the field. He leaned against one of the great black dragons, using the shadowy reins to keep himself upright. The rich olive tone of his skin had been bleached away. That streak of gray in his hair growing from his left temple was more prominent than ever.

“Nic,” she gasped, rushing to his side. “Youcan’tcome with me. How can you possibly fly like this?”

“I’ll be fine,” he said. At least, his voice was still firm.

“Will you?” Aleja snarled. She wasn’t mad at him anymore. She was just fucking terrified. “What if…” She thought desperately. “I’ll seduce someone. I’ll make them fall in love with me, and they can give me some metaphorical heart. Or I’ll rip the real one out of them if I have to.”

Nicolas’s smile was soft, genuine. It made Aleja feel like she was being cleaved down the middle, and no number of stitches would ever be able to put her back together again.

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