Page 133 of This Monster of Mine

I’m being foolish.He wasn’t involved. She only had to ask. Perhaps she’d do it when he returned—Sarai jumped when Gaius burst into the room.

“Petitor Cisuré to see you.” Looking uneasy, he indicated the figure wringing her hands behind him.

Sarai set aside her the scroll. “I’ll see her.”

She indicated a chair as Cisuré shuffled in, eyes red rimmed and swollen.

“Please,” the other girl whispered. “Just hear me out first.”

“Sit.” Sarai massaged her temples. “You look exhausted.”

Cisuré eyed the chair but made no move toward it. “You were right,” she blurted out. “About Aelius, the scuta,all of it.” Her face crumpled.

Pity swelled in her. “I know he means a great deal to you—”

“No, there’s—” Cisuré’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Sarai, they have Anek.”

The lazy warmth of the past few hours shattered. Sarai bolted upright. “What do you mean?”

“The Metals Guild has a bounty on Anek, and … I—I noticed it kept defending you so I mentioned it to Tetrarch Aelius, and now, Anek’s gone! Cassandane’s frantic! Her vigiles are here now to ask for help.”

The floor-to-ceiling window on one side of Kadra’s office revealed a group of crimson-robed vigiles speaking to Gaius.

Sarai slumped against the desk. “Damn it, Cisuré.”

“Please, you have to help me.” Cisuré wiped her eyes. “I have to set this right! I can’t do this alone!”

“I will. I promise. Do you know where they took Anek?”

“I think so.” More tears leaked past Cisuré’s fingers. “Will you come with me?”

Sarai hesitated, glancing at Kadra’s empty chair.

Catching her glance, Cisuré shook her head. “We don’t have time! It’s already been hours since they went missing. Gods, I don’t even know if they’re dead!”

She swallowed. If another Petitor died after everything she and Kadra had tried to do, then everything had been for nothing. Making her decision, she rummaged about Kadra’s desk for a bit of parchment.

“I’ll come. Where are we headed?”

“Anek was in Edessa, then they just vanished. There’s a path I just learned about that leads into the Academiae from Edessa. Bypasses the vigiles and Tower Gates. I think that’s what Aelius might have used to abduct them and bring them back to Sidran Tower.”

Sarai paused in the process of leaving Kadra a note, black ink forming a drop at the tip of her pen.

“We’re going to Sidran Tower?” she asked hoarsely.

“Will you be alright?”

She set her jaw even as her fingers shook worse than ever. “I have to be.” She wouldn’t let Anek die.

Finishing the note to Kadra, she followed Cisuré out of the station and saddled Caelum, Cisuré mounting her own dapple-gray mare. Resolve mingled with fear in her chest as she turned toward the Academiae.

“Lead the way.”

Night reigned supreme over Edessa, clouds veiling the moons as Sarai wound through the narrow streets behind Cisuré. A few raedae clattered mournfully about them, coachmen half-asleep while the horses plodded on.

She followed Cisuré down a ribbon-thin dirt road until they turned into an alley, barely wide enough for them to stand side by side. A silver ring was set into one of the paving stones, practically undetectable.

Cisuré pulled and the stone rose, part of a trapdoor set into the alley. Steps yawned before them, leading into a pitch-black passage. Sarai swallowed, breath flaring out in a pale cloud.

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