Page 222 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“If you want to help me, then tell me how I get out of here.”

“You already know how… because you left the Fortress that way, along with Caryan and the others,” he answers, and now I understand. He can’t tell me directly even if he wants to. Because something has changed between Caryan and him. Caryanforbadeit.

We stare at each other.

“Don’t dare try to stop me,” I warn.

“I wouldn’t, and you know it.” He covers his eyes with a long-fingered hand before he whispers, “Maybe you should just cut my throat after all.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” I snap.

He reaches out to me again, the traces of silver in his face catching the low light as he pulls me toward him, despite the threat of the sword. Then he kisses me, hard yet gentle, careful not to touch any of my bruises.

He pulls back too quickly, breathless, his eyes roving over every inch of me. “Did Caryan…?”

I timidly shake my head.

“But your skin, those bruises…” he replies, his eyes gleaming with rage.

“He didn’t rape me,” I answer truthfully. “He… forced his magic into me and gave me these runes.”

“Melody—”

“I have to leave.” I pull back and head for the door.

I say, “Please… be careful,” before, with a last glance at him, I slip out of the room.

My heart breaks, and I know the bravest thing I ever did is run.

71

Blair

Blair stares at the wall, sitting in the exact same spot since Melody left.

Food. The girl brought her food. An act of kindness. Wasted on her. It doesn’t matter whether Blair will starve to death down here while she’s waiting for her execution, but that her belly no longer aches from hunger feels good, she can’t deny that.

She licks her teeth, ignoring the cold of the unforgiving stone seeping through her torn clothes and into her bones. She can feel Caryan, even down here. He is ineverythingaround her. It’s his magic that built the Fortress, his magic that still writhes and hisses through the stone. Being so close to it—it’s torment enough for a lifetime. Oh, how much Blair would like to think he keeps her because Caryan still cares on some level. But it’s a lie. The only reason she’s still breathing is that Melody wrought a promise from him.

Not that this means anything. Melody doesn’t yet know enough of their rules. Or maybe she had just been too weak by then, on that mountain.

But Blair knows Caryan will keep her only until things have cooled down a bit. Until the girl has forgotten about her. And then, sooner or later, one of his lapdogs will come down here to snap her neck. Caryan’s in no rush. He will wait. It could be weeks from now, or months. He is patient and it’s not like Blair can do any harm.

Or maybe… maybe he would just let her starve to death. Not that it matters, how she dies.

Blair’s mind drifts back to her mothers. They will be alright. Theymustbe. She slices off the thought, and pushes back the ugly fear that threatens to grab her by the throat.

No, she won’t allow it.

She wrenches her thoughts back to the present, and they snare on Melody again. That weird half-humanthing. Caryan’s latest pet. She reeked of desperation when she came down here before. She smelled of salt, too, which told Blair that she’d been crying.

She came to ask about her mother, so Caryan, the cruel bastard, has told her shit. Of course. Had he told heranything?

Blair snorts, leaning her head back against the cold stone, her white hair falling around her body, bereft of pigments, as if magic had made her hair shine. Now, gone, she’s half a corpse.

A moonmaiden. A kind thing to say. Blair hates it, the girl’s kindness. It makes her want to be kind back. But kindness is weakness, and if she got weak, she would break for good.Do you think Caryan is bad?That’s what Melody also asked her.I think he is dangerous.

Funny how that little creature had more sense than Blair ever had. It doesn’t make Blair like her more. No, not at all.

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