Page 30 of A World of Ruins

I shake my head, wishing I could reach inside his mind and thrust it back to reality. A reality where he remembers me. ‘Yes, very much so.’

He stares at me. He is no longer wearing the jacket I first saw him in. It is just his shirt, unbuttoned and ripped.

‘All right.’ He suddenly rises to his feet and makes his way towards the bars. I don’t make any movement to step back, even as he closes in on me and leans against the cell wall. ‘Then what are you to me? Because I highly doubt I would be close with a mortal.’ He cocks his head to the side, a cunning smile twisting his lips as he studies me. ‘My uncle says humans are only useful for one thing: following orders.Youdon’t strike me as someone who follows orders.’

‘Not when they are set by your uncle.’

He chuckles. ‘You hate him.’

‘As do you.’ My heart crashes against my ribcage as I watch him tilt his head and smile at me like I am something of an oddity to him. An anomaly in this world.

‘What is your name?’

I want to scream.

Just hearing him ask me that feels like a punch to the gut. ‘You already know what my name is.’

‘I don’t think I do.’

‘Darius, I . . . We were—’ The unfinished words bottle up inside my throat before I sigh out of frustration. I turn my backto him and run a hand through my hair as I try to get a grip on myself. ‘Do you remember the first time we met?’ I slowly twist around upon his silence. It’s difficult enough having to look at him, but it’s worse knowing that whenhelooks at me, all he sees is a stranger. ‘We were children,’ I whisper, letting a tearful laugh escape me. ‘We played for hours, and then I gave you this coin.’ Gently, I reach for the coin necklace. His stare burns through it, yet there is no hint of reminders in his eyes. ‘It is also the first time you made me forget who you were in order to protect me.’

As I step forward, there is a severity in his eyes, and he pushes himself off the cell bars.

‘The second time we met,’ I say, ‘you were running away. We bumped into each other and dropped our carvings. The sun and the moon. Yours belonged to your mother, which she gave to you, and mine was one I’d made myself, because of how much I love to carve. Then, the third time we met was at a jewellery shop. You were stealing, and all I wanted to do was capture you. Do you rememberthat?’

He eyes me with a brutal look, one that digs into the pit of my chest. I let a second go by, wondering if it is my imagination, but I know better now that what I see is finally a faint recognition as his features soften, and he turns his head to the side, finding solace in staring at the brick walls instead.

Desperation clings to me like an unwelcome guest, and from my pocket I pull out the ring Gus gave to me. ‘This ring.’ I raise it to the side of my head. ‘This ringbelongsto you.’

His eyes dart to the obsidian-cut jewellery.

‘You handed it to Gus the night of your birthday. Noctura. The same night I helped you retrieve your mother’s pendant. It is made fromyourscales. A ring for a wedding.Ourwedding.’

I wait, holding my breath before his smile turns lethal.

‘Do you want to know what I remember?’ His grip tightens around the cell bars as he tilts his head to the side and scoffs in my direction. ‘You raiding the palace and then kidnapping me. So, to answer your question, no, I don’t remember you. You meannothingto me . . . You never will.’

The words sting to hear, and he knows it.

Embarrassment pricks the back of my eyes over how much of myself I have just laid out for him. Every moment we’ve shared is gone,vaporisedfrom his mind. The first moment we met, the dance we shared at the Noctura ball, the den, the Screaming Forests, Terranos . . .

To keep the tears from falling, I clench my teeth and raise my chin, holding Darius’s gaze for five more seconds until I finally turn and walk away.

Gus is still there where I left him, waiting with his hands tensely plucking at his ebony hair in anticipation of my return. When he sees me again, he sighs with relief. His mouth moves as though to speak, but I pay him little attention. I know he’s telling me we’ll figure it out, but my gaze drifts to the keys at his waist that I presume unlock Darius’s cell. I think back to another time when he told me I was all but an asset to him, that I meant nothing, and it had turned out to be a lie.

‘He’s lying,’ I whisper, and Gus snaps his mouth shut as I slowly drag my eyes up to him. ‘He’s lying.’

It all happens within a matter of seconds.

Me snatching the keys from Gus, and him yelling my name as I storm off in the direction of Darius’s cell.

‘Nara, don’t—’

I whirl and press my forearm against Gus’s chest. ‘Stay here,’ I order, and he looks as displeased as ever. ‘If I need your help, I will call for it.’

He gives me a look as though he thinks I am mad. I suppose I am. ‘He almost killed you once,’ he says, ‘Do you think he won’t try it again?’

It is a risk that I do not care about. I will happily tempt fate with Darius if it brings us a step closer to recovering his memories. ‘Two minutes,’ I say. ‘Just give me two more minutes.’

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