Page 65 of Only Cold Depths
The humor snuffed out of Siya’s eyes, and her smile vanished. “No. But Asterin has something far more valuable.”
“What?”
“Freedom,” Siya replied in a soft voice. “You’re the head of a House. You know what an enormous responsibility it is to have so many people depending on you.”
Uncomfortable memories floated through my mind, and the hot chocolate soured in my stomach. After my mother had died and my father had drowned in his grief and brandy, it had fallen to me to try to keep House Caldaren afloat, even though I was only thirteen at the time. I’d tried my best, but it hadn’t been enough—Ihadn’t been enough.
Understanding flickered through me, along with a surprising amount of sympathy. The weight of others’ expectations was yoked to Siya’s shoulders just as it had been yoked to mine, and it was a hard, heavy burden to bear, no matter how great—or not—your House was.
“Asterin can cavort around the galaxy chasing ghosts all she wants,” Siya said, envy creeping into her voice. “But I am bound to House Collier, and it is bound to me. Everything I do is supposed to serve, protect, and advance my House. Sometimes I think there is only my House and nothing else, nothing left ofme.” Her voice sharpened on the last few words.
“Is that why you dislike Asterin so much? Because she can do as she pleases?”
“Asterin is . . . challenging,” Siya replied, sidestepping my questions. “We were best friends—until her father died. My mother had passed away the year before, so I knew how much Asterin was hurting. I was hurting too, since my uncle Irzin was also killed in the mine explosion. For a time, Asterin and I grew closer. Verona even started working for House Collier as my father’s chief of staff to try to pay down the massive debts relating to the lawsuits against House Armas.”
“And then?”
“And then the truebond started forming between my father and her mother.” Siya’s mouth puckered as though she’d tasted something rotten. “Suddenly, Asterin and I were stepsisters and supposed to exist in the same space, to just accept what was happening, even though both of us were still mourning our relatives. We’ve never been able to get past it. Especially Asterin. She can’t let go of her father’s accident, and she’ll never stop trying to prove Urston wasn’t at fault.”
Chasing ghosts.Siya’s earlier words whispered through my mind. I knew what that was like all too well. After my parents had died, I’d spent countless hours wondering if I could have done something to save them. If I could have found a way to stop Holloway from taking too much of my mother’s psion power or said the right words to rouse my father out of his grief and convince him just how much I needed him. Chasing those ghosts had brought me nothing but misery, and they still haunted me.
Siya fell silent. Whatever else she knew about Asterin’s father, she wasn’t going to share it. Perhaps Siya cared more about Asterin than she realized—or wanted to admit.
I had started to ask Siya another question when an odd emotion crashed over me—a strong, strange mix of anticipation and dread that slammed into my chest like a pair of spears. The emotion faded away as quickly as it had appeared, but my own unease roared up in response.
Something was wrong.
I spun away from Siya and scanned the crowd. Whose emotion was that? Were Esmina and Pollux here?
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a glimmer of light. I couldn’t tell if it was from the bulbs above or the telltale flare of Vesper’s seer power, but I turned in that direction. My gaze landed on two people standing about fifty feet away—a man and a woman scanning the crowd just as I was.
No. That couldn’t be right. They shouldn’t be here. Had Siya poisoned me after all? Was I hallucinating?
“Kyrion?” Siya frowned. “What’s wrong? What are you looking at?”
I blinked, wondering if I had just imagined the man and woman. The crowd parted, giving me an even better look at the pair, and the sight of their faces made my blood run cold.
Vesper was in danger.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
VESPER
AsterinandIwentover to the refreshments tables, and she handed me a mug filled with a dark brown liquid topped with a thick white layer. The beverage started out as a cold cream coating my tongue, but then it rapidly heated up and morphed into a delectable hot chocolate that warmed me from the inside out.
I hummed with pleasure. “This is amazing!”
Asterin clinked her mug against mine. “Frozon hot chocolate has always been my favorite.” A shadow passed over her face. “It was my father’s favorite too.”
Before I could offer my sympathies, a woman came up and engaged Asterin in conversation. Neither one of them was paying attention to me, so I drifted away. Asterin had other duties besides chaperoning me, and I didn’t want to ruin her chances of landing a husband . . . or whatever the Colliers were hoping to accomplish with the marriage mart.
I finished my hot chocolate, then wound my way through the crowd, smiling and nodding at everyone I passed. At first, people frowned, wondering where they had seen me before. Then they did double takes, and then their mouths gaped in surprise as they finally realized who I was—Lady Vesper Quill, Imperium fugitive.
Whispers sprang up in my wake, and I did my best to listen to them all.
“She’s not nearly as pretty in person . . .”
“Wonder how long it will be before the Colliers ship her back to the Imperium . . .”
