Page 90 of Vicious Princess
Why didn’t you save us? Why did you let us die?
I clutch my ears. It doesn’t help. They’re inside my head, louder than the dark.
I close my eyes. As if that makes a difference.
The red haze. The sickly smell of charred wood and flesh.
I scream until my throat shreds. Until my voice is gone and all that’s left is breathless rage.
Darkness swallows me whole.
I’m the daughter of no one.
A ghost in a foreign land that wants nothing to do with me.
You chose this, I tell myself.You came here.
Not for glory. Not for honor.
Vengeance.
The silence presses closer. The pressure is too much. There’s not enough oxygen in my lungs.
I curl against the wall, bones digging into stone, eyes wide in the black.
Ezkai Gavriel thinks this will break me.
But you can’t break what’s already broken.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Three days.
For three fucking days, Ezkai Gavriel keeps me and Kata inside the solitary confinement.
Three days of fasting, not speaking with a single soul, sleeping curled up on the hard stone floor and pissing in the copper chamber pot with no dignity.
When the door to my cell opens and Ezkai Gavriel’s shape appears in the doorway, I’m so relieved, I’m almost tempted to kiss his feet.
My only consolation is that Kata looks just as rough as I feel as we follow the instructor back to the academy. Though I suspect Kata hates me even more after this.
So much for trying to get her on my side…
Nobody—not even Roman—asks any questions or offers snide remarks when we return to the barracks. I head to the shower first thing to scrub the dirt and the dread off me before heading to breakfast.
Food has never tasted as good as it does this morning.
I keep my head down for the rest of the day, going to the emotional-manipulation lecture and focusing all my attention on mastering my skill.
When the end of the day finally comes, all I want to do is curl up under the blanket in my bunk and sleep until the end of time.
But the moment I climb onto my bed, a rolled-up parchment draws my attention. Slowly, I break the wax seal and unwrap the note. It’s a permission slip to visit the city with a note from Daegel to meet him for training.
Training is the last thing I want to do right now. But stretching my muscles and blowing off some steam might be exactly what I need. Also, the craving to be close to Daegel, to feel his presence next to me, his hands on my flesh and lips on my skin is overwhelming.
So I strap my knives back into their places, toss my bow and the quiver over my shoulder, and head out.
The address Daegelgives me is a residential estate in Yursus.Hisresidential estate.
