Page 122 of House of Embers
A moment later, they clattered to the ground in the hallway in front of the greenhouse. During their year of training, she, Fordham, Audria, Roake, and Noda had taken a night off and headed to the greenhouses with a few bottles of faerie punch. One game of truth or dare—that the House of Shadows called challenge or consequence—later, and Kerrigan and Fordham had hooked up in the foliage. It was enough of a clue for Fordham to take them where she wanted him to go without the guards knowing what they were discussing.
As Isa had suggested earlier, the greenhouse exit was less guarded than before. There were only two guards present. One had fallen asleep with a bottle in the crook of his arm, the shield he was supposed to keep up already forgotten. The second guard yelped at the sight of them and backed away slowly.
“Uh…where’d you come from?” she asked.
“Just passing through.”
“You’re…you’reher,” the guard said.
Kerrigan smiled. “Always a good time to be recognized.”
The guard looked down at her sleeping—possibly drunk—guard mate and took another step back rather than forward. Smart girl.
“We’re just passing through,” Fordham growled.
The guard nodded. “I was at my spot the whole time and never saw anything.”
“That right?” he asked, stalking toward her.
Kerrigan grasped his arm. “Not terrifying right now. She’s letting us go, aren’t you?”
The guard nodded. “They…they killed my brother.” She glanced down the hall as if expecting someone to hear. “He was half-Fae. They drained his magic and then killed him in the streets. I…I wanted to give up my job then, but…”
“You should have,” Fordham said. “We can’t make a stand if we’re not all together.”
She bit her lip. “I understand. Good luck.”
Kerrigan took Fordham’s hand, and they exited into the greenhouses.
“How do you know she’s not going to turn us in?” Fordham asked.
“She’s not.”
“You thought that about Gerrond too.”
“Fuck Gerrond.” Kerrigan sighed heavily. “She might turn us in, but we’ll be long gone anyway.”
“How did you know to exit through the greenhouses?”
“Isa told me.”
Ford glanced into the darkness of the greenhouses as if waiting for the trap to fall. “It’s a trick.”
“I don’t trust her,” Kerrigan told him immediately. “Well, I don’t know.” She winced. “Maybe I do.”
“She has a collar on.”
“Yeah, and she wanted it on as much as you did.”
He cringed. “You couldn’t get it off?”
“She wouldn’t let me try.” Kerrigan bit her lip. “She asked me to kill her.”
“I wanted to die rather than have the collar on, but I had you to live for,” he said sympathetically. “If she has no family…”
“She told me that she’s Bastian’s daughter.”
Fordham glanced at her in alarm. “Like his real daughter?”
