Page 348 of Alchemised
She nodded. “Yes …” Her voice struggled and failed. “Yes, I promise.”
He studied her, eyes narrowed and calculating. “Those are your terms? The Bayard girl, and then you’ll do anything I ask?”
Her throat closed. “Yes. Anything you ask. I swear.”
He nodded slowly. “All right. If those are your terms, I’ll get her for you.”
Helena gave a shuddering gasp of relief. “Thank you.”
He just nodded, but he seemed distracted. She waited to hear how they’d do it, but he was silent, just studying her.
“What do you need me to do?” she finally asked.
Irritation instantly flashed across his face. “Stay here.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “But I could help. I can—”
“I don’t need help.”
When she opened her mouth to argue, he looked her up and down. “You’re too memorable. It’ll be easier for me to look for her alone. If you want me to get her out, stay here and let me work in peace without succumbing to your desperate need to insert yourself into everything I do.”
She tried to protest, and he raised a finger, pointing it at her face.
“If you leave this suite while I’m gone, if I have even the slightest inkling that you’re trying to help me in any way, I will come back and the deal will be off. Do you understand? Stay here.”
Her jaw tensed, throat tightening, but she nodded.
“There’s food in the cupboard. Keep the curtains closed. It shouldn’t take too long.”
“Where is this?” she asked, looking around.
He sighed. “This was the suite of the Hevgotian ambassador, who tragically died in a recent explosion.”
“The one you were—?”
He nodded and left without another word.
Helena waited. Kaine had recovered her satchel when he’d apprehended her, and she took inventory of her remaining supplies. She was out of most things beyond what she kept for Kaine. She went through it carefully, hoping he wouldn’t need any of it when he got back with Lila.
There was a good chance Lila would be injured. She wouldn’t let herself be taken without a fight. How would Kaine convince her to cooperate?
Helena stood and went to the door but refrained from touching it. Surely he had a plan.
She went back to inventorying. Kaine had put her knives back into the outer pocket.
She tried to keep herself busy, because if she stopped to think, her grief and guilt would crush her to death. Luc. It was all her fault. She could have saved him if she’d only noticed. Now she was leaving everyone behind, knowing what was likely to happen to them.
All her worst fears coming true and there was nothing she could do.
You can’t save everyone. You never could.
This was the only way.
Once Lila was safely away, if Kaine could slowly kill off the Undying, eventually the nightmare would end.
Time seemed to crawl past. Helena showered, washing away the blood and grime from the city. Luc’s blood. Sebastian’s blood.
She found clothes in the wardrobe. Hevgotian traditional clothing, which involved an unexpected number of tassels. In the cupboard was bread and very strong, hard cheese, which she forced herself to eat even though everything tasted like chalk in her mouth.
