Page 245 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
She had to pay for her betrayal, but not Priya. Not that little girl. This would never be her life, on her knees for a male who had groomed her to adore him. Being passed around to secure deals and punished for not being grateful for the life she’d been forced into.
His grip tightened in her hair as he thrust down her throat, and she winced, knowing he liked it when she hurt.
This would not be the life for Priya. She could hate her for it, but she would make sure she was never Valter’s.
This is stupid.
That was all she could think as she stood outside the wall in a sheer nightgown with a photograph she’d managed to find. It was Theon’s commencement photo with Luka and Axel. His formal commencement portrait was too harsh. His features and expression were a mirror of Valter, but this one was different. A spark of defiance lingered, and his smile was genuine. A few years before he went through his Staying, he looked a little younger.
She’d brought Caris extra food and clothing. A new book to read. Little things she could steal and hide until she could bringthem here. Nothing like the weapons Tessa had smuggled in to her, but the effort had to count for something, right?
With a surge of determination, she drew blood, smearing it across the secret panel. Desperate and all that, she supposed.
Caris was seated at the small table, eating her dinner and reading the book Eviana had brought her last time.
Progress.
“Caris,” Eviana greeted flatly, the same way she greeted her every time she came here.
The female slowly closed her book, leaning back in her chair. “This was an interesting choice,” she said, setting the book aside.
“Did you find anything of interest in it?” Eviana asked, staying by the entrance.
Caris’s smile was sharp and sarcastic. “I know my own history,” she replied. “I didn’t need a book to remind me what my life was supposed to look like.”
“It was the only one I could find.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Caris said. “I always knew you were clever, Eviana. Many times while we watched the children play, I told Pen that there was more to you than met the eye.”
“There is nothing more to me than what I am.”
“And what are you?”
Nothing.
It was the answer that came to her immediately, but she didn’t speak it, instead curling her fingers around the photograph.
Caris studied her, and Eviana did the same in return. It was hard not to see the resemblance. The emerald eyes and high cheekbones. The stubbornness and intelligence. And if those cuffs on her biceps were removed, she’d have the same darkness at her beck and call.
“You were there when Pen died?” Caris asked.
“What?” Eviana asked at the sudden question.
“You heard me.”
This was the most Caris had deigned to speak to her over her few visits. But it had taken her a while to warm up to Tessa too, so this had to mean she was getting somewhere.
Eviana lifted her chin. “He made me do it.”
“He never does his own dirty work,” she scoffed.
She wasn’t wrong about that.
“And they saw it? Like they did with me?” Caris pushed.
Eviana nodded. “Valter left the body for them.”
“Of course he did. She was truly dead. If he’d left mine, they would have known,” she said simply.
