Page 123 of Of Thieves and Shadows

But I’m tired of the way death lurks in the shadows like a specter in the night. If I’m going to meet mine, I will face it head on.

And I will not go without a fight.

CHAPTERSIXTY-FIVE

REMY

The waiting is excruciating.

Even as we use the time to make a plan, each minute that ticks by with Aika in the hands of that sadistic monster is an endless torture.

Not for the first time, I berate myself for every choice I have made that led us here. I should have said no. I should have killed him then.

If all of this was going to hell anyway, why didn’t I listen to my gut and keep her with me?

The need to go track them down and bring her back is a visceral, living thing, clawing at my insides and demanding to be released. But if we leave too soon, Madame will hurt them because of it. Maybe even kill them.

I don’t think she wants to end their lives, but it’s not a gamble I’m willing to make.

“We know she’s going to Delphine,” Einar says.

Knowis a strong word, but it is the most logical conclusion, between knowing that her base of operations is there and her comment about the family being reunited. And the only way to get to Delphine is by sea, so she must be heading to the docks.

The Jokithan King looks like he would rather be furiously pacing the room, but instead he cradles Khijhana’s head in his lap. She is resting, though her tail twitches anxiously like she knows Zaina is in danger, even in her sleep.

The caretakers gave the chalyx something to knock her out while they examined her. Her injuries are minor, and they confirmed what Einar and I suspected, that the blood didn’t belong to the giant cat.

It is the first solid bit of hope we’ve had, and it might be the only thing keeping either of us going.

“But if we go in with force, she’ll make them pay for it,” I respond.

We know this is a tactic she has never balked at using in the past. She might have a weakness for them, but it doesn’t preclude her penchant for pain.

Images of her dungeons come to mind. The torture devices, the drain in the floor.Does she have something similar on her ship?

As difficult as it is to think about, focusing on this, the one thing I might be able to salvage, the person I refuse to let Madame have, is better than focusing on everyone she has already taken from me.

At least Einar’s fury burns as deeply as mine does, and he is just as resolved to get his wife back.

I ignore the voice in my head that reminds me that he, too, knows what it is to be orphaned and crowned in a single blow.

Instead, I mentally calculate how long it would have taken Madame to reach the harbor and set sail, assuming she already had a ship prepared. Then we need her far enough away that she doesn’t see us follow.

“Half an hour more will give her time to get her ship out of the harbor,” I tell him. “The sea should be calmer now that spring is practically here. She wouldn’t risk it otherwise.”

Both of our gazes flit to the grandfather clock. Each swing of the pendulum feels like an accusation, a reminder that we are sitting here doing nothing while they…

Einar’s voice breaks into my thoughts. “So once we leave, we either catch up and sneak onto the ship by stealth, or, worst case scenario…”

“Get to them on the Isle.” That’s unacceptable, given how long they would be in her clutches.

But it’s better than not getting them back at all.

We spend the next twenty minutes mobilizing everyone we can trust. It’s a short list without Einar’s guards. Neither of us mentions them, though. We’ve already sent men to find them and retrieve my father’s…body.

It’s all we can do right now.

We gather what we might need that won’t already be stocked on the boats, and Einar outfits himself with nearly as many weapons as Aika carries.

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