Page 131 of A City of Flames

Rotting flesh clogs the entire dungeons and I suppress the urge not to gag.

I have no sheath, no blade, nothing to help me either way. My palm is red-raw as I hit the wall again and drop my forehead against it. The coldness of it eases my burning mind and body.

Huffing, I tip my head back and start whispering a lullaby my father would sing to me to fall asleep. “Oh sun, oh sun, I wait for thee, basking in the twilight until your dawn. Oh sun, oh sun, how I wish to be blinded by you and mourn when you no longer shine—” I trace the sun and moon on the ground beside me “—oh moon, oh moon, I wait for thee, scorching down on those who shame us. Oh moon, oh moon, how I wish to share the skies with you, and emerge in love and bliss—”

“You were the last person I expected to see down here.”

My fingers pause among the dust and I lift my head at the beaten down and weak voice.

Adriel.

A wall separates us and I can’t see him but when I’d first come down here, he was still unconscious. I turn my head to the side as if he can hear me better and breathe out, “you’re awake.”

His laugh sounds like a crackling fire hearth. “Since the moment you thought breaking down the walls would do something.”

My lips pull into a pout, and I puff out some air, staring at what I’m surrounded by. It’s futile for me to think I can escape. Luck rained on me when it came to getting Darius out, but I already had one opportunity to leave with him and I didn’t.

Now I have to deal with it.

Adriel takes in my silence and a scraping sound, followed by grunts like he’s lifting himself up against the wall echo out into the void. “It looks like you’re still her favorite if your only punishment is the dungeons.”

I’m not sure what would be worse anymore.

“Maybe she’s just intrigued by me,” I mutter under my breath, raising my brows in sarcasm. When he chuckles again, I inhale sharply, if only I could have prevented all of this.

Adriel’s laugh fades into a wheezing cough before his next words come out hesitantly. “Did you… did you figure out it was Lorcan who bit me?”

Something sharp shatters through my heart. “I didn’t want to believe it was him,” I whisper, looking toward the floor. I wish it was all a lie.

“Neither did I,” Adriel says. “Then it became clear why he’d done it.”

I perk up with sudden attention. Despite Adriel being unable to see me, I frown, twisting my head over my shoulder and facing the brick wall. “Had the general not told him to do it?”

It’s what I assumed. He’d killed my father at the general’s command, a disturbing way for him to owe Erion.

“Why do you think the day after Oran and I grabbed you outside in the gardens, we were attacked? Your scent must have been on us.”

The same night I first met Darius. While I’d fought him, Lorcan had attacked Adriel and Oran. He’d slowed down before we all left for the city and tensed as soon as he’d passed them. I shake my head. “But Oran—”

“Didn’t make it,” Adriel whispers, and the moment venators had dragged them both back gnaws at me with every ounce of guilt. “I suppose it serves me right, we were horrible to you and for what?” He sucks air through his teeth, I imagine he’s wincing. “Jealousy?”

“I forgave you,” I say, and even with the sound of wails from other prisoners, it’s silent.

“You shouldn’t have,” he says when I no longer think he’d respond to me.

Words tangle in my throat. I want to tell him that though Oran didn’t get a chance to live, everyone down here still does, Adriel does. I’d given the keys to Freya but more venators than usual were patrolling this time, it wouldn’t be easy. None of it ever is.

I shift to the side and exhale in despair when footsteps echo from the stairs. Someone hangs a fire torch on the wall and when the flames filter through to the person’s face I see Lorcan. He looks at Adriel’s cell then mine before he heads my way.

Scrambling off the floor, I rub the side of my arm and stare at him as he takes the remaining steps. If it wasn’t for the bars, I’d lunge at him.

With a cautious glint in his eyes, he lifts a slice of brown bread and passes it through the slit. “I brought you food,” he says. “I thought you might be starving.”

Normally yes, but the events of the past few days have made me forget food altogether.

My face stays impassive as I grab it off him. He watches as I take a bite, not bothering to swallow and spit it back out at him. It hits the side of his cheek and his jaw locks as he brushes the crumbs off. Childishly I then throw the other piece at him, this time it knocks from his chest to the floor and he sighs, his lips pulling into a grimace.

“Nara, this is the last thing I wanted.”

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