I walked across the greenhouse and stopped to look at one of the finished cloaks, black on the outside and a forest of color on the inside. A perfect lie.
Here you go, Patrei. Listen up.
I saw Kazi looking sideways at me. Her grin. Her pursed lips. The line of concentration between her brows. Her voice. It was all clear in my head.
I have two arms but not a bone,
I can’t be hurt with knife or stone.
I have a head but lack a face,
I don’t need eyes to match your pace.
I’m shifty, a thief, a trick of the eyes,
My robes are made of mystery and lies.
I am short, I am thin, I am monstrous and tall,
But when midnight comes, I am nothing at all.
A shadow.
A trick of the eyes.
And that’s what I would become.
What we would all become.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
KAZI
Montegue sat on the edge of the bed looking down at me.
“It wasn’t there,” he whispered.
It had been a few hours. I was already weak and shivering with fever. They had moved me to the bed, but my neck was still chained. They didn’t bother with tying my hands and feet. His healer was busy wrapping my wounds. There was one bite on my forearm, another on my thi
gh, the pain already unbearable. Banques, Zane, and Garvin stood near the door. They had just returned from the pavilion.
Every word I said was an effort, strained and shaky. “It’s dark,” I gasped. “I promise you it’s there. Unless one of them took it.”
Montegue brushed a strand of hair from my cheek and shook his head. “No one took it. Maybe when I return in a few hours, your tongue will become a little looser.”
* * *
I pulled at the shackle around my neck, my fingers desperately feeling the lock. Even if I had something to pick it with, my fingers shook uncontrollably, and then the cramping started. Every few minutes, a violent spasm doubled me over. The room spun, blurred, the floor bobbed. Your tongue will become looser.
It was my greatest fear. What if it did become looser? What if, as I lost a grip on reality, I said things? What if I answered his questions? Told him where Lydia and Nash were? Or where the other vault entrance was? What if I told him Jase was alive?
Practice, Kazi, practice what you will say, no matter how bad the pain becomes.
* * *
Hours passed. Days. Weeks. Forever. I screamed for them to come back.
My skin flamed. Burned.