Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“Everything you have worked for,” Valia growled back. “This is what you wanted. Not me.”
“What do you want then?”
“I want that quiet life,” Valia said, sadness finally creeping in. “We were going to run away. You have the money saved. All we had to do was leave, but you couldn’t do that. I couldn’t go without you.”
“There was nowhere far enough that we could go to escape the Father,” Isa snapped. “You know that. Plain and clear. He owns us.”
“No, Isa,” Valia said with a sigh. “He owns you.”
Isa slapped Valia across the face. It wasn’t a hard hit. Barely anything. They had both endured much worse at the assassins school where they had been trained. The slap was only enough to knock the words out of Valia’s mouth.
But Valia looked back at her as if she had shoved a knife through her chest. The look of utter betrayal pierced Isa’s heart. She staggered forward with an apology ready on her lips.
“Don’t,” Valia said, taking a step backward.
“V,” she whispered.
“There is a line between us, Isa.”
“No,” Isa said. The old saying striking her as easily as the slap had done to Valia. “You are my sister.”
“Then, run away with me,” Valia said. “Tonight.”
But Isa couldn’t do it. No matter what happened, no matter what he did or how he used her, Isa belonged to the Father. His vision had taken her this far. She would fall forward until it took her no further.
“I can’t,” Isa said.
Valia nodded once and then slipped into the shadows, disappearing from view.
Isa wanted to take it back. She wanted to plead with Valia. But neither of them was particularly good at debasing themselves. They never had been. Now, she had lost Valia forever. Her own sister.
She hoped Valia was smart enough to get out of the city tonight. She wouldn’t turn her into the Father. She loved Valia too much for that. But he would find out about the double cross. He always did. Isa didn’t want to imagine what he would do when he did find out. Because it was when … not if.
Finally, Isa straightened and stalked forward through the dungeons. There was no balm to a broken heart like spilling blood.
When she stepped into Arbor’s cell, the girl was asleep. The little traitor had already been tried and sentenced by the Father. The same fate that would be bestowed upon Valia if he found out. Except he wouldn’t be as merciful to send an assassin in the night.
“What?” Arbor gasped at the first footfall into her cell.
She looked up at Isa with wide, shocked eyes. The girl had truly believed that she would survive this. That the Society would protect her.
She had given up Red Masks’ secrets to get into their good graces. Unfortunately for her, the Society was already compromised from within. Red Masks walked freely in Draco Mountain. No reprieve would be given to her. In fact, she had signed her own death warrant with her filthy mouth.
Arbor opened her mouth to scream, and Isa swiftly slashed her knife across her throat. The knife cut through her skin like paper, severing the main arteries down to her vocal cords. A clean, professional cut that would leave no question as to what had happened to her.
Arbor gurgled on her own blood for a second. Her eyes were terrified and questioning. Her entire miserable life flashed in those irises before they rolled back into her head and she fell back dead.
Blood ran freely onto the ground. Isa reached forward and wiped her blade clean on Arbor’s filthy clothing. Then, she walked out of the cell, prepared to return the Collector to its rightful owner, and put Valia out of her head forever.
46
THE TRAP
“I don’t know what to do,” Kerrigan said, pacing back and forth in her room back in the mountain.
Fordham sat at her desk, twirling a charcoal pencil in his hand. He’d said little as she ranted about how everything had gone to shit.
“Ford, I don’t know what to do.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“I need to talk to Valia.”
“You don’t know where she is,” he reminded her gently. “And going after her would look suspicious.”
“Well, what do you think?” she demanded. “You’ve been awfully quiet. Is Valia on our side? Should I trust her?”
“I do not know,” he admitted. “I wish I had the answers to these questions. But I feel as if we should take her silence as a warning. If she is not on our side, then she is compromised.”
Kerrigan’s shoulders slumped at that. Valia had come to her, knowing the risks. It didn’t make it any easier to hear that she might have ruined everything.
“You’re right. I don’t want to implicate her, but it’s frustrating. We were so close. If we had moved before Isa arrived. If we had known …” She trailed off, unable to say what was on her mind. The horrible reality of Isa getting away with the Collector in hand. Her laughter still rang in Kerrigan’s ears.