Sebastian
Istopped dead on thestaircase. “She said what?”
“Called him a pompous, soft-bottomed schoolteacher.”
My brows shot up my forehead and disappeared into my hairline—as fast as I hoped Aella Galanis ran.
A low whistle cut through my lips. “She truly doesn’t know what that man can do. Does that make her brave or stupid?”
“It’s never wise to insult someone with that much power over your life.” Linus absentmindedly rubbed his side. “Although, I must say, I admire her all the same. Seven days in the reflection room. They dragged her out of there on the edge of death, and still she told that bastard exactly what she thought.”
“Yes, but did she tell him the truth?” I resumed my climb, enduring the stone walls brushing my shoulders as the staircase narrowed. “Do we believe this story of living as a lamia’s captive pet for eight years?”
“It’s so absurd it must be true.”
“Find out for certain.”
He snapped to his full six feet, seven inches. “Yes, my lord.”
“And the guard in the cell,” I mused. “I want every detail of what happened there.”
“Surely we know, my lord. She killed him with a power she doesn’t want revealed.”
“Not a power,” I said with surety. “Demigods glow with divinity. One drop of essence on their souls transforms them from the tips of their hair to their toenail clippings. It doesn’t hide itself, unlike whatever’s inside her. It’s a flicker out of the corner of your eye. It’s the black spots in your vision—there and not there. The wrongness of it almost forces me to look away.”
I paused near the top. “She is hiding it for a very good reason, but her secrets won’t be kept from me.”
“You may not want to know her secrets, my lord. When your instincts say to turn away, it’s because there’s a battle ahead you’re not prepared to fight. It might not be stupidity that gives the girl the confidence to face down a man like Drakos. One thing we do know is that people around her tend to die.”
Humming, I continued up to the top of the tower. A gust of air swept my hair back and whipped it against the wall. The slight sound made him jump.
“Easy,” I said. “Not a great place to get jumpy.”
“You’re telling me.” He laughed—a strange one where his teeth didn’t part. The chuckle simply hissed through them. “Didn’t know anyone came up here. I’m always alone.”
The guy sat atop the parapet, reclined within the gaps of the battlement. He was a year older than me and in his competent year, but youth clung to his round cheeks and floppy brown hair blowing in the wind.
“Is this the guy?” I asked.
“It’s him,” replied a younger, softer voice.
Nodding, I stepped into the light.
“This is a nice spot to think.” My gaze swept the wide expanse of soaring towers and swaying trees. “Quiet. Secluded. You could scream and the wind would steal it away before it reached anyone on the ground.”
“Uh, I guess.” He laughed that odd laugh again. “Never thought of it like that, but I do agree with the quiet and secluded part, so if you don’t mind...”
I smiled. “Not at all, Giles.”
“How do you—?”
I shoved him off.
Leaning against the merlon, I followed his screams and his fall the way down until both came to a sharp and sudden end.
“People die around her, do they?” I winked at Linus. “They say the same about me.”