After the Walls

Chapter 34

Blood splatters on the marble floor and my face. Hera's mouth gapes and her eyes widen, filling with fire and ice hewn from a glacier. Screams douse the room and my ears ring as I stagger back, the blade clattering at my feet.

Hera clutches her throat, gagging and coughing. "Elle," she splutters, before her body twitches and she goes still. Silent.

But the screams do not. Throngs of people swell towards the walls, shoving and pushing, trying to get as far away as possible from the fiery-haired monster who killed a siren. Temporarily, at least.

"Everyone, out!" Edward bellows, throwing his finger to the arched entrance. His voice drips with authority. The kind his father used to wield.

Squeaks and cries pepper the frenzy. Guests throw themselves out of the room, while I stand over Hera's paling body. Someone grabs my arm. Ajax. He tugs me out of the room as Theseus wails, clutching his stomach, his face twisted, eyes feral.

"She'll be back soon," Ajax barks in my ear. "We need to move, Elle."

"I'll take her." Ruben swoops in, grabbing my shoulder as people stream past. "Can you help take Hera to the prison, Ajax?"

Ajax quirks his brow, casting a glimmering, knowing glance between Ruben and me. The copper taste of blood seeps onto my tongue as I trail after Ruben, out of the ballroom and into the hall.

"I've been giving the Red Movement and the sirens my blood," I say, the words spilling from me as we enter my room, closing the door behind us.

Ruben stops in his tracks. "You've been breaking the treaty."

My mouth goes dry as I stand behind him in the doorway, curling my fingers, the nail digging into my palms. "My blood and the shadowteeth blood create a concoction when mixed that can reverse the effects of the brainwashing. Except, it made you sick."

I march ahead, grabbing the window ledge, peering out at the sea of guests flocking out of the palace gates, leaving the ball that I disgraced. A breath of a laugh falls from my lips. "I've been... sneaking my blood into the Red Movements stash of shadowteeth blood."

"So, that's why Theseus looks like a corpse."

"It's poison." The words are finite. "Doses too small to notice right away that gradually built up over time."

"Why?" Ruben's voice is both distant and cold.

I whirl around, heat bursting into my cheeks. "Because they were planning to kill you and Edward." The wind seeps through the crack in the window, holding back the darkness and desperation that rises to greet me. "I cannot... I cannot let anyone I love get hurt. I will do anything to protect you. Aston and Ajax, too. You are all I have left."

His eyes water, tinted red. "Do you... love him?"

"Yes. No." I curse as I grab fistfuls of my hair and rub my temples. "I don't know. He... sort of crept up on me."

His sniffs, nodding, pressing his tongue into his cheek. "I... me too. He crept up on me, too."

Ruben runs a hand through his dark hair, and I drink him in, studying that sharp jawline, those forest eyes that I fell for slowly, slowly, slowly, and then all at once. Those eyes; they carry more anger and grief than a thousand armies. Betrayed by his father over and over. Moulded to be his successor.

It seems I would know the man threaded by shadows if I were blind. I'd recognise him in another body, another life. I'd find him and love in another time. And yet, his brother prowls through my mind. Like a forbidden laugh.

I release a curse and stalk into the bathroom, washing the blood specks from my face.

"We didn't get a dance together," he murmurs, taking a step towards me when I walk back into the room.