My breath catches in my chest. I ball my fists, pasting myself against the wall as a bout of terror slithers along my bones.
"And what do we do about the girl?" Hera croons. I can practically hear the sneer stretching across her face.
Theseus lets out a low chuckle. "She has betrayed her people. Their blood is on her hands. They will take care of her."
I shiver, but an ember of fury catches alight within me. Lies. Lies. Trembling, I spin around and march down another hallway, making my way down several flights of stairs until I, finally, arrive on the ground floor, and burst into the whipping wind and shadow of the night.
I wave down a wagon taxi and headed across the river to the Convex Sector. As soon as I step out of the wagon, thank the driver with some coins, and pet his mare goodbye, the silence of the Convex Sector at night curls around me. Accompanied by only the cool, singing wind as it scrapes past my ears, I navigate my way through the cobblestone streets. There is not another soul. Darkness fills grimy apartment windows. There is the odd candle flickering in someone's window. But only working as a nightlight for small children. I pass a series of stables. Even the horses are still. No shuffling. No snorting. Only the light snore of the beasts sleeping on piles of hay in their stalls.
My boots click on the cobblestones, echoing in all directions. Darkness spreads across the sky like spilled paint, thick and inky. The moon still climbs toward its apex in the sky. It's hardly approaching midnight. But people in the Convex Sector have long since been ingrained with the habit of closing themselves in for the night well before the last streaks of sunlight bruise the sky.
Finally, I am near the farmland in the east. Stretches of apple groves nestled into banks of rich soil. Potato roots sprouting. Onions in carefully arranged rows reach the distant fence line. Bleating sheep and grazing cows beneath the moonlight. Agriculture built for everyone in the kingdom. Such a far cry from the clear divide in the crops. That putrid stench of rotting, infected potatoes that blew across the Convex Sector has forever scarred my mind.
I weave through the blocks of farmhouses and barns. The musky scent of fresh hay and animal waste tinges the air as I slip into the sheep farmer's barn. A smile works its way onto my face as whispers float down from the loft above the pen of sleeping pregnant sheep.
The wooden ladder creaks as I climb, and the voices cut off.
"Elle?" Ajax whispers.
"It's me," I say, hauling myself to the top, flopping onto the floorboards.
Aston and Ajax perch on their makeshift beds made of hay shoved into flattened piles. There's a blanket draped over each pile, and a third carpeting a patch on the floor. An orange glow putters and coughs from the lantern placed on the corner. Both of my friends grip their flasks.
I shuffle to the blanket on the floor and sit cross-legged.
"Need a sip?" Aston asks, offering me his flask.
"Please." I snatch the flask and take a couple of healthy gulps.
As the alcohol warms the back of my throat, a giggle bubbles in my chest. I burst out laughing, clamping a hand over my mouth as the manic cackles spill out and Ajax and Aston panic over the noise.
"Are you okay?" Aston says, arching a brow.
"Tell me the joke!" Ajax demands, crossing his arms.
The laughter fuels a strange, quivering pressure in my chest. Tears spill from my eyes and the laughs turn to sobs.
"He's gone," I say, my voice ridden with tremors. "Ruben is gone. And the Red Movement wants to destroy him and Edward."
Ajax groans, pinching his brow. "I knew they were no good. Selfish, scaly bastards."
YOU ARE READING
After the Walls
Fantasy[Book 3 of the Within the Walls Trilogy] Who is Elle Fallon? Is she a selfless hero? Or is she a girl driven to madness trying to protect the ones she loves? Months have passed since the battle beyond the walls and rumour has it she has chosen to...
