My lips part. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, ever needed to hear. “I do love you,” I admit in a whisper.
“Glad you didn’t forget.” He leans in and brushes his lips over mine lightly, careful not to hurt me. “Let’s get out of here together.”
I nod.
“We have to move,” Garrick calls out.
“Clear the staircase!” Xaden orders. “And tell Bodhi to track down whatever antidote she and the rest of her squad need.”
“On it,” Garrick says.
“My squad?”
Xaden looks back at me. “They’re fine, but they were put under guard in the interrogation classroom after they tried to mount a rescue mission yesterday. Can you walk out of here?”
“I don’t know,” I answer truthfully. “I lost track of what’s broken and what Nolon mended. I know my left arm is fractured, plus at least three of my ribs on my right side. My hip feels like it’s not entirely where it’s supposed to be, either.”
“He’ll die for his part.” He pivots and walks us out of the cell, past Nora’s body and into a fucking bloodbath. There are at least half a dozen bodies between us and the stairwell. He makes quick work of sheathing all my daggers where they belong but doesn’t take the one I still have clutched in my hand.
Dain passes him supplies from a nearby locker, and Xaden splints my arm as quickly as possible. I bite down on my torn lip to keep from crying out, and he wraps my ribs over my armor.
“Xaden!” Garrick calls out from the stairwell. “We have a problem!”
“Fuck,” Xaden mutters, glancing between the swords leaned against the wall and me.
“I can carry her,” Dain offers.
Xaden shoots him a look that promises a slow, painful death. “I haven’t decided whether or not to let you live yet. You can bet your ass I’m not trusting you with her.”
“I can walk. I think.” But the second I try, the room tilts. And for the first time in my life, I feel weak. That’s what that monster did to me in this room. He took my strength.
“But he didn’t break you, Violet,” Liam says softly from the corner of the room, and my chest squeezes tight as he takes a step back toward the shadows. Then another.
“How about this—I promise the next time I’m beaten for five days straight, I’ll let you carry me out of the prison,” Xaden says, sheathing his swords behind his back.
“Thank you,” I say—to both men.
Xaden lifts me into his arms, tucking me tight against his chest without putting pressure on my ribs. “Follow me or die. It’s your choice, but make it now,” he tells Dain as shadows surround us, forming a circle of blades as Xaden moves, carrying me up the mage-lit staircase.
My head falls onto his shoulder and I wince, but what does the pain matter if we’re leaving? If we’re both alive? He came.
“What kind of problem, Garrick?” Xaden asks as we round the corner of the staircase.
“A general-size one,” Garrick answers, his hands in the air.
My mother’s blade is at his throat.
Oh shit.
I lift my head, and Xaden stops cold, his body tensing against mine.
Her eyes meet mine from where she stands on the step above Garrick, the lines of her face strained with...wait, is that worry? “Violet.”
“Mom.” I blink. It’s the first time she’s said my name since before Parapet.
“Who did you kill?” She directs the question at Xaden.
“Everyone,” he responds unapologetically.
She nods, then drops her blade.
Garrick breathes in deeply, moving away from her and putting his back to the wall.
“Here.” She reaches into the rib pocket of her uniform and draws out a vial of clear liquid. “It’s the antidote for the serum.”
I stare at the vial, and my heart speeds from a dull thud to a gallop. How do I know that’s what’s actually in there?
“I would have come sooner if I’d known,” my mother says, her voice softening along with her eyes. “I didn’t know, Violet. I swear it. I’ve been in Calldyr for the last week.”
“So your return is just what? Coincidence?” I ask.
Her mouth purses, and her fingers curl around the vial. “I’d like a moment alone with my daughter.”
“That’s not happening,” Xaden counters.
Her eyes harden when she looks at him. “You of all people know the lengths I’ll go to in order to protect her. And since I’m pretty sure you’re the reason we’re getting reports of dragons dropping wyvern carcasses at every outpost we have along our border, the reason this college is emptying itself of most of the leadership in a rush to contain the problem, the least you can do is give me a chance to say goodbye to her.”
“You what?” My gaze swings to Xaden’s, but he keeps his locked on my mother.
“Would have done it sooner, but it took a couple of days to hunt them down and kill them,” Xaden replies to her.
“You’ve threatened our entire kingdom.” Her eyes narrow.
“Good. You allowed her to be tortured for days. I don’t give a shit whether it was by your absence or your negligence. It happened on your watch.”
“Three minutes,” she orders. “Now.”
“Three minutes,” I agree.
Xaden’s gaze flies to mine. “She’s a fucking monster.” His voice is soft, but it carries.
“She’s my mother.”
He looks like he might fight me for a second, but then he slowly lowers me to stand and braces me against the wall. “Three minutes,” he whispers. “And I’ll be at the top of this staircase.” That warning is given to my mother as he starts up the steps with Garrick leading the way. “Aetos, did you decide to follow?”
“Apparently,” Dain says, waiting a few steps beneath me.
“Then fucking follow,” Xaden orders.
Dain grumbles, but he marches up the steps, leaving my mother alone with me.
She’s the picture of composure, her posture straight, her face expressionless as she holds out the vial. “Take it.”
“You’ve known what’s happening out there for all these years.” I white-knuckle my weapon.
She steps forward, her gaze jumping from the dagger in one of my hands to the splint on the other, then selects a pocket in my uniform top and slides the vial in. “When you have children, we can discuss the risks you’ll take, the lies you’ll be willing to tell in order to keep them safe.”
“What about their children?” My voice rises.
“Again.” She hooks her arm around my upper back, sliding her hand under my shoulder, and hauls me against her side. “When you are a mother, talk to me about who you’re willing to sacrifice so your child lives. Now walk.”
I grit my teeth and put one foot in front of the other, fighting the dizziness, the exhaustion, and the waves of pain to climb the stairs. “It’s not right to let them die defenseless.”
“I never said it was.” We take the first turn, climbing slowly. “And I knew you’d never see it our way. Never agree with our stance on self-preservation. Markham saw you as his protégé, the next head of the scribes, the only applicant he thought smart enough, clever enough to continue weaving the complicated blindfold chosen for us hundreds of years ago.” She scoffs. “He made the mistake of thinking you’d be easy to control, but I know my daughter.”
“I’m sure you think that.” Each step is a battle, jarring my bones and testing my joints. Everything feels abominably loose yet so tight I might split open from the pressure.
“I might be a stranger to you, Violet, but you are far from a stranger to me. Eventually, you’d discover the truth. Maybe not while in the Scribe Quadrant, but certainly by the time you made captain or major, when Markham would start bringing you into the fold, as we do with most at those ranks, and then you would unravel everything in the name of mercy or whatever emotion you’d blame, and they would kill you for it. I’d already lost one child keeping our borders safe, and I wasn’t willing to lose another. Why did you think I forced you into the Riders Quadrant?”
“Because you think less of the scribes,” I answer.