Page 123 of Incoronate
He hadn’t said anything else directly threatening. He hadn’t needed to. The shape of it was already clear enough—what this place was, what it did to humans, what it would eventually do to me if we stayed here long enough for the Revenants around us to stop being polite about their interest. And the longer I sat at that table, the more certain I became of one thing.
Staying here meant becoming part of this.
And I wasn’t going to give him the chance to make that decision for me.
We couldn’t wait for the right moment or the ideal conditions or some sign from the universe that it was safe to move. Because the longer we waited, the greater the chance that someone in this settlement would figure out what kind of blood ran through my veins. And in a place like this, where humans were a resource to be rationed and passed around,what I was wouldn’t make me safer. It would make me something they would kill to have.
And I’d sooner die than ever let that happen.
We needed out of Sanguinarium.
Tonight.
40. THE BLIND LEAP
We didn’t speak on the way back to our quarters. The hall behind us was still loud and full of chatter, the fire throwing heat and shadows across the stone walls as though nothing had changed, as though the last hour hadn’t stripped away whatever thin sense of safety I’d been holding onto and replaced it with something cold and urgent that sat at the base of my throat and refused to budge.
Cael had walked us out of the mead hall personally. He’d said goodnight with that same even pleasantness he applied to everything, and then, almost as an afterthought, mentioned that he thought we might benefit from another day at the settlement before considering our options. He’d framed it warmly, generously even, the way you’d present a gift, but something in the way he said it made it feel less like an offer and more like a door being shut behind us.
“Sanguinarium has a way of wearing on newcomers,” he’d said, his gaze sliding back to me and staying there a few seconds longer than it needed to. Long enough to make me want to climb out of my own skin. “The open terrain is unforgiving to those who don’t know it yet. Better to wait. Rest.” A long pause. “Think it over. We’ll send for you in the morning.”
Notwe hope to see you. Notyou’re welcome to stay. We’ll send for you.
Yeah.Sure. Like we were still going to be here in the morning.
I smiled graciously and thanked him for his hospitality, doing my best to look like I was grateful for the offer, and then I kept walking. I kept my eyes forward and my pace even,doing my best not to look like someone who was counting every step back to the door of our quarters. I wasn’t sure if I was being paranoid, but I swore I could feel a change in the way people watched us pass by. The looks were somehow longer. Cooler. Less curious and more…calculating.
By the time we reached the perimeter wall near our quarters, my skin felt too tight, like it couldn’t hold everything buzzing underneath it anymore, but I didn’t stop or slow down until the door to our quarters was shut behind us and the metal latch was dropped into its bracket.
Pressing my back against the door, I met Trace and Dominic’s eyes and shook my head. “We need to get the fuck out of here. Like yesterday,” I hissed, low enough for only the two of them to hear.
“Agreed,” said Dominic as he sat down on the edge of the bed, his movements unhurried in a way that only made my nerves bristle harder. His gaze travelled the length of my body, something dark brewing in his eyes. “The way he was looking at you…”
His words dropped off but I didn’t need him to finish for me to know what he was talking about.
I’d felt Cael’s eyes on me all night. It was more than just curiosity. I could tell he was assessing me, analyzing me, trying to figure out what I was and just how much I might be worth in a place like this.
One thing was for sure—I wasn’t planning on giving him a chance to figure that out.
I pushed off the door and started moving. I couldn’t stand still. The room was too small and the ceiling was too low and my skin was crawling as though a swarm of bugs had made their way under it. I wrapped my arms around my middle and paced the length of the room. Three steps one way and threesteps back the other way. I needed to keep moving. I needed to think.
“You think he knows?” asked Trace as he leaned back against the wall near the doorway, arms folding across his chest as he watched me wear a path back and forth across the floor.
I already knew he was talking about me. About my blood.
“I don’t think so,” answered Dominic, his words careful. “But the longer we stay here, the greater the chance they figure it out. This place runs on blood and hierarchy. One taste of her and she becomes the most valuable commodity in Sanguinarium. They’d never let her go.”
His warning landed like the lid of a coffin slamming down on me.
I turned on my heel and walked back the other way.
“We should just split now,” suggested Trace, a low urgency threading into his voice that hadn’t been there earlier. “Take our chances out there until we figure out our next move. It’s not worth the risk staying.”
“That may be our best bet,” agreed Dominic as I kept pacing. “However, we need to be smart about this. If we rush out of here without warning, we’ll only raise suspicion, and the last thing we want is to give Cael a reason to look at her any harder than he already is.”
I knew he was right. I’d already felt it at dinner. Felt it in everything Cael hadn’t said, and in the way he’d watched those women move through the hall with the detached appraisal of someone taking inventory. I had no doubt that if he so much as suspected I was different, let alone got close enough to scent my blood, I would never again see the light of day outside this place.
Which meant we had to go. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now.
