Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows

Author:Jodi Meadows
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ALTAN HAD QUESTIONS.

More questions.

Hope died inside me as he halted at my cell, twisted his key in the lock, and threw open the door. “Let’s go.”

Two more guards flanked him, both in leather uniforms with chevrons pinned around Khulan’s crossed maces. And there was the claw, too, which had mystified me before, but now I knew it must be the insignia for Drakon Warriors.

Did all the Drakon Warriors know about me, then? And Altan was tasked—or had tasked himself—with squeezing any information out of me?

So quickly that my head spun, Altan yanked me from my cell and practically flung me into the hall. I tried to root myself to the floor while he shut my door and prodded me forward.

The other two guards didn’t speak, or even touch me. If they were worried about the possibility of me running, they didn’t show it.

Altan had probably told them I wasn’t brave enough for that.

After four steps, Altan motioned for me to halt. I obeyed, too afraid to do anything but.

At once, I realized that I stood even with Aaru’s door, and I risked a look inside, expecting him to be sitting on the bed with his knees up, or hidden beneath the bed. But everything was different today.

Even Aaru.

He stood at his door, regarding me with fearful curiosity.

I shouldn’t have been able to read his expression, not when I’d never really seen him before. Only in dim pieces through the hole.

But now he was an arm’s length away, his stubble-covered face obscured only by the grille of metal. His skin was dark—a few shades browner than mine—and he was almost a head taller, with a lanky build made gaunt by a month of constant hunger. A mess of too-long hair framed nighttime-black eyes. He was . . . not handsome. Not beautiful. But compelling, even under the grime and starvation. I wanted to look more.

Suddenly, I realized he was studying me in the same way: noting my half-unraveled twists, my trembling hands, my face, which had been pretty three decans ago but now must be changed by my time in the Pit.

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed. For this moment. For staring. For being less beautiful than I’d wanted him to see. For being the one who was taken from her cell and . . . I didn’t know what I was apologizing for.

But then Altan flung open Aaru’s door and took him by the arm. “You too.”

Aaru’s black eyes widened as he staggered forward. Questions rushed between us, but there was no time to give them voice. Altan and the other two dragged us from the cellblock, through the anteroom, and down the hallway. Numbers flitted through my head as we moved—steps, stairs, intersections.

My mind cataloged the heavy footfalls of the three warriors, and the lighter stride of Aaru. I wanted to look over my shoulder at him. He was there. I could feel him. But I didn’t know why he was here, and that was what scared me.

::What’s happening?:: His quiet code was quick, but not quick enough that it wasn’t noticed.

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