Midnight Jewel by Richelle Mead

Author:Richelle Mead
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2017-06-27T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

I SPENT ALMOST THE ENTIRE NEXT DAY PROCESSING WHAT had happened with Grant. His rejection filled me with humiliation. I’d brushed off a lot of advances over the years, and as much as I hated to admit it, they had left me with the egotistical assumption that of course men wanted me. All I had to do was show up. Discovering that wasn’t true still stung.

Aiana’s tipsy recounting of Grant’s past left me unsettled too—but that was a more complex feeling to understand. Why should I care that he sought impersonal, one-time liaisons? His dislike of attachment had never been a secret. And I’d made my own intentions very clear. I wanted my own shot at passion before being locked into marriage. I’d even gone so far as to say it didn’t matter if I liked him or not. So, why had he sent me away? I’d offered him exactly the type of arrangement he liked.

“You look like I feel.”

I blinked out of my dreary thoughts to find Cedric leaning against the staircase’s bannister. Everyone had returned from the evening’s social affairs, and I was the last one to come inside from my group. I stifled a yawn and paused at the bottom of the steps. He was as dashing and impeccably dressed as ever, but an obvious gloom hung over him.

“You look pretty down yourself,” I said. “What’s your excuse? Too much dancing and small talk? That’s what’s worn me out.”

His expression stayed dark. “I wish that’s what it was. Did you hear about the Alanzans who were taken?”

“What? No . . .” But then I remembered Grant mentioning how Warren Doyle’s patrols had succeeded in arresting their first batch of heretics. I hadn’t known what sect they’d captured. I peered around, verifying we were alone. “Were you there when they came?”

“I got away. I was one of the lucky ones.”

“If you were recognized—”

“I wasn’t.”

I repressed the urge to chastise him about the dangers of worshipping with others of his faith. I’d been around enough Alanzans in my life, however, to realize the futility of that argument. Their principles were too strong. “What will happen to them?”

“They’re being held in a city jail right now. Tomorrow, they’ll get split up. Some will be locked away at the prison in Archerwood. Others have been sentenced to penal servitude. Do you know what that is?”

“Unfortunately.” I felt sickened, thinking of those poor prisoners’ fates and the abuses of the system. In my head, those Alanzans wore the faces of Pablo, Fernanda, and countless other friends.

“And there’s nothing I can do about it.” He gave me a wan smile. “I wish I could be like your father. He wouldn’t let them sit there. I wish I had the courage—and skill—to march up there and set them free. But I’d probably just get myself arrested. Or killed.”

I patted his arm. “Don’t do something reckless or blame yourself. You show your courage in other ways.”

He looked skeptical of that and bid me good night.

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