Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

Author:Victoria Schwab
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2017-06-13T07:00:00+00:00

August stared down at the tallies on his skin.

One hundred and eighty-four.

All this time, Kate had been counting.

When had he stopped?

Things change.

He returned to the kitchen, trying to clear his head.

I’ve changed with them.

He tapped his comm. “Command, this is Alpha.”

Three short beats of silence. “Alpha.” Phillip’s voice was uncertain. “Logs show you’re off tonight.”

“Since when do monsters take nights off?” said August. “Find me a job.”

“I can’t do that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been grounded.”

Henry.

The tension in his chest grew. “Let me speak to him.”

“He’s overseeing a convoy from the southern Waste.”

“Patch me through.”

There was a short sequence of beeps, and then Henry’s voice. “August?”

“Since when am I grounded?”

“You already have a task. When I get back, you can tell me what you learned. In the meantime, Kate Harker is in your custody.”

“Kate is asleep,” countered August, temper rising.

“And when is the last time you slept?”

August took a deep breath. “I’m not—”

“Consider it an order.”

“Henry—”

But he could tell by the static, the man was gone.

August slammed his fist on the counter, igniting a brief spark of pain, there and then gone. He slid his hands through his hair. Maybe Henry was right. He was tired, in a bone-deep way. He shoved off the counter and crossed into the living room, leaving the lights off as he sank onto the couch. If he listened, he could hear Kate moving beyond the bedroom door, rolling over on his bed. Six months, and she was still made of restless limbs and shallow breaths.

Why did you come back?

He tried to focus instead on the patter of Allegro’s steps somewhere in Ilsa’s room, the distant sound of movement from the floors below. He closed his eyes and felt his body sinking deeper into the cushions, but the quieter the room became, the louder Kate’s voice in his head.

What happened to you?

The look on her face when he forced the truth from her, that horrible mixture of betrayal and disgust.

That isn’t me, he wanted to say.

Yes it is, insisted Leo.

What happened to you? demanded Kate.

You were weak, said his brother.

What happened to you?

Now you are strong.

What happened to you?

He forced himself up, slinging the violin case over his shoulder. He didn’t need a mission. There was plenty of trouble waiting in the dark.

The doors to the private elevator stood open, and he stepped in, punching the button for the lobby. The doors slid shut, and he was met with a rippling reflection, distorted steel twisting his features, erasing everything but the broadest planes of his face.

He waited for the feeling of slow descent, but the elevator didn’t move. He punched the lobby again. Still nothing. He hit the button to make the doors open. They didn’t.

August sighed and looked up, straight into the surveillance lens mounted in the corner, even though he knew looking straight at it would blur the feed.

“Ilsa,” he said evenly. “Let me go.”

The elevator didn’t move.

“I have a job to do.”

Nothing.

He’d never thought of himself as claustrophobic, but the elevator walls were starting to feel close.

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