Never a Hero by Vanessa Len

Author:Vanessa Len
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Two

At Aaron’s gesture, Joan was dragged from the conservatory to the edge of the reflecting pool, where the formal hedge work started. Joan caught a flash of Ruth’s horrified face on a path ahead, Tom and Jamie on either side of her. Go, Joan signaled. Ruth shook her head, and Joan signaled again. Go.

Tom murmured into Ruth’s ear, and to Joan’s relief, he and Jamie bundled Ruth out of sight. Joan could only hope that no one had seen the four of them together. That the others would make it back to the boat.

Joan turned to Aaron. Alone among the guests, he and Joan were unmasked. As always, he was immaculate—not a golden hair out of place. This close, Joan could see the details of his suit: a delicate brocade of black on black. He still held his mask in one hand.

Joan was aware of her own disheveled contrast. Her hair had loosened from its half-braided style in the struggle, and threads hung from her dress where beads had come off.

“What did she do?” one of the security team said. There were three of them, Joan saw now—all in black suits.

Aaron ignored the question. His eyes were fixed on Joan’s. And he might not know her anymore, but Joan knew him. She could read his expression, his body language. She knew exactly what he was remembering. He’d manifested the true Oliver power at the age of nine. As soon as he had, he’d been taken to view a man in an iron-barred cage. Aaron had told Joan about it, the horror of it still lingering with him after all those years: They shocked him with a cattle prod until he looked into my eyes. They told me that if I saw anyone like him again, I was to kill them. Or inform the Court if I couldn’t do it myself. I never saw anyone like him again. Until I saw you in the maze. Until I was close enough to see your eyes.

“Just let me go,” Joan begged Aaron now. “I know you don’t want this.” The Court had commanded him to kill people like her, but Aaron wouldn’t want to be responsible for someone’s execution. And he could still release her. He could just say there’d been a mistake. No one had really noticed this yet. “Aaron—”

Aaron’s mouth twisted like when he’d called her that filth in Nick’s front garden. “Stop saying my name,” he said, and Joan swallowed around the lump in her throat. Was she going to be able to hold it together? “I know my duty,” he said, hard. His hand came up to touch his side. Under that pristine suit, there was a tattoo of a mermaid—Joan had glimpsed the outline once, under his wet shirt. Was the Oliver motto there too? Fidelis ad mortem—loyal unto death. He lifted his head to the minders behind Joan. “Fetch my father.”

“No, please!” Joan said. But one of the black-suited men broke away, jogging down the path to find Edmund.

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