Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Forty-OneEvaline

Chapter Forty-One

Evaline

T he dagger dug deep into my gut, so far that I prepared myself for the inevitable pain in my back, in my spine, that the blade would drive so far in that it would pierce through the opposite side.

Blood dripped down my abdomen, and gushed past the hands that I pushed haphazardly over the wound to stop the bleeding, despite the blade still being held in place by Vasier.

He twisted the blade, and I looked up at him, ready to see that same amused smirk, the same glint of enjoyment in his eyes, but it was worse—

It was Sage.

I nearly fell out of the chair from how quickly I’d thrown myself forward and out of the dream. My breaths came quick and the tears came quicker.

“What is it?” Broderick asked outside the door from where he guarded it.

I tried to speak back, but could hardly catch my breath and when I didn’t immediately answer, he pushed the door open and the armoire fell forward, drawers falling outward and dumping their contents onto the ground before they were slammed back into place by the floor and the weight of the armoire landing on top of it. The mirror that had been attached to the back of it jostled at the impact, and slammed forward, shattering into a thousand pieces, sending shards scattering across the ground.

His lumbering form filled the doorway and his head swung to the bed, but his brows furrowed as he turned to find me on the other side of the room, in the armchair. I cursed, hoped he wouldn’t wonder why I slept here, and was grateful that I had sat forward with the nightmare, so my braid wasn’t draped over the back of the chair as it normally was at night.

“What happened?” he asked, his sandy hair fluttering in the breeze of the patio door I’d left open.

I shook my head. “Nothing. It was just a bad dream.”

His frown deepened before his eyes narrowed. “That’s it?” He rolled his eyes. “I thought you were hurt.”

I sighed and crossed my arms.

“Nope. Not hurt, just imprisoned. Of course I’m going to have nightmares in a place like this.” I threw one hand up toward the walls. “The castle is blood-red for Gods’ sake.”

He blinked at me, then turned for the door.

“I’ll send someone to come help you clean this up.”

I started to object, but he had already closed it back. I sighed and stood, walking carefully across the room to avoid any glass, until I reached my boots and pulled them on.

I carried over the trash bin and began to pluck the glass off of the floor. When my fingers pinched to pick up a rather large piece, my eyes widened at the newfound weapon, and I moved as silently as possible to the fireplace. I kneeled in front of it. Below the seat of the hearth, there was a lip with a small gap between the stones where I kept the dagger I’d pickpocketed from Broderick and the empty vial I’d swiped from Sage the last time she’d drawn my blood for Maddox. I threw an Air shield around it as I slid the shard of glass among the pile of my armory.

When it was set and I ran back to the pile of glass to get back to cleaning it up, it occurred to me that my door was likely unguarded if he truly went to go get some to help me. For a moment, I considered running. But the notion was useless. I couldn’t leave the ward, and I couldn’t hide in the castle. They’d find me.

Before I had a chance to bolt, I heard quick footsteps before my door was thrown open again by the Vasi. He looked down at me, then at the large pieces of glass I was lifting to put into the trash. His eyes narrowed.

“I realized I probably shouldn’t give you the opportunity to kill yourself,” he said, sliding out of the way of the doorway. Maeve stood behind him, a broom and a dustpan in her hands.

She came to stand beside me and began sweeping while I rolled my eyes at him.

“You didn’t seem concerned about my mortality earlier when you had me suspended a foot into the air by my throat,” I snapped.

It had been hours since the test, since I’d been escorted back here by a different Vasi. I didn’t even realize it was Broderick guarding my door until he’d shouted through it.

He leaned against the wall where the armoire normally stood, and rolled his eyes. “I do what the First requires of me. That is all.” He shrugged. “Besides, you weren’t in any real danger. Vasier told me not to kill you, so I didn’t.”

I nodded as I looked down to throw a few more of the big pieces of glass away.

“Well, you’ve already ruined the night. No need to stand here and continue soiling it. I won’t harm myself, and she’s here to alert you if I do.”

My heart hammered in my chest. Now was my chance, if I was ever going to get a time to do this without any suspicion, it was tonight.

His eyes widened for the quickest second and then moved to Maeve. “You could harm her.”

She straightened at the same time that my upper lip pulled back into a snarl. “I would never hurt an innocent person.”

Footsteps came from down the hall, and he turned to see a Vasi approaching.

“Broderick,” the Vasi called and my guard turned to me.

“Like you said, it’s impossible not to have nightmares here,” he said, nodding toward the walls. “Stay long enough, and you just might find that you’d do things you never thought yourself capable of.”

With that, he turned back to the other Vasi and left the room. He didn’t close the door behind him, but I saw them walk off to the end of the hall and half turn around it so only Broderick’s right shoulder remained in view.

My heart pounded in my chest and I slowly stood and walked to the fireplace. My eyes remained on the door, watching for Broderick, and ears strained to listen as I closed an Air shield over my stash and pulled the vial out.

I didn’t want to put Maeve in harm’s way, but I didn’t foresee her getting caught, especially now that we had an excuse for why she’d be bleeding, and didn’t need to try to hide the scent of her blood.

I went back to kneel beside her, and threw an Air shield around us, but whispered nonetheless, my eyes never leaving the small portion of Broderick’s shoulder that was visible.

“Maeve,” I said softly and she turned to look at me from where she kneeled picking up some of the large pieces that wouldn’t sweep up. “Have you changed your mind on helping me?”

She straightened slightly and stayed silent. I let my eyes slide to her for only a moment before returning them to Broderick.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but please know that I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important. I need my full magic or there’s nothing I can do in order to help myself, or you, get out of here.”

I snapped my mouth shut and stayed perfectly still as Broderick moved, and I waited for him to head back, for me to lose this chance, but instead, he just shifted his weight.

“They’ve been testing me, I’m not sure what for. They say they’ll keep me safe, but at every test, they nearly mortally wound me just to watch me bleed out and see how strong my magic is. This isn’t a test for strength, I just don’t know what it is for yet. But they use my blood to lock my magic back up in the ward,” I said, my words rushed. “And if I can find a way to give them someone else’s blood, then when I leave the training, I’d leave with my magic still intact.”

Her eyes searched mine. “And what if they figure it out?”

I swallowed and shook my head. “I’ll tell them that it was all me. I have the Air shield around us, and there’s already a threat of cutting ourselves on this glass. We’ll make a small cut, one that looks like it was an accident, and I’ll save some in this vial. I’ll soak the rest up with a shirt,” I said pointing to the clothes laid out around us, beneath the glass. “And tell them I squeezed it all out and saved it after you all left. Broderick will run over here as soon as he notices it, and he’ll believe that it was an accident.”

She pursed her lips and turned to look at Broderick’s shoulder, then back at me. “The door’s open,” she whispered. “We won’t have enough time before he smells it and runs over, and sees it.”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about that. My Air shield should hide the scent, and once we’re done I’ll take it away and he’ll smell it and come.”

She cast one last glance back at the Vasi, then turned to me, her jaw set. “Okay. Just tell me what to do.”

I nodded and picked up a shard of glass. “I’m going to make a cut in the pad of your thumb, it’ll look like you accidentally picked up the piece and squeezed too hard. Then I’ll get some blood in the vial, and when he comes over here, it’ll look like one big accident.”

She nodded, shifting her weight so that the fallen armoire blocked Broderick’s view if he peeked around the corner to look at us.

“Ready?” I asked.

She nodded.

I took her hand in mine, poised the shard above it, cast one last glance at Broderick, and upon seeing him still behind the wall, made the cut. She didn’t flinch or wince in pain, and that caused a beat of guilt to roll through me, afraid of how much misery she’d endured here.

My shield was in place as I popped the cork on the vial and slid it under her thumb and watched as the blood filled it. My eyes went back up to Broderick, worried that he’d hear our cease in cleaning, but by the time my eyes cast back down I saw that the vial was full. I corked it again, ran to the fireplace to hide it away, and came back to her side and covered her thumb with a shirt, laid the shard below her hands so it looked like it’d fallen there, and gave her one last look.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She nodded.

“I’m going to take the shield away. As soon as I do, you need to cry out, even if it’s quiet, just so it seems as though you just now cut it. He’d wonder why he didn’t smell it otherwise.”

“I got it,” she assured.

“Three,” I counted down. “Two,” she took a breath. “One.”

“Oh!” she said in surprise and I slid a piece of glass to imitate the sound of her dropping a piece, and tightened the cloth over her hand.

Broderick was in the doorway in a moment. “What happened?” he asked, looking between the two of us.

“She cut her hand,” I said, nodding down to the cloth I had over her hand.

He took a step forward and knelt down. “Let me see.”

I removed the cloth and she showed him her hand, and by the Gods, she forced a tremble into her voice. “I guess I wasn’t paying attention, and held that piece a little too tight.”

He took her hand in his and turned it over, appraising the cut.

He sighed. “It doesn’t look too bad, but it’ll be a nuisance to deal with while you work.”

Broderick bit into the side of his hand and offered it to her. She looked down at it, then back up at him, and he leaned it closer.

“It wasn’t a suggestion.”

She swallowed and did as he told, and his eyes moved to me as she did so, and before he settled his face into a look of annoyance, I swear to the Gods his eyes twinkled.

But then they hardened, and he clenched his jaw.

“I told you not to hurt her,” he said, his voice even but with the slightest waver at the end.

I shrugged. “I’m not the one who brought her here to clean up your mess.”

Something passed over his eyes then, but I couldn’t name it.

“Fine,” he said, pulling his hand from her lips and wrapping his hands around each of her forearms, then lifting her gently. “You clean it up yourself,” he threw my way.

He walked her out of the door then and closed it behind him.

I looked down at the mess. It would take hours to clean it up, but I didn’t mind.

For the first time in weeks, I felt genuine hope.