Page 149 of City of Snakes
Centuries spent hiding that Asterie was not truly bound to her.
Watching her friend, the late Mattock, wither away in his battle against Death.
Being torn to shreds in the Luz throne room.
Waking, scarred but alive, in a field of flames.
I abruptly shut her out, gasping for air.
“What has he done to you?” I wheezed.
It would’ve been easier if I’d still wanted to put Firose’s head on a stake and ride through my city with it. But now my conscience fought against that thought. Her memories were more like nightmares.
“He’s like a parasite. The deeper he digs, the worse it is…” Firose explained. “Until you believe yourself incapable of good.”
My eyes welled with tears. Emmerick’s stance against me in those council meetings, his newfound anger—it all grew clearer.
Em swallowed hard. “He’s doing the same thing to me. I needed you to know that I am not your enemy—not yet. I never want to be, and that is a weakness he so easily wields against me.”
None of this was right. None of this was fair…I wanted to throw something. My hold on Krait and Ryn grew thin.
I crossed the room to find the key that lay on the steps and returned to where Emmerick was bound, standing on my tiptoes to undo the chains from the wall.
“Sybilla, that isn’t wise,” he tried.
“We’ll leave the binding cuffs to prevent wielding. But I’m not leaving you chained up like this.”
“No,” he commanded, and I stilled as the key slipped into the lock above our heads. His gaze met mine, pleading. “I couldn’t live with hurting you. You know that. Let Darvanda keep us here.”
“You know that telling me ‘no’ has never worked. I won’t let Caym hurt me and neither will you.”
The lock clicked, releasing him from the wall. I left the thin cuffs around his wrists, but they were no longer attached to those dreadful chains.
Maybe it was foolish, but my resolve strengthened as his arms lowered and he embraced me. I slumped there against his chest. “I still have to stay down here, Syb.”
“Fine,” I answered. “But I’m having cots, food and supplies brought down for you.”
I backed out of his arms before stepping over to Firose. She’d stayed quiet through our exchange but appeared altogether as wary of me as I was of her.
I’d felt the hatred within her—anyone who loathed Caym that much was an asset, whether I wanted her dead or not.
My mind was growing tired, the stacked layers of magic I was using weighing down my body. It felt like moving through mud.
Her eyes widened when I reached above our heads and undid the chains binding her to the wall as well.
“Should you ever betray me…I can promise you that what he did to you will pale in comparison to what I shall do,” I said through clenched teeth.
Firose nodded as she lowered her scarred arms and rubbed at her wrists where the cuffs remained. She appeared almost girlish—broken and tired. I wondered if that was how I sometimes looked. It felt odd to find kinship with her.
“Read into the Sethe curse,” Firose offered. “If we can trap Caym in one of the envoys, we may be able to cast the curse and delay him. Until an heir can be had…assuming our guess about you is correct.”
Recalling the excerpt I’d read in the library, my heart clenched and my jaw tightened. I glanced at Emmerick and said, “We will not cast it on Emmerick.”
“That we agree on,” Firose said as she slumped back against the stone wall.
“So we find Barden and get him alone,” I mused, recalling their conversations about him being an envoy from Emmerick’s memories.
As I crossed the cell, toward the stairs, one of her memories made me halt. She’d loved Freya; she’d felt betrayed and heartbroken over her friend’s death.
