Page 184 of Rite of Unity

I opened my eyes, letting them adjust in the dark.Beside me, Elias breathed deeply, his arm wrapped around me.

Carefully, I lifted his arm, inching out from under him.

Sitting up in his massive bed, I searched the room until I found my bag and slid off the side, my bare toes cold against cement.

Padding to the table, I unwrapped my bag and pulled out the robe Vera had packed for me.

“Where are you going?”

I froze, back to Elias, and blew out a silent breath before turning to face him.“I need to use the restroom.”

He gave me a lazy grin, eyes already sliding closed again.

I spun toward the door.

“Chicago.”

I stopped and looked back.“What?”

“It’s the command word for the dogs.I don’t want them mauling my future wife in the hall.”

My limbs began to tingle, a weight falling away as I nodded, schooling my face into neutrality.

Elias rolled over, breathing heavily again in moments.

Chapter 46

Maryn

InthehalloutsideElias’s room, I stood, back pressed to the wall.The warmth of him still clung to my skin.

This could be my life.

The thought arrived without warning, and I pressed my palms flat against the cold wall to ground myself.A man who loved me.A warm bed.The safest place a woman could be in this world, standing next to the man who ran it.No more bleeding.No more missions.

I knew what that safety was built on.The women inside that building on the outskirts of the city, producing sons for a nation that didn’t ask their names.I would be the most protected woman alive, built on the backs of everyone who wasn’t.

There was another man.One who had taken my heart the way he did everything; without asking.

I closed my eyes.

Elias had just given me everything I needed without knowing it.That was always going to be the difference between us.He trusted.I never would.

Inhaling through my nose, I listened for any sound of movement in the room.

I pushed off the wall and went to find a knife.

My body didn’t feel like mine.The soreness between my thighs, the memory of his hands.My pulse was too loud in my ears.I pushed it all to the edges and kept moving.

In the kitchen, I spun, darting to the rack of knives and grabbing one.It was one thing to slip poison into a drink.It was another to hold a weapon in my hands and feel a body go still from the force of it.

My hands were steadier than they should have been.Vera’s drug?

Moving into a hall off the breakfast dining room, I scanned my memory of the blueprints Lucen had given me when I arrived in the Center.I doubted he would be in his study at this hour.Would he be in bed with his wife?Or in his own room?

The knife was already slick in my grip.I transferred it to my other hand, wiping my palm on my robe.

Hairs on the back of my neck pricked as I tiptoed down the hall.Every sound was too loud.My own breathing, the soft slap of my bare feet on the floor.