Before She Ignites (Fallen Isles Trilogy #1)(55)

Hurrok spoke slowly, like he was attempting to communicate with someone very stupid. “I said I tried to kill Mira Minkoba once. That’s how I ended up here.”

“Why?” The question fell out of my mouth, but maybe I didn’t want to know.

“She ruined my life!”

I couldn’t see him from my position, but still I pressed my face to the bars of my cell and peered down the hall. “How?” Five heartbeats raced in my ears, loud. Painful.

“You don’t have to humor this waste of breath.” Gerel looked as though she might crush the cell bars with her bare hands.

::Gerel is right,:: Aaru added. ::He doesn’t mean you. He means the Hopebearer.::

“I wanted her dead!”

A faint cry of hysteria escaped, and I shuddered, but Gerel didn’t notice. She was too busy attempting to break down the door, though I couldn’t imagine why. She didn’t like the Mira Treaty me or the me she thought she knew.

“I hate her,” said the screaming man. He sucked in a noisy breath. “I tried to sneak into her house a year ago. It’s up there in Crescent Prominence, where the Luminary Council lives. She lives there, too, like she’s someone important. She was getting ready for a party. I could see her through her window. Through the open door of her dressing room, where that woman was helping her.”

As he described it, I could envision myself sitting at the dressing table with Krasimir brushing cosmetics across my face. The screaming man was right. He could have seen me through the window if the dressing room door was open.

Another shudder rippled through me.

“I had an arrow dipped in poison. I was ready to do it.”

My heart hammered against my chest. A hundred times. A thousand times. It ached. I didn’t want to hear how he’d almost killed me, but I couldn’t lift my voice to tell him to be quiet. I couldn’t gather enough breath.

“Just as I’d nocked the arrow, her Hartan guard dog came into the bedroom. He slammed the dressing room door shut and he came at me. I tried to shoot him instead, but he threw something at me and knocked me off the window ledge. Next thing I knew, I was on trial and sent here.”

I remembered that day. I’d been preparing for a charity ball at Councilor Elbena’s mansion. The money was going to benefit research into the ancient ruins across the islands. My dress had been long, layered, golden, and trimmed in topaz. Krasimir had done my hair in a series of loops and braids, adding strings of crystal so that I sparkled. I’d never felt more beautiful.

Then the door had shut with a bang. Krasimir had been so surprised she smeared the line across my eye. She’d muttered about having to start over. But thirteen minutes later, the door opened again and Father stood there, impeccably dressed and brooding. The ball was off. Crescent Prominence was on lockdown for the rest of the night. Half the regular guards had been fired from their positions.

My questions about why had been ignored, and though I’d mourned the loss of that charity ball, others had followed and I had mostly forgotten about it.

Until now.

Until Hurrok described how he’d tried to assassinate me in my bedroom. Just like that man when I was little. And how many others had there been? How many times had Hristo saved my life and not told me?

I was on the floor, shaking. My whole body trembled against the memory and I knew I was making a scene, but I couldn’t stop imagining person after person sneaking into my bedroom, wanting to kill me. Hristo always acted like he wasn’t really necessary, but secretly . . .

Maybe Mother had forbidden him from saying anything. That was something she would do, but why had Hristo obeyed? He was supposed to be my friend, the person I trusted above all others, and surely I deserved the truth.

“Are you all right?” Gerel snapped her fingers at me. “Get up.”

Still trembling, I forced myself to my feet. “I’m fine. I just hadn’t realized—”

“What?” She scowled like I was a worm in her salad. “Didn’t you realize what kind of monsters you’re trapped in here with?”

“We’re all monsters,” added the screaming man. “Every one of us.”

I closed my eyes and took three steps back from the door. My heel bumped the sewage hole lid. “I’d like to go to bed now.”

“Someone is testy tonight,” Gerel muttered.

“Someone gets that way when other people casually talk about trying to commit murder.” A strange venom laced my tone.

Gerel stared at me.

The screaming man was quiet.

Chenda watched me from her cell.

And Aaru? Who could tell with him. As always, he was the very absence of sound.

Then, footfalls stormed into the cellblock. Three guards. Maybe four. Noorestones flared bright, blinding, making me squint. Through the cacophony of boots pounding on the stone, a voice rose above the others.

“Mira!” Altan’s voice. “It’s time to answer more questions.”

Cold terror touched my heart, and I couldn’t forget the truth: no matter how terrible the prisoners were, the guards were worse.





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN




ALTAN HAD QUESTIONS.

More questions.

Hope died inside me as he halted at my cell, twisted his key in the lock, and threw open the door. “Let’s go.”