An Ember in the Ashes(92)

“Marcus attacked you last night,” Izzi says. “Aspirant Aquilla—” Her eye is wide, and I know then that I didn’t dream the Aspirant’s presence—or the fact that she healed me. Magic. I find myself smiling at the thought. Darin would laugh, but there’s no other explanation. And, after all, if ghuls and jinn walk our world, then why not forces of good too? Why not a girl who can heal with a song?
“Can you stand?” Izzi says. “It’s past noon. I took care of your morning chores and I’d do the others, but the Commandant’s quite insistent that you—”
“Past noon?” The smile drops from my face. “Skies—Izzi, I had a meeting with the Resistance two hours ago. I have to tell them about the tunnel.
Keenan might still be waiting—”
“Laia, the Commandant sealed up the tunnel.”
No. No. That tunnel is the only thing that stands between Darin and death.
“She questioned Marcus last night after Veturius brought you in,” Izzi says miserably. “He must have told her about the tunnel, because when I went by it this morning, the legionnaires were bricking it closed.”
“Did she question you?”
Izzi nods. “And Cook too. Marcus told the Commandant that you and I were spying on him, but I, well...” She fidgets and looks over her shoulder.
“I lied.”
“You...you lied? For me?” Skies, when the Commandant finds out, she’ll kill Izzi.
No, Laia, I tell myself. Izzi won’t die, because you’ll find a way to get her out of here before it comes to that.
“What did you say to her?” I ask.

“Told her that Cook sent us to get crowleaf from the infirmary and that Marcus waylaid us on the way back.”
“And she believed you? Over a Mask?”
Izzi shrugs. “I’ve never lied to her before,” she says. “And Cook backed up my story—said she was having horrible back pain and that crowleaf was the only thing that would help. Marcus called me a liar, but then the Commandant sent for Zak, and he admitted there was a chance that he’d left the tunnel entrance open and that we’d just happened to be passing by. Commandant let me go after that.” Izzi looks at me worriedly. “Laia, what are you going to tell Mazen?”
I shake my head. I have no idea.
***
Cook sends me into the city with a stack of letters for the courier without so much as a mention of the beating I took.
“Be quick about it,” the old woman says when I appear in the kitchen to resume my duties. “There’s a nasty storm coming, and I need you and Kitchen-Girl to board up the windows before they’re blown out.”
The city is strangely quiet, its cobbled lanes emptier than usual, its spires shrouded in unseasonable fog. The smells of bread and beast, smoke and steel are dulled, as if the mist has weakened their potency.
Conscioius of my freshly healed limbs, I move gingerly. But even after a half-hour of walking, all that remains of the beating I took are ugly bruises and a dull soreness. I head first to the couriers’ office in Execution Square, hoping that the Resistance is still waiting for me. The rebels don’t disappoint.
Within seconds of entering the square, I smell cedarwood. Moments later, Keenan materializes out of the fog.
“This way.” He says nothing of my injuries, and I’m stung by his lack of concern. Just as I’m willing myself not to care, he takes my hand as if it’s the most natural thing in the world and leads me to the back room of a cramped, abandoned shoe shop.
Keenan sets a spark to a lamp hanging on the wall, and as the light flares, he turns and looks me full in the face. The aloofness drops. For a second, he’s unveiled, and I know with lightning certainty that behind that coolness he feels something for me. His eyes are almost black as he takes in every bruise.
“Who did this?” he asks.
“An Aspirant. It’s why I missed the meeting. I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?” He is incredulous. “Look at you—look what they’ve done to you. Skies. If your father was alive and knew I let this happen—”
“You didn’t let it happen.” I put a hand on his arm, surprised at the tautness of his body, like a wolf raring for a fight. “It’s no one’s fault but the Mask who did it. And I’m better now.”
“You don’t have to be brave, Laia.” His words are spoken with a quiet fierceness, and I suddenly feel shy of him. He raises his hand, slowly tracing my eyes, my lips, the curve of my neck with the tip of his finger.
“I’ve been thinking about you for days.” He puts his warm hand against my face, and I want so much to lean into it. “Hoping I’d see you in the square wearing a gray scarf so this can all be over. So that you can get your brother back. And after, we could...you and I could...”
He trails off. My breath comes in short, shallow bursts, and my skin tingles in wild impatience. He moves closer, drawing up my gaze, pinning me with his eyes. Oh skies, he’s going to kiss me...
Then, bizarrely, he steps away from me. His eyes are guarded again, his face empty of any emotion but a sort of professional detachment. My skin burns in embarrassment at the rejection. A second later, I understand.
“There she is,” a gruff voice sounds from the door, and Mazen enters the room. I look to Keenan, but he appears almost bored, and I’m shaken at how his eyes can go cold as quickly as a candle being blown out.
He’s a fighter, a practical voice chides me. He knows what’s important. As should you. Focus on Darin.