All the Queen's Angels

Chapter 16: Vow

"You can't kill me, idiot!", I scream as I tear through the halls.

"I'll make you wish I did!", he shouts after me. How the hell did he survive the sinking?

Lesson learned. If you want something done right, you must do it yourself.

I cut through the courtyard, trying to double back and escape through the front entrance, but my dress catches onto the iron chairs. Of course. I manage to unhook the fabric with little damage, but just as I turn to leave, Leander catches up. There is no hesitation when I jerk my knee up to his groin. I grab his dagger and run back into the manor, but just as I reach the door, I pause. Then I hurry up the stairs to my room to stash the dagger.

Quietly, I creep back to the landing. The foyer is silent. I peek. Leander stares back.

I groan before hurtling up the second flight of stairs, Leander on my heels.

I'd never been up to the 3rd level and find the open floor plan offers little space to hide, so I just duck behind the polished hardwood bar.

We circle the island slowly, but when he lunges toward me I grab one of the sharp bottle openers and thrust it towards him. He barely glances at the sharp object before snatching it out of my hand, quick as lightning.

Leander lunges towards me and my hand reaches for a liquor bottle. Before I realize what I'm doing, the bottle is already smashed over his head.

The glass shatters in a brilliant explosion of vodka and refracted light and for a moment everything is still and beautiful and bright. And then it turns red, blood dripping onto the polished floors.

And in this moment, to my great horror and shame, I feared I've actually killed him. Regicide is grounds for immediate execution, but in my case who knows what they'd do.

Leander stumbles back, as if the alcohol has leeched into his brain, and slides to the floor against the bar. The silence is broken only by the faint tinkle of glass as he lowers his arms.

I don't remember crouching next to him or grabbing his face and twisting it towards me, though he tries to scramble away; all I know is his eyes are boring into mine, stunned and a little glassy, and blood is trickling from his temple down my wrists. I tell myself it's because I can't afford any more misdemeanors on my part, that this is insurance, that I'll leave once I make sure he's not blind or brain damaged.

But I find myself crouching there in the glass for a lot longer than I should, using the sleeves of my robe to staunch the blood.

"What the absolute FUCK—."

"If I wanted to kill you I'd have left you here to die, Vincenzio," I snap. "You frightened me." And maybe it's the way my hands are still trembling or the fact that I didn't insult him for once, but he seems to soften under my touch.

Gently, I help him to his feet and guide him to his room, where he says he'll call a nurse. As I turn to leave, his arm tightens around my neck and he leans down to press his lips to my ear. And in a low voice he whispers, "I saw you hesitate." He releases me and I stumble back, confused. With a bitter smile, Leander tosses a coin to me and wordlessly slips into his room.

I raise the coin to the candlelight. A Gardenian coin, purged from the pockets of the Captain's corpse.

Damnit. He wasn't bluffing. He knows.
....

"He can't kill me," I say for the tenth time.

"Which means he'll do something worse! He's a vengeful little shit. You should've left him to die. In fact, you should've called me the second he boarded that ship, Eve," Ambrose groans.