heartless | nikolai lantsov

\\ Chapter Fifteen \\

Rani wakes to the clanging of an alarm bell.

Her eyes aren't even halfway open when she's shoved out of bed, a voice hissing in her ear, "Get up useless Ravkan traitor."

Rani slips as she tries to get to her feet. The darkness seems to press in on her, a living, breathing thing with claws and teeth.

She's hauled up, a grip like a vice on her arm, sending panic snaking down her spine.

"Why isn't he dead?"

And that voice, even knowing its owner, is far less terrifying than the creature in her mind.

Fully awake, Rani can see the dim outline of the person holding her. There is still light coming through the windows, the muted light of dusk, but enough that creatures of nightmares are not yet treading the earth.

"I'm working on it." Rani snaps at Li over alarm bells still trilling.

A lie. She had not thought of killing the King since she had read that note.

"Not for much longer you're not," Rani tenses, expecting another blade from the Tavgharad warrior. That's all she is to them, another complication to be removed.

"We have learned the King intends to send you away. How, praytell, will you kill him if you are not at the place!"

"He intends what?"

"You are to leave tomorrow on some ridiculous excuse of an assignment, assessing Grisha allegiance on the border, to get you far away from him no doubt."

Rani has stopped listening though.

I had intended to tell you of a new job. That's what the King had told her mere hours ago.

How many times had she yelled at him, screamed about the fact that he was letting Grisha fight for him that didn't feel any allegiance toward Ravka? At first for Tara, then because it was what needed to be said.

This had been his answer.

"I will turn down the assignment."

"Obviously," Li hisses, "Why do you think I'm here, for the company? With another Shu team infiltrating the castle, the King can't possibly send away his shiny new security advisor."

The alarm. It hadn't been a mistake. Li wanted them to know she was here.

"You will stay here and finish this." She said the words as if there was no doubt of Rani's allegiance, as if joining the King's council had been part of her task, as if she hadn't been stabbed by Li herself.

Rani only nods, not trusting herself with words. Anything she can think to say would shorten her life considerably.

///

However Li intended to leave the palace she was smart enough not to ask for Rani's assistance. When she left the guard in her room Rani half hoped she would get caught by some Ravkan, though explaining what a Shu warrior was doing in her room would surely complicate things.

The alarm bells are still clanging as Rani throws herself around corners, uncertain where to find the King but aiming for the study that she was brought to after seeing Tara's room. It appeared to be the Kings.

As she races around another corner, Rani almost trips over a wayward Grisha.

"Watch where you're going." The tone is so like Li's that Rani almost steps away. Before her stands the Squaller that tried to sweep her off the roof, her dark hair swept back from a face that seems to be frozen in haughty amusement.

"Where is your King?"

"I would hardly tell you."

Rani can't help herself as her face goes cold, "I didn't realize I could make an enemy whose name I don't even know."

The Grisha blanches at that, "I am general of the Second Army and if you continue to test my patience, I will show you why."

"Ladies, I really wish you wouldn't fight over me like this."

Rani whirls. The fox is there, all mischief and smiles as he surveys the girls facing off against one another.

She throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. The King to his credit, pauses in surprise. After a moment his arms snake around her waist, pulling Rani close until her head is buried in the crook of his neck.

Zoya lets out an irritated huff.

She doesn't hear the words passed between them, the reason her King had been so intent on gathering the Shu assassin into his arms.

"There is a Shu spy in your palace."

Then Nikolai had pulled her closer, until her lips rested against his ear until he could hear her over the clanging of alarm bells. He had not quipped, had not asked if it was her she referred to, had only said, "Tell me."

As quickly and as broadly as possible, she did. Told him that the Tavgharad had come, knowing she was here and alive. That they knew she was going to be sent away from the palace soon. She left out that they had been here once before, that she had been told to kill him. Instead, Rani made it seem like Li had come to finish what she had started on the train and end Rani before she left for the border.

It was a flimsy, stupid lie but she couldn't tell him. Couldn't get the rest of the truth past her lips.

She told herself that it didn't matter. She didn't know who had been passing information to Li, only that it had happened.

It didn't matter that she lied to him.

But in her heart, she knew it wasn't true.