The Grim (Ravens #3)

xxi. another sleepless night

Three nights had passed since their arrival in Monarchia, two since their great discovery of their old friend living in their midst. But by the time they reached the early evening of their third full day and they had yet to hear another word from Emma, a quiet panic had settled among the whole group, manifesting more violently in some than others.

"I'm gonna find her," Donny declared, lying flat on his back on the motel bed. The sun had yet to set completely, but the sky was beginning to darken. Night would fall within the hour. "Hunter won't make any moves before he and President Grey finish their negotiations."

"Or he's stalling until one of us is killed," said Skylar, seated by the door with the gun laid flat on the table. Currently on watch, it seemed to Donny like she was always the responsible one now, that Sebastian's judgement had been off-kelter from the moment he realized he had a personal stake in the ground.

"Emma would have warned us if things had gotten more dangerous," he said. "I'll be fine. Besides, Seb's the one they want. I'm inconspicuous."

"You're stupid," Skylar muttered. "But if you want to go I won't stop you."

"Go," said Sebastian, his voice solemn, serious. "Make sure she's alright. I'm worried she's in over her head."

"Oh she's definitely in over her head," Donny said quickly. "I mean, I don't have any idea what's going on here, but she's too mixed up in this. We're gonna get her out of this, right?"

"Obviously," said her brother. "I'm not going back to the Fortress without her."

"Isn't that what got her stuck here in the first place?" said Skylar, ever the pessimist. She received a harsh glare from Sebastian, but simply added, "I'm just saying. It's not like I haven't heard the story before."

A heavy silence hung in the air as both boys realized she was exactly right, yet neither could find any rationale for how they could allow their friend, their sister to remain captive in such a harrowing environment. Sebastian eventually mumbled, "There's a big difference between Monarchia and the forest," to which Skylar simply shrugged.

"You can't save her if she doesn't want to be saved."

"I'm going," Donny said, throwing on his gym shoes, clearly in no mood to hear his truths challenged. "Tell Phoenix and Levi when they get back." And the door slammed shut behind him.

------

Emma was seated on the edge of the bed that wasn't really hers, the one she slept on within in the walls where she lived and behind the door the servants referred to as her own, but she knew it did not belong to her. It was the assassin's room. It was Brutus' once. Now she was its inhabitant. She was replaceable, disposable. It would not be long before it became someone else's.

She heard a knock on the wooden entryway and took a deep breath. It wasn't Ezra, that she knew for sure. He'd spent so many nights away from the servants' quarters that some of the guards had begun to get suspicious. Their romance was of course no secret, but the powers above them were always fearful of conspiracies lurking within the modern palace walls.

She heard footsteps entering the room, but didn't turn to look at who they belonged to. Guards, she figured. They were there to inspect and make sure she didn't have any blades on hand. Almost every week they swept through, made sure their violent little weapon could not become a weapon of her own. She always found their unsuccessful sweeps comical; the knife was securely tucked away under the sole of an old pair of tennis shoes.

"Em," she heard a voice whisper. She froze, and ever so slowly turned around. Standing in the doorway was Donovan Mayler, her old friend, the boy she'd once grown to trust with every secret she had ever kept. The boy she at one point thought may have known her better than she knew herself, kept her grounded when the world was spinning just a little too fast. Back then he didn't know he was her rock. She was good at feigning independence.