Within the Walls [NEW VERSION]

Chapter 10

Larissa opens another closet, revealing an array of shelves brimming with fresh, gleaming Tranq helmets, the shade of dead coals. She glances at me, narrows her eyes, and plucks a smaller headpiece from the lower shelf. Her lower lip sticks out as she holds it above my head. I nod and suck in a breath. Larissa slides the helmet over my head, and the heavy warm metal jabs into my skull.

She fixes my clothing with a chest plate and armour for my shoulders and arms. My thin frame looks like it may collapse under the armour, but it's all lightweight and moves easily with me. Larissa fastens a belt around my waist and disappears to a shadowed part of the room. She returns with two knives. My mouth falls open.

"Why do I have these?"

She slides the blades into sheathes, pinning them to the belt. "Every Tranq has a special weapon. Yours are the knives. Perhaps we can fix you with a sword, too." Larissa quirks her lip before grabbing a spearhead staff from another shelf. She presses the button, and the spearhead retracts back into the staff like claws, so the weapon is only a foot long. I nod as she slides it into the strap on the belt.

"She has a sword," Ruben says and my gaze snaps up. He leans against the doorframe, crossing his arms against his chest. His smirk drops. "We found her sword in her apartment during the arrest."

My cheeks burn. He nods to the wall of lockers on the opposite wall. There is already a locker with my name. E. Fallon. "Go on," he says.

I toss him a glare, pry the door open and loosen a gasp. My father's sword, with the Fallon family emblem, rests on a hook. The light above our heads gilds the... freshly polished blade.

Ruben clears his throat. "I had the palace blacksmith give it a polish and sharpen."

My heart creeps into my throat and I reach in. That's when the blood, no doubt, drains from my face. My dagger... the one I used to kill the Tranq, rests on the small shelf in the lockers, engulfed in the dim of the brass walls. A tremble rips through my hand as I grasp its hilt, running my thumb over the grooves of the twin snake emblem. My stomach convulses. For a moment, wisps of the coppery scent of blood drip from the shining blade into the air. "Are you... sure, your grace?" I swallow bodily.

"Larissa said it herself," he says, closing the space between us. "Your weapon is the blades."

I open my mouth to respond but his scent... citrus and the forest, renders me silent. Still. My breath echoes around my head in the helmet.

Ruben reaches over me and opens the locker next to him. He pulls out a sleek bow, and a quiver teeming with arrows, clad in iron-carved points. "Mine is the bow."

Larissa ushers me into a brown leather couch in the room's corner. She pulls the helmet off and winds my hair into two braids along the sides of my head and down my back. Then, she adds a dusting of makeup to my face. Concealing the bags under my eyes. Swiping black onto my lashes.

"Won't my face remain in the helmet?" I ask, suddenly wishing for it, to hide any sliver of expression from the prince and his odious lingering glances.

"We are just going for a tour of the Concave Sector," Ruben says, fixing the bow and quiver to his back. "You don't need the helmet."

He takes the sword from the locker and places it across my back, the strap of the scabbard crossing my chest. Everything in me wants to set fire.

"Careful," he says, waggling his finger, catching my gaze. "Your eyes are going to fall right out of your head."

Larissa giggles, and I shoot her a glare. I thank her for her help before slipping out of the building after Ruben. "Would you like to see my town?" Ruben asks as soon as the sunlight drenches us. He gestures to an approaching horse, pulling a large, mahogany carriage.