Aurelia is a Courtesan, not an Assassin. Her world is turned upside down, however, when she kills a high-ranking Senator in self defense. Given his status, and the political power his family wields, Aurelia knows she will be executed without a trial...
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Countdown: 2 Days, 21 Hours, 4 deaths
Aurelia's fingers curl and uncurl around the empty file folder she holds, her throat tight. She rubs at it absently with her left hand, feels the firmness of her larynx beneath a thin layer of warm, smooth skin.
The morning sun is too bright, too hot, in the walled-in back lot of Backstage Bar, but it is better than being cooped up inside. Aurelia feels as though she will suffocate if she spends another minute in the place.
"You need to call that Merc boyfriend of yours," Colin murmurs lowly, his eyes hard chips of obsidian as he re-reads the words printed on the consent form signed in Sera Baliem's clumsy hand.
Aurelia's eyes slide over the paper and then away, blinking when she glances too close to the sun.
She has already read through them. There were words she didn't recognize- arytenoid cartilage, thyrotomy, resection, lamina propria, vestibular fold, anterior commissure and internal perichondrium- but the overall message was clear through the convoluted medical terms.
Aurelia had unwittingly signed her consent for a total cordectomy- for her vocal cords, her voice, to be cut from her throat.
If it had been any other physician who had walked into that room... She might have been fooled by the trap Marci had set for her. She may have been strapped to the exam table, stuck with the needle, paralyzed and numbed as a piece of her humanity was excised through her lips.
For a moment, she wonders what it would have been like, to take a breath and move her lips to shape a soundless stream of air.
The persistent nausea that has been present since she looked through the file intensifies and she runs her hand over her neck again.
"He doesn't want to hear from me," she murmurs in response to Colin's order, and the addict harumphs.
The thought of Kaol makes her gut wrench, the breath whoosh out of her lungs. The thought of him is nearly as uncomfortable as the thought of losing her voice.
She had tried to hurt him as deeply as he had hurt her, had sent him away. She's afraid she might have succeeded. She swallows the ball of emotion that rises at the back of her throat, blinks her eyes to chase away the burn that has started there, dissembles as only a courtesan can.
It doesn't fool Colin though.
"The boy risked drowning to help get you off Gilt Island. One fight won't keep him away," Colin replies, his gruff voice surprisingly gentle, for once.
Aurelia's gaze snaps up to meet his, shocked at the reassurance in his tone. When he catches the astonishment written into her expression, Colin scowls and glares at her.
"Besides, this ain't about you, you selfish Rat," the return of his usual insults make the corner of Aurelia's lip quirk upwards, in spite of herself.
"If the Belvadosi are targeting servants who can't read, the mercs should know. But we can't tell them without exposing you. Your boyfriend's the only way to get the information to them."
