Thread of Darkness

Ch. 25: can you love someone that doesn't deserve it?

Anna looked around the Tower.

Watery sunshine filtered through the window, settling on the thick rug and silkscreen. Shambles snoozed on the narrow bed, one ear twitching whenever the shutters clicked shut in the breeze. Anna leaned against the windowsill, staring out over the lake. It felt like several months had passed since Nyxos had visited her in a dream.

In reality, it had been...

She did the mental calculations.

Twelve hours? Fifteen hours?

Her throat felt raw, sanded by dust and ash. She crossed to the wash basin, dabbing her face with a cloth. There was a cracked mirror above the basin, and she caught a slash of hollowed blue eyes. Pale skin. A dry, chapped mouth.

She looked tired.

She felt tired.

She thought of Grim's Marketplace. The burning tents. The smell of sulfur. Speaking to Inigo by the wagons. He was Cal's son — the vendor she'd once purchased poison from — although she hadn't seen Cal.

"Do you know where Da is?" he'd asked, accepting a red lollipop. "I haven't seen him."

Anna shook her head.

"Oh." The young boy seemed to think for a moment. "When you find him, can you tell him that I was very brave?"

A lump had risen in her throat. "I'll tell him."

In truth, Anna had no idea if Cal had survived the attack. Had no idea how many casualties there'd been today.

Her grip on the cloth tightened.

Whoever was burning the villages — whoever was killing her people — she would find them. She would hurt them. Goddess, king, or mortal; it didn't matter. Anna set the cloth down, leaning her head against the cool glass.

Something fuzzy twined around her leg.

Anna looked down. Shambles was sitting on her foot, looking up at her expectantly. She sighed, leaning down to scratch his ears.

"Hello, you little demon," she said.

Shambles headbutted her leg. Anna picked him up, cradling him like a baby, and the cat looked mildly affronted.

She tickled his stomach. "I'm going away for a few days. Save some rats for me."

Shambles tilted his head, as if to say, "what could be more important than rats?" Anna scratched his neck.

"I don't want to go," Anna said. "Believe me." She set Shambles on the bed, patting his back. "But I have to track down a mythical sword so that I can kill a goddess and save the man that murdered my family."

Shambles — who had been mid-purr — paused to look at her in astonishment. Or maybe he didn't, Anna thought wryly; maybe she'd just spent months locked in a tower with only a rat-eating cat for company and now she was going a little mad.

Okay.

More than a little mad.

Anna sunk on to the bed, tickling his chin. "Don't be too impressed. I'm not helping Ryne Delafort for the sake of it; I'm doing it..." A sour taste filled her mouth. "Well, I have to do it, apparently. To save my own skin."

The sick feeling intensified.

She played Camille's words over again. Dissected them from every angle. But the worst part, Anna thought, was that it made sense. Nobody could love Ryne without dying; she'd fallen ill after stealing the Map of Nyxos. At the time, Anna had assumed that she'd been drained from using too much magic, but now...