Page 5

"Murderer," hissed a young woman further down.

"Why do you do this to us?" cried a frail man behind me.

Dozens of angry voices piled on, screaming curses laden with pain and fear.

"Come on now,Savior," Holden sneered. "Let's not keep them waiting."

Grabbing my arm, he shoved me down the corridor.

I stumbled forward, barely catching myself as I kept my gaze focused on the thick iron door at the end of the cell block. It helped me pretend I didn't hear the hateful words.

Despite my best intentions, my gaze slid tohiscell as I passed.

Liam …

He didn't scream at me like the others, but his moodiness wasn't much better. His cell was diagonal to mine, and he spent most days lounging atop his straw bed or sleeping off the moonshine he'd managed to acquire from some crooked guards.

Not this time, though. Liam's green eyes bore a hole straight into my soul.

Why wasn't he yelling at me with the rest?

Without my help in getting onto the Isle, Frexin would never have been able to invade Dragon's Peak. I may not have been there, but I might as well have been.

And beyond that, I had worked for her, failed to save Tye, and caused that poor Forest God, Rien, to be captured.

I would hate me …

But Liam just watched me in silence, expression so dark I barely remembered the sunshine lordling I once knew.

And after poor Gram and Mirrim were taken to those red doors with me …

My throat tightened at the memory.

He'd tried to talk to me then. But I couldn't even look him in the eyes. Not for weeks afterwards …

My fault. It was all my fault.

"Keep walking, bitch!" Holden snapped, his club slamming into my back.

Pain cascaded through my body, but I refused to let him see it, forcing my leaden feet to continue walking, knees only buckling a little.

"You've got this, dear." The kind words from Mrs. Harlsted struck me, and I fought back the tears that tried to escape my eyes. I lifted my gaze to meet her familiar face, that dark curly hair now bedraggled, her full cheeks gone gaunt. But her green eyes, so like Liam's, were warm and full of concern, despite her many months in this place.

She gripped the bars and smiled at me, and my chest ached.

Despite kindness being dangerous in this place, the Harlsteds had refused to join the others in ignoring or hating me.

And as a result, Holden targeted them nearly as much as he targeted me.

I clenched my fists at my side, forcing myself to look away without responding. I had to keep them safe until they could escape, and that meant trying to keep my distance, pretending they didn't matter to me.

Chest aching, I focused on the cell block door looming ahead.

Holden stepped past me and unlocked the watertight door with a key, then turned the handwheel to unseal it.

The door screeched as he pulled it open, and the sound of people in the next block crying out struck me like a wave.

Steeling myself, I stepped through, one shaking leg after the other.