Page 74 of Bloodwitch

Lev’s eyelids wavered up at Safi’s touch. Her pupils pulsed and swayed, as if she knew Safi was there, but couldn’t quite find her.

“What have they done to you?” Safi whispered.

Lev laughed, a drunken burst of air. “You… should see the other guy.” It was all she got out before her eyes lolled shut again. Her body sank into the chains.

Footsteps pattered behind Safi. She whirled about to find an Adder slinking in—one who had regularly stood sentry outside her bedroom. At first, relief dissolved through Safi’s limbs. This man she knew; this man could help her with the Hell-Bards.

Then she caught sight of the poison darts in his left hand. The famed tool of the Marstoki Adders, no larger than sewing needles, with small tufts of black on the end.

And just like that, Safi remembered all the stories she had heard growing up, of Adder Poisonwitches so powerful they could corrupt a person’s blood directly in their veins. Of wicked assassins who would stop at nothing to protect their empress. Of darkness and torture and pain.

“You… poisoned them.”

The Adder bowed his head.

And Safi rocked back a step. “Will they die?”

“Pain and sleep,” he said. “That is all I gave them.”

“Gavethem?” She gaped at the tear tracks on Lev’s face. “That is not a gift. They saved your empress’s life. Mine too, and probably a lot of other people’s in Azmir—so you repay them with pain?”

No reaction in the Adder’s posture. The poison darts rested unwavering upon his gloved hand. “Please step aside, Truthwitch.”

“No.” Safi squared her shoulders toward him. “Does the Empress know you’re doing this? I cannot believe she would allow it.”

“I have orders.” He claimed one step toward her. “I must follow them.”

Still, she stood her ground. “Whose?”

“Stand aside.” Warning sharpened his tone now.

“Whose?”

“Mine.” Habim strode into the cell. Startling, unannounced, and with a grim slant to his jaw. “Leave,” he ordered Safi, a general through and through. “This is no place for children.”

Safi did not leave. In fact, she could do nothing but stare. This was not the man she knew. On the surface, he might wear the same face, same frown. But underneath…

I don’t know you anymore.

“Why is she here?” Habim asked the Adder.

“The Empress wants her to use her magic upon the Cartorrans.”

“It will not work.” Habim flipped a dismissive hand her way. “Hell-Bards are resistant to magic.”

I don’t know you. I don’t know you.The urge to scream grated down Safi’s spine. But all she said was: “How could you torture them?”

For three long heartbeats, she did not breathe. She simply held Habim’s gaze, willing him to answer. She didn’t care about his plan, she didn’t care about their roles as court Truthwitch and Firewitch general. The world was upside down, and nowhehad to make it right again.

At last, Habim said, “I would command him to torture you, Truthwitch, if I thought it necessary.”

A lie, a lie, alie. Also not an answer.

“Take her away,” he ordered the Adder. “And tell Her Majesty that I already have all the answers I need.”

“No,” Safi snarled before the Adder could move. “I won’t go until I’ve seen them freed.”

“Then you will wait a long time.Take her.”