Page 12 of Daughter of the Ninth Line, Part Three

Twelve

Avalon

T he muscles of my legs felt like they’d been seared in a firepit as I climbed the stairs to the atrium roof.

I’d told Vox that I would meet him there tonight, mainly because I’d wanted to lie in the bathtub and hope that my body magically regenerated.

The instructors had drilled us hard to assess our stamina in training today, and now I couldn’t feel any of the muscles below my navel.

At least I hadn’t vomited over the rail, like half the class. I’d waited until we were dismissed, then puked in a bush just off the path back to our rooms.

Vox’s jacket was bundled tightly in my arms, though I’d picked it up and put it down at least three times before leaving my dorm room.

I wanted to keep it so bad; something about the scent of Vox that remained in the fibers was soothing.

Which was creepy as hell, and borderline stalkerish.

It had been that line of thought that had me grabbing it as I walked out the door.

Besides, I wouldn’t want to be accused of being a thief, and who would believe that the Heir to the First Line had voluntarily given me his jacket?

No one. Even the concept was ridiculous.

Climbing the stairs to the Upper Line dorms slowly, I kept my head down, but obviously the Goddess wanted to add to my misery today. As I made it to the fifth floor, I had the misfortune of running into Ephily Ingmire and a group of her friends.

Fuck.

Keeping my head down, I tried to scoot around them and up the next set of stairs, but she moved herself into my path.

“Um, excuse me, are you lost? What are you doing above ground level? Dirt scrabblers aren’t allowed up here.

It’s the only place the Upper Lines can escape your stink.

” She curled her lip in disgust as her friends tittered behind her.

Goddess, I hated this entitled little witch.

My brain scrambled for an adequate excuse to be up here.

Ephily wouldn’t believe that it was at Vox’s invitation.

Besides, I didn’t even want to tell them what he was doing up on the roof.

I’d seen how excited he was last night, seen the joy that staring at the stars brought him, and knew that it was something private, something he didn’t want to share with anyone else.

So I held up his coat. “I found his jacket and was told that I should bring it up to the First Floor dorms. He insisted on it.” My voice sounded higher than normal, but I doubted Ephily would know that.

She reached for the jacket. “I’ll take it. I was going to see Vox anyway,” she purred, and I could just imagine her sashaying into the First Floor dorm like she was the savior of outerwear.

I looked at the beautiful woman in front of me, who was definitely the type of person that Vox Vylan would marry.

Connected, gorgeous, biddable. I’d never seen her look like anything other than a painting created by a master artist. Her clothes were tailored to fit perfectly, her makeup expertly applied with a practiced hand, making her look naturally flawless.

She’d look so good in those First Line portraits that were distributed to all the Lines, like we were meant to salute their visage every morning. It was how I’d known what Vox Vylan looked like before I even arrived at Boellium. I’d watched him grow through his official family portraits.

However, the Vox of last night, his eyes alight as he described meteor showers and constellations, looked nothing like the boy with the sad eyes in those paintings.

Suddenly, I wanted to deny Ephily any chance of getting her hooks into him. She would smother any joy that was left in Vox Vylan; I knew it in my gut. Shaking my head, I gripped the jacket tighter. “He insisted it should be me. I don’t want to be punished.”

The lie left my mouth so smoothly, a result of years of practice.

Lying to avoid punishments. Lying to avoid my father, or the guards who knew that they could kick me around a little and my father wouldn’t care.

The ones who hated they weren’t in a position of privilege, yet I was, so I was an accessible outlet for that impotent rage.

Ephily glared at me. “I’m sure it will be fine.

” She tugged at the jacket, and I held it tighter.

We weren’t outside, so she couldn’t use her terraforma powers on me, though someone more powerful from her Line might’ve been able to bend the stone from the walls.

But Ephily wasn’t an Heir. She was just like the rest of the conscripts—a sacrifice.

“No.” I met her eyes. I would not be moved on this.

She glared back at me, then smirked. “Fine. I’ll walk you up. Wouldn’t want you getting ideas and stealing from the Upper Lines. I know that’s how you dirt scrabblers get by.”

I was going to punch Vox in the chest for that stupid name. It was usually used against the Eleventh and Twelfth Lines, because it was very dry out west, where there were vast fields of desert.

However, the Ninth Line Barony was near the mountains. If there was any dirt for us to scrabble in, it was under three feet of snow and frozen solid.

I turned and strode up the stairs, trying to think of what to do next.

Maybe I should just hand over the jacket, go back down to my dorm, and apologize to Vox tomorrow.

I’d use the downtime to work out a better way to get to the roof, so I didn’t have to go up the dorm stairs and be subjected to this fun little interaction again.

We climbed the stairs in silence, with Ephily’s little troop of clones behind her. As I reached the door to the First Line’s dorm, I sent out a silent prayer that Vox hadn’t left yet and that he’d play along.

Reaching around me, Ephily knocked. She looked smug, which gave me a bad feeling. My stomach sank when it was Shay who answered the door. She looked at me, then at Ephily. “What?”

In the face of Shay’s coldness, Ephily seemed to shrink back a little. “Is Vox in?”

Shay sucked on her teeth, continuing to glare at the woman beside me. “No.”

Ephily shoved me forward a little. “This girl from the Ninth Line stole Vox’s jacket, and I’ve brought her to you for punishment.”

I whipped my head around. “You lying bit?—”

“You can’t trust those Lower Lines,” Ephily continued sweetly, talking over me like I hadn’t even spoken.

Shay just gave her a dead-eyed look. Damn, I was glad I wasn’t on the other side of that expression.

“Indeed. You can go now.” She stared down the group until they left.

Once they were all down the stairs, she looked back at me.

Her eyes were too appraising, as if they’d weighed and measured me, and found me wanting.

I resisted the urge to squirm beneath her scrutiny, until finally, she nodded.

“You can go now too. Take the jacket with you—it’s cold up there tonight. ”

I blinked at the woman in front of me. She was powerful; I knew that from the rumors that went around Boellium. But the awed whispers were not about her strength, they were about her cunning.

“You’re kind of scary, you know?” I told her softly, and she cracked a smile. A genuine smile.

“Thank you. Now go.” She waved a hand at me. As I turned, she whispered, “But Avalon? If you betray him, there isn’t a corner of Ebrus where I won’t find you and make your life a fucking misery.”

I nodded, hightailing it out of there before she decided to preemptively cut me down. I didn’t exactly know how she thought I could betray him while making maps of the sky, but I’d promise her my left tit to get out from under that all-seeing gaze.

I hurried up the short set of stairs that led to the roof, but stopped dead in my tracks. Vox was at the telescope, which was unsurprising. However, lying on the couch, his feet up on the armrest and a book in his hands, was Hayle.

I blinked and shook my head. This couldn’t be right.

They weren’t fighting or glaring at each other. Normally, they could hardly be in the same auditorium without sharing barely veiled insults and flexing their powers against one another.

“Did I trip down the stairs and injure my head again?” I asked, and Vox lifted his eye from the telescope.

“You’re late.”

I shrugged. “Apologies, Your Highness, that I’m late to this unpaid job you demanded of me,” I teased, smiling so he knew I didn’t mean it. “I had the misfortune of running into Ephily on the stairs.”

Hayle grimaced. “Did she try to grope you as you walked past?”

Vox grunted his agreement.

Surely she doesn’t actually do that. “Uh, no. She tried to have me punished by Shay for the theft of your jacket. Shay very satisfyingly put her in her place, which was almost worth it.” I shuffled over and held out the jacket to Vox. “Here it is, by the way.”

Vox looked down at me, his normally piercing eyes dark in the shadowed light. “You still aren’t warm enough. You need to bring your own jacket.” He held it up for me. “Put it on.”

I didn’t want to tell him that my father hadn’t let me leave for Boellium with my jacket. I’d known I’d have to smuggle out actual clothes, but I thought he’d at least give me the decency of letting me take my coat.

He hadn’t.

Luckily, it was spring, so even the mountains were warmish. Except at night. Those first few days, I’d almost frozen to death. But as I moved further south, it had gotten warmer, so I’d forgotten the need for one. Until now.

Not arguing with Vox, I slipped my arms in, and a soft noise behind me had us both looking at Hayle.

“Um, I’m surprised to see you here.” Without bloodshed . I kept that last bit to myself, not wanting to tempt fate.

Hayle put his book down, standing and stretching lazily like a big cat waking up from a nap.

He swaggered over to me, an intimate smile on his face, the one that made my heart pound in my chest. “I enjoy being outside at night, and the rooftop atrium has the best view of the stars. Besides, you’re here, which makes it the only place in the world I want to be.

” He grabbed my hips and brushed his lips across my cheek.

My eyes felt impossibly wide as they bounced between Vox and Hayle, Hayle and Vox. Waiting for something: a fight, an explanation, an exorcism. Something.

Vox rolled his eyes and looked back down into the telescope. “Taeme invited himself along to our nightly gatherings.”

My brain stuttered. “And you don’t mind?”

He looked up again, his gaze drilling into mine with an intensity I didn’t understand. “No, Avalon. I don’t mind.” He dropped his face back down. “As long as he doesn’t get in the way of our work.”

With a low chuckle, Hayle lifted his hands from my hips and backed away. “You won’t even know I’m here.”

Vox snorted, then suddenly, he went rigid. “What did you mean you fell down the stairs and hurt your head?”

Damn it.