“Kyven,” I called into the darkness. “Are you down here?”
No answer.
Loose earth squished beneath my shoes. Soon, the passageway widened, delivering me into the cellar proper. Shadows moved within shadows, and I stopped. For the second time in as many minutes, I’d almost collided with someone.
Before me, a figure crouched, rooting through a crate that probably held the dregs of last year’s scraggly potatoes, or maybe the stunted mushrooms Miss Quist had requested. I couldn’t tell, what with the sunbursts still lingering on my retinas.
“Just so you know,” I said, “I don’t appreciate having to chase?—”
The figure straightened and whirled. A fist caught me by the windpipe, then forced me backward until my shoulder blades hit the wall. Dirt rained down, grit clogging my eyes.
I flailed, trying to fend off my attacker, but the hiss of a blade leaving its sheath made me freeze.
Because that wasn’t just any blade. It wasmyblade. My dagger. The belt at my waist suddenly felt much too light.
My pulse sped as panic pumped along every nerve. Without my weapon, I was defenseless. “Give that back.”
But the grip at my throat only tightened. Cold steel pricked my jaw.
Gods among us. If I could’ve drawn a proper breath, I might have actually laughed. Kyven had shown his true colors.Finally.
“I knew it,” I wheezed. I sounded borderline hysterical, but I was about to be murdered in a root cellar by my own husband, so I couldn’t judge myself too harshly. “I always knew you?—”
“Shut up.” The knife-tip dented my skin.
My mouth snapped shut, my mind spiraling into nothingness. Because that voice didn’t belong to Kyven. It was...awoman’s. I blinked, trying to clear the debris from my eyes.
Slowly, features emerged from the darkness. A long, elegant nose. Full lips. Dark hair, braided into a coronet around a heart-shaped face.
I stared. I’d never seen this woman in my life. She didn’t even look to be from Oceansgate—instead of a shabby, thrice-mended dress, she wore a man’s tunic over deerskin leggings.
I stared. “Who the hell’re are you?”
When she didn’t answer, suspicion hatched in my mind. “Wait. Are you one of those outlaws, from the woods? What’re you doing here? Are youstealingfrom us?”
“Stealing?” Her nose wrinkled. “Since when is taking from the rich considered stealing?”
“I don’t know,” I hissed. “Probably since laws were invented?”
Her gaze narrowed.
I glared right back. I probably shouldn’t have goaded her, but I was sick to death of the misconceptions. Thejudgment. “Look, lady. Just so you know, no one in Oceansgate is rich. Least of all Olivian. So how about you piss off, back to the woods? Go tell your little bandit friends to stay away. There’s nothing here for you.”
My outburst earned me a jab of the knife. I winced, though she hadn’tquitebroken skin.
“We’re hungry.” She leaned in. “And you’ve got food. Seems simple enough to me.”
I sneered. “You realize there’re twenty-eight people living in this house, right? Look around. There’s hardly anything here. If you take our food, we’ll?—”
“Unhand her.”
I froze, my mouth clicking shut. Becausethatvoice, I recognized.
Shadows rippled as Kyven emerged from the tunnel behind my assailant. “Now.”
The woman stiffened. “My...lord?”
My brow wrinkled.My lord?She couldn’t even see him. How did she know to call him that?
