exterior.”
Aprestine’s mouth twitched. “Perhaps I am.”
She turned to look at him then. Katherine was still occupied, she had rolled over onto her back and was now staring up at the night sky with a look of such amazement that Aprestine wondered if she’d ever been outside. She was certainly milking her two days of capture for all they were worth. Now that she was safe, Marcus seemed relatively unconcerned with his sister. His eyes were on Aprestine’s, and he was looking at her like he had the day they had first met, like she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Aprestine was used to men looking at her like that. What she wasn’t used to was looking at them right back.
“Marcus, I-”
Aprestine broke off as an arrow sailed past her face and embedded itself into Marcus’s heart.
FIVE
“Marcus!”
If Aprestine had been feeling more like herself, she would have made a comment that it was nice to see Katherine come alive at the sight of her brother falling to his knees. She would definitely have felt irritated at the way the girl crawled towards her brother’s body, reaching out to touch him whilst at the same determinedly avoiding the blood that was running onto the sand.
Marcus was gone. The information he had, that he’d promised her, it was gone. Her body felt numb as she slowly spun around, searching for Marcus’s attacker. It didn’t take long to find them.
A small boat, smaller than theirs, had been discarded in the ocean and left to drift back out to sea, whilst the man from the alley - Tony, Marcus had called him - was walking up the beach, a crossbow in one hand and a cigar in the other. Good. That meant he had no hands to defend himself with when Aprestine came at him with everything she had. Still, she had to wait for the right moment. And she had to find out why.
“Didn’t even know this place existed.” Tony said, taking a long, hard, puff from his cigar. His fingers were stained yellow which, for some reason, made Aprestine hate him all the more.
“How did you find us?” Aprestine said. Her eyes scanned every inch of him, looking for weakness. He wore leather armour, which wouldn’t be good enough. Not when she took Marcus’s sword and plunged it into his chest. She was almost looking forward to it.
“Followed you, din’ I?” Tony said. “Now, you know what I’m here for. Hand it over.” He nodded his head towards Marcus’s body.
Of course. He was here for the lantern. What he didn’t realise was that the magic in the lantern was already gone. It was inside Aprestine. And now she really was looking forward to a fight. A sword wouldn’t be good enough, not for him. It was stupid, and it was reckless, and if she stopped to think about it, it would be a waste. But she was going to do it anyway. She was going to crush him with every ounce of magic that had been inside that lantern, and she was going to enjoy every second of it. She straightened her shoulders and tilted her chin in the air. She couldn’t feel the cold anymore, nor the rain, not the way it made her hair stick to her face or the way it made her legs shake.
Tony hadn’t noticed her change in attitude. He was staring at Katherine as though he were trying to place her face.
“You.” He said. “I wondered where you was going to end up.”
This made Aprestine pause. According to Marcus, the catchers were the ones who kidnapped Katherine for the dragon. “You didn’t know where she was being taken?”
Tony shrugged. “No. Some man paid me handsomely to deliver her to him. Figured he had a few ideas on what he wanted to do with her, you know? Didn’t think she’d end up on some island in the middle of nowhere.” Tony looked around, like he had no idea what secrets the mountain in front of him held.
Aprestine had heard enough. Ignoring everything he’d just said, she asked, “Well, she doesn’t matter to you now does she? We both know why you’re here. So why don’t you come and take it?”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself.”
Tony strode towards them, kicked Katherine out the way and pulled Marcus’s cloak aside to reveal the now empty lantern. Aprestine smirked.
“What-”
Tony couldn’t finish his sentence. Aprestine clasped her hands together, and his hands flew to his throat as Aprestine constricted it with her magic. His eyes bulged, his nails clawing at his neck as though that would help save the situation. Katherine was screaming. Aprestine loosened her grasp on her magic for a second, allowing him a breath, allowing him to think he might still live, before squeezing even tighter. A horrible, retching, coughing sound, tore through Tony’s throat, and bubbles of saliva spluttered from his mouth. She wanted to go on, to continue this process of giving and taking his hope, but she could feel a small trickle of blood starting to pool beneath her nose.
She knew what it meant. It meant she was weakening, all over again.
Regretfully, she loosened her hold on Tony, and he sank to his knees, just in time for her to reach for the knife at her side and quickly slash it across his neck. He slumped to the ground, his glassy eyes staring straight into Marcus’s. Aprestine looked away, already regretting her use of magic. She had taken too much and she felt utterly drained, her hands shaking slightly whilst a fine trail of sweat dripped down her neck.
“You- you killed him.” Katherine said.
“What would you have liked me to do to him?” Aprestine asked coolly. “He murdered your brother, and would probably have done the same to us.”
Katherine stared at her, open-mouthed. Aprestine approached Tony’s body, nudging his cloak aside with one foot. Good. He’d brought his lantern with him, and there was a fair bit of magic inside. Perhaps this trip hadn’t been utterly worthless at all. Trying to avoid looking at Marcus’s body, she unhooked the lantern from Tony’s belt and muttered the incantation to claim the magic for herself. Feeling replenished, she glanced at Katherine, and then wished she hadn’t. The girl was staring at her, tears streaming down her face, her mouth slightly ajar like she couldn’t find the words she needed to say.
Aprestine was struggling for words as well. She knew she should try and comfort the girl, it was the nicest thing to do, the right thing to do, but she had detached herself from human company for so long that she had forgotten how to. Even the thought of patting the girl on the shoulder made her feel slightly alarmed.
Pushing back any thoughts of niceties, Aprestine tried to fill her eyes with steel as she said, “We need to leave.”
She marched across the beach and started to push their boat back down to the water. Marcus had moored it well, and she screwed her face up as she tried to push the heavy weight over the bank of sand that he’d haphazardly built to secure it.
“What about Marcus?” Katherine followed her, watching Aprestine struggle to move the boat but not offering to help.
“He’s dead. We can’t take him with us; he’d weigh the boat down.” Aprestine said. “Do you know how to row at all, or do I have to do that by myself as well?”
The boat was finally free and was slowly sliding down towards the sea.
“But we have to take him.” Katherine said.
“No, we don’t.” Aprestine said. The boat was in the water now, and she had to cling onto it to stop it from drifting off as it bobbed up and down on the waves. “But by all means, stay here and die along with him. I’ve saved your life quite enough today.”
Katherine’s lower lip trembled, but she managed to stop herself from bursting into tears again, much to Aprestine’s amazement. She hitched her dress up, splashing through the water and clambering inside the boat without saying another word. Aprestine pushed the boat forward slightly before climbing in herself, grabbing both oars and starting to row back to Deniz.
She had hoped Katherine would remain silent for the rest of the journey, but it seemed like the girl couldn’t help herself.
“Why do you pretend not to care?”
“Who says I’m pretending?”
“Because I saw the way you looked at him.” Katherine said. “You liked him. And then he died
and…you killed that man because you were angry with him. It’s what I would have done, if I could have. You wouldn’t want to get revenge if you didn’t care. But you act like you don’t. I don’t understand why.”
“Emotions are a weakness.” Aprestine said. “My mother taught me that.”
“Your mother is wrong.”
“My mother is dead.” Aprestine snapped. “She fell in love with quite the wrong person, and made some terrible decisions because of it. Decisions that saw her wind up at the bottom of a cliff. So you see, emotions got her killed. And I will never, ever, make that same mistake. Now shut up while I row.”
SIX
“Halt! In the name of King Annar!”
Aprestine was tying the boat back to the docks when she heard the voice of a Kingsguard. Looking up, she saw a group of three of them, standing a little way ahead of her. Their weapons weren’t drawn, but each had their hand very firmly on the hilt of their swords.
She helped Katherine out of the boat before bothering to acknowledge them properly, climbing up the steps to the main part of the harbour.
“Is there a problem?” She said, clasping her hands in front of her waist.
One of the men stepped forward. He was a good foot taller than her, which she supposed meant she should be intimidated, but really she just felt sick and tired. She looked at him with as little exasperation as she could manage.
“This boat’s been