MARKS - Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

My words are caught inside me. Where they should have stayed to start with. I swallow and glance from Ward to the others. His command lingers in my head. Tell them why you’re here.

Why am I here? His face is hardened, his mouth a tight line, and the space between his eyes furrowed. He glares at me, as if I refuse to give him answers.

I narrow my own eyes at him. “You tell me.”

His face doesn’t change. The line, the furrow, the scowl. He could give Scarlett a run for her money. “What?” he asks through clenched teeth.

I tilt my chin up. “You dragged me here. Why?”

“You’ve been followed by the guard for weeks.”

Followed? Oh, heavens. I’ve been past Ashtin’s. And I ran to Meggie’s the other day when those Blackfeet….

Is that what this is about? My fear must show on my face because Ward tilts his head and stares, then yells. “Tell me what you’re doing!”

I flinch so fiercely I nearly topple over the seat backwards.

“Ward.” Nolan rises from his seat.

Ward takes a step to me. “I need to know what she’s hiding!”

“Enough.” Nolan’s voice clips across the entire room, and everyone else goes silent. He lays a hand on Ward’s shoulder. “Sit down. You’re scaring her.”

Ward’s face relaxes, as though Nolan’s words have jarred loose the tightness from his features. But he doesn’t apologize. Just sits down across from me. I wrap my arms around my stomach, which pitches and swirls. My secret, my very life, hangs by a thread he is eager to pluck from the air and strangle me with.

Nolan sits down next to me. “Ward brought you here.” He searches my face. “Do you know why?”

I glance at Ward, hating that I’m shaking so bad he can see it from where he sits. “At first, I thought he was going to take me to the King.”

Ward scowls.

Nolan continues. “And when he didn’t, what did you think?”

“I thought he was going to…” I stare at the ground, the rocky bumps of stone blurring in my vision.

“Going to what?” Ward jumps to his feet again. “Arrest you for something. That’s what you thought. Why? What did you do?”

My head snaps up. Arrogant ass. “I thought you were going to rape me or hurt me.”

Blair gasps. Ward’s eyes widen and redness sweeps over his face. “Why would you think I’d do that?”

“Because you’re a guard. That’s what guards do.”

The hardness is back, this time set in his jaw, and he looks away from me.

Nolan takes my hand. “No one’s going to hurt you, Gretta, least of all Ward.”

I don’t know if I believe that. I bet he’d love to shake me right now, given how I’ve offended his honor in front of these people. “How do you know?”

“Because he’s my wife’s little brother, and I’ve known him all his life. And because even though he’s a guard, he’s not loyal to the King.”

Silence falls, and I’m sure I’ve gone deaf. Not loyal to the King? And freely stating it? Great Saints. A million words and questions dance in my mind. There is a guard not loyal to the King but doing his bidding, and scraps of paper all over the city with my words and my name on them. I swallow and let my eyes find Ward’s. “Why’d you bring me here?”

“You were being followed,” Ward says.

“Why?” My voice croaks when it comes out. Saints above, I need water. And air.

“You were seen by the fire, then Breck had an interest. He’s had you followed.”

He meets my gaze and a shiver runs through me. “Why’d you let him?”

“You think I can stop every bad thing a guard does?”

No. Because one person can’t stop all the bad ones. I know this better than most. But Ward gives me no time to speak.

He sits and rests his forearms on his knees. “Breck followed you to Dunway Street one day, and we know you don’t live there. Then he saw you around another printing shop. That piqued my curiosity, too.”

He stops, his eyes probing mine. Looking for a reaction. For guilt.

“What were you doing at a printing shop?”

The silence hangs heavy, too dense a space for me to fill up. A lie, Gretta. The closest thing to the truth. I pick a place on his face and stare at it. “Looking for work.”

He leans farther forward on his knees. “Why were you at the fire today?

“I heard guards talking about burning Mavery’s shop. I wanted to warn him. So he could save what he could and start over.”

“Why?”

Great Saints, has being a guard tainted his thinking this much? “Because he’s an innocent man!”

Ward pins me with a stare. “John Mavery is a Lyran sympathizer.”

My eyes widen. “What?”

"He’s been hiding words in his paper for months.” He cocks his head to the side. “You sure you don’t know anything about that?”

I sure as Saints don’t. Great skies above. I shake my head. “I just wanted to warn him.”

“Well, you didn’t have to.”

Oh Saints. The King already knows about John, then? “Why not?”

“Because I already had.”

He might as well hang himself right now. He’s so neck deep in disloyalty the King would have a heyday with him.

Ward shakes his head. “Whatever you’re doing, the guards are on to you. You can’t go home. They’re suspicious, and you know too much now, anyway. I won’t have you undoing what we’ve worked so hard for.”

We. Who are we? Who are these people? They know Ward’s not loyal. And they’re hiding out. Which means they’re up to something. But what?

“I don’t know what your story is,” Ward says. “But I don’t trust you.” He scowls at the ground.

Incredible. He’s a guard, hiding out from the King and warning Lyran sympathizers, and he doesn’t trust me? Great skies of heaven, the devil himself would be trustworthy compared to him.

Ward stares at the floor as if searching for answers in the crevices of rock. When he speaks his voice is tinged with irritation, as though my very presence annoys him. “I’ll try and get word to your aunt that you’re safe somewhere.”

“Mera’s not my aunt.”

“No, really?” He glares, victorious in his mocking, then he stands. “I have to get back, or they’ll wonder where I’ve been.” He strides off without a word.

I turn to Nolan. Surely they don’t intend to keep me here. Nolan lays a hand on my knee. “I’m afraid Ward’s right; we can’t let you go back.”

Shaky breaths leak out of me. How soon before the King knows about Ward, before he finds these people? And then finds me? I take another gulp of air. “What if they hurt Mera?”

“Ward won’t let that happen.”

Nolan squeezes my knee. How can they be sure? The King is everywhere. His evil is everywhere. And no one can stop him.

I look over at Blair. She has blonde-brown hair, like Ward. “You’re his sister?” I ask her.

“He’s not all bad, I promise. Though I’ll be honest and tell you a lot of times I want to drag him down to the springs and hold his head under water.”

She and me both.