Post by Regan Lassiter on May 16, 2023 18:28:56 GMT -5
[ For @warren ]
Nights were the hardest—but then, that had always been the case. As a child, it had meant laying half-awake, sharpened shank tucked in her jacket, waiting to stab the hand that reached for her in the dark. Then, as a soldier, that restlessness and fear had driven her to the training yard to beat back the demons who reached for her in the night. She’d formed habits to cope; cultivated a hunger powerful enough to keep her charging fast and far so that the creeping fingers of fear couldn’t snag her by the hem of her coat.
“Hello, kitten.”
Regan’s eyes snapped open, leaving her to wonder whether she’d actually gone to sleep in the first place. The smell of Alys’s burning flesh filled her nostrils with a sickly sweet scent and the sound of Logan’s—no, Apollo’s—voice still rang distantly in her ears. She waited for it to dissipate and for reality to return.
Why did Othello have to drag up memories that were better off buried?
Regan reached into her bedside table and uncorked the whiskey and took a long drink. And then another. And then another. She waited for a moment, hoping that something might change and dull the panic that had started to spring up in her chest. It didn’t. Regan took another drink anyway—just for good measure.
There was no going to Cassian. She knew better than to call on the king unless summoned. So, Regan sought the man who had offered her safe harbor. Who’d already glimpsed what skeletons lurked in her proverbial closet. If only he knew there was so much more where that came from.
Her boots echoed on the cobblestones that led up to Warren’s home in town. Regan wasn’t drunk, but she wasn’t quite sober either. The fire would burn the drink away soon enough anyway, so for now, she used the courage it gave her to propel herself forward. Whether he had been serious about his invitation or not Regan was about to find out.
Approaching the door, she took a flask out of her pocket and took a long draw before sticking it back in her jacket. Hesitating for a moment, Regan reached up and rapped on the door.