I Will Never Be Yours novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Quarryman

We went down to the cells together, and I set my terms on the stairs.

"Three rules," I said.

"Go on."

"I stay in the Luna's wing because I choose to, and I leave when I choose to. Nobody locks that door but me."

"Yes."

"You don't touch me unless I say so."

His jaw moved, and he looked straight ahead.

"Yes."

"And neither of us lies to the other. Not about Alder, not about the treaty, not about anything."

"Agreed." He glanced at me. "You didn't say the first one could change."

"It can't."

"Then I'll remember it."

His voice was dry, and I was too tired to tell if it was a joke.

Autumn walked behind us with the captain, wrapped in a guard's coat and still sniffling.

In the gallery she had said, "You absolute idiot, Sel," and hugged me so hard my ribs sang.

I had not corrected her about the name.

Down in the corridor the air stank of old iron and fresh blood.

Two guards stood outside the third cell, and between them a healer was kneeling over a man on the floor.

The man was grey-haired and broad, with a quarryman's thick hands.

I knew him.

He had ridden in the truck two seats from me and had never once looked at my face.

His shirt was soaked red from the ribs down.

"He was fine at supper," the healer said. "Someone put a blade through the bars while the guard was fetching water."

"Can you save him?" Caspian asked.

"It's too deep for me."

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