Fugitive Read Online Free PDF Page A

of Korr, her other son, the dark son.
    “Why isn’t Korr here?” my sister asked. She didn’t know. I hadn’t told her.
    “He isn’t coming,” I said.
    She turned her wide-eyed gaze on me. She’d always loved him, despite his horribleness. “What? Why not?”
    “Let me give you your gift,” I said instead of answering her question.
    She sighed. “You spoil me. I don’t need—”
    The necklace I withdrew from my pocket silenced her. She reached for it, cupping her hand around the delicate chain and ruby pendant.
    “This is beautiful,” she murmured.
    “Surprised?”
    “It was your grandmother’s,” my mother told her. “The Empress.”
    My sister’s face glowed. She put it around her neck and turned to face the dining hall, where the food and drink waited. “Let’s go in, shall we?”
    The guests began to arrive in trickles, shaking off the rain and the perpetual frowns of worry that the nobles wore these days as they entered, and slowly, the house filled with the sound of laughter and voices. My sister relaxed and began to enjoy herself. I could not. My heart thudded, and my pulse flicked against the cuffs of my party clothes. I scanned the room for any sign of Beregrin, but he was not there.
    In my breast pocket I carried the paper. The paper with a message for another revolutionary, the person I would meet that night.
    “Happy birthday, little sister,” I heard a familiar voice say.
    I whirled.
    Korr stood in the doorway, holding a bottle of wine and wearing a smile like a peace offering. He didn’t look at me. Our sister rushed to him and embraced him.
    “Gabe said you weren’t coming!”
    “He is often wrong,” Korr said, gazing down at her and ignoring me.
    “Did you bring me a birthday present?” she asked, smiling.
    “Well, I brought someone else you like.”
    My mouth went dry as my former betrothed stepped into the room behind Korr with a rustle of silk. Lakin was lovely, too lovely, like a doll made of porcelain, a thing from a dream.
    My sister hugged her and exclaimed over her as I turned to thread my way through the crowd. I wanted to put as much distance between Korr and me as possible.
    A hand stopped me. My half-brother. I opened my mouth to snap at him.
    “Don’t cause a scene,” he said, cutting off my angry words. “Not on her birthday.”
    “Don’t pretend you care anything about that.”
    “You’re so eager to paint me as a monster—”
    “I merely seek to illuminate what is,” I said, grabbing his wrist and twisting it so the ring that had been mine caught the light. Korr said nothing, and I dropped his arm and shoved my way through the crowd.
    Lakin found me by the drink table, drowning my sorrows in champagne.
    “You look wretched,” she said quietly. “Do you want to talk about it?”
    I pinned her with a glare. Surely she mocked me.
    “Gabe,” she said, and laid one gloved hand on my wrist.
    I stared at it. She quietly removed it. Her lips pinched together in the way that I knew meant she was holding back words she wanted to speak.
    “Say it,” I muttered, throwing back another swallow of champagne and wincing as it tickled the back of my throat. “Whatever it is, just say it. I can take it.”
    “Somewhere private?” she asked, glancing around at the guests.
    I raised an eyebrow. “The last time we spoke in private, it was devastating to me. Forgive me if I’m a little reluctant.”
    “Please,” she said, and I relented.
    She stepped into the servant’s hall, and I followed her, putting out a hand to steady myself against the heavy wooden paneling. The hum of the party was a whisper here. Lakin’s face was awash with shadows. Her eyelids fluttered as she squinted at me.
    “I’m sorry that my presence here causes you pain.”
    “It’s not you. It’s him.”
    It was her with him. I didn’t say that.
    I didn’t have to, though, because she read it in my silence. “Please allow me to explain.”
    “I don’t want to hear words about