"Don't go in there," one of the harem members warned me. Nerves warred over her face, as if she hadn't wanted to speak up.
"Into the courtyard?" I asked, pointing needlessly to the huge arch in front of me that led to a square shallow pool surrounded by marble paving stones. It was one of the places I loved the most.
"Don't go." She shook her head, a haunted look filling her eyes. The other harem girls behind her whispered to one another but didn't say anything loud enough for me to hear.
A frown knitted across my brows. What was going on? Why were they acting so weirdly about this when I was walking around about to start doing what I did every other day.
"I'm sorry," the woman whispered.
"What?" Now I was getting even more confused.
"No one dared to stop him," she added.
Horror filled me. What had Seth done after Abu had stopped him from taking me? I knew it couldn't be good. Not when the harem girl was acting this way. They never talked to me unless they had to, most of them were completely uninterested in the things I did with my time. Mostly because they were too focused on their own troubles.
Instead of heading their warning, I sped up, my bare feet padding against the floor. I wished I had my sandals, but I'd gone straight from the dancing to Seth's whipping pole, then Abu's room. No one had given me a moment to go and retrieve them.
Silence replaced the whispers, making it even more unbearable. Deep down, I think a part of me knew what to expect when I finally got into the courtyard, but nothing could prepare me for seeing it with my own eyes.
I'd seen some bad things in my time in this compound, but Sophia's blank eyes staring at me from the middle of the pool with blood swirled through the water was something I never imagined possible.
Rage bubbled in my gut as I took it all in. Hot tears stung the corners of my eyes, but I forced them back.
I didn't need anyone to tell me what had happened here. Seth was to blame. He was always to blame.
By doing this, he'd changed everything. Now I just needed to figure out what I was going to do with that.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE MOONLIGHT SHONE through the vines of the garden and illuminated the carved stone walls. I'd spent an entire day trying to come up with some way of getting my revenge on Seth, but nothing seemed good enough for what he'd done to Sophia. She'd been the only person who'd approached being a friend to me in years, and I hated that I'd lost that.
"Rhodopis? Is that you?" Abu whispered.
"Yes."
He stepped out of the shadows and tiptoed towards me. "What's with all the secrecy?"
"I made myself known to Seth," I answered honestly. "Now everything I do is going to be monitored and reported back to him. One toe out of line and..." A lump caught in my throat, stopping the rest of my words from escaping. He probably knew already. I was certain the news had spread like a sand storm through the temple.
"Is this safe?" He looked around, as if expecting someone to jump out of the bushes.
"As safe as it can be," I responded. "Though that doesn't say much."
He stepped close to me and reached out a hand, hovering it over the small of my back. I longed for him to touch me properly, but he didn't.
It was probably for the best that neither of us get any more attached. If we did, then him leaving with the rest of Ra's party was going to cause us both pain and stop either of us from moving on in our lives. Well, it would stop him from moving on. I doubted I had any moving on to do. I was still going to be trapped here. I'd always be a slave, and I'd still have a target on my back, none of which seemed like a good thing from where I was standing.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to come." I spun away from him and hurried back in the direction of my rooms.
"Rhodopis, please wait." He reached out and caught hold of my wrist. "Don't leave."
"It's not safe."
"I don't care about that."
"I do," I countered. "If you're caught..."
"Seth can't do anything to me," he pointed out. "If he did, he'd bring down Ra and all of the others on him. I can safely say that it's safe for me to talk to you."
I wondered if it was worth pointing out that I wouldn't be safe. But endangering me wasn't something he had a choice on. It was my choice and no one else.
"Why did you ask to meet me?" he whispered once he was certain I wasn't going anywhere.
I chewed on my lower lip, wondering if I had what it took to say this out loud. "He killed a girl." My voice cracked as the words came out. "Someone I thought was becoming my friend." The first one I'd had in several hundred years. That wasn't something I was likely to give up easily.
"I'm sorry, I know that must be hard."
"It is." I didn't elaborate. The last thing Abu needed was to learn how many people I'd said goodbye to over the years. None of them had been family. I had no real concept of what it felt to have them
