Because I was too busy taking in our surroundings.
Where we stood.
It was—
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“Told you,” Ryan said, sliding the grate over the sewer again after Lady Tina climbed out.
“What is it?” she asked. Then she frowned. “Gods, these are the slums? It’s far worse than I ever imagined. And you came from here? No wonder you—”
“Not the time,” Justin snapped, and she looked sufficiently cowed.
“This is…,” I started but couldn’t find the words to continue.
Ryan came to stand beside me. “I stood just there,” he said near my ear, pointing down the cracked cobblestone road that stretched out before us. “I didn’t know why I was so upset to see you walking away with Morgan. I hated you. You were annoying and stupid, and I thought I’d be happy to see you go. I told myself I was just angry because you were getting to have a life I would never have. That it was unfair.”
“But you were just already lusting after me.”
“You were eleven.”
“Okay, maybe not lusting.”
“You turned back and waved at me. Just once. And then you were gone.”
“I remember. It was….” I shook my head. “I don’t know what it was. Funny how things turn out.”
His smile was a beautiful thing. “Yeah. Funny how things work out.”
“Are you two finished?” Justin asked. “Because we don’t have much time.”
I glared over my shoulder at him. “Excuse me. We’re being romantic. It’s not as if—”
The morning bells began to echo over the City.
“Shit,” Ryan said. “We need to move. Now. Sam?”
“Got it. I know where we are now. You’re sure it’s empty?”
He nodded but wouldn’t look me in the eye for reasons I didn’t understand. “It’s empty. Lead the way.”
I didn’t have time to question him. I moved toward an alley to our left, the others following.
It was strange, really, an odd sense of dissonance crawling over me as we made our way through the slums. Before Myrin rose to power, before Vadoma and my Destiny of Dragons, I’d made a point of coming back to the slums as often as I could, if only to remind myself where I’d come from. Ryan never came with me, more inclined to forget the past and focus on the future, but I was okay with that. We were just different that way.
The slums looked mostly the same, maybe a little drabber and more run-down, but the buildings stood as they always had, their shutters hanging off their hinges, gutters dripping water onto the broken cobblestone. It was grimy and dark and felt more like home than Camp HaveHeart ever would.
Justin and Ryan had told me that those who had been captured in the City had been relegated to the slums, that it was more like a prison than anything else. No one was allowed out, whether they be rich or poor. All were treated the same here, and while I thought there was a twisted sort of justice to it, everyone here was a prisoner. It didn’t really matter what they’d thought of me or what they’d done before I’d disappeared. They were all the same, and they didn’t deserve any of this.
Candles and torches were lit in windows and doorways as we kept to the shadows, moving through the slums toward our destination where we’d camp out for the day, waiting for dusk before making our way toward the castle.
It wasn’t long before we exited an alley onto the street where I’d—
I stopped.
Ryan crashed into the back of me, and I took a stumbling step forward. He grabbed me by the shoulders, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the sight before me.
There, between two dilapidated buildings, was our little house.