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In the pitch black, he felt more than saw her come alongside him. She reached for him, but her fingers bumped into the shield. “Here—this side.” He tried to rotate and soon felt her fingers circle his other arm by the elbow.
His mind flashed back again to the feel of her warm skin and beating heart when she’d pressed his palm to her chest. As if the situation hadn’t already been hard for him, that feeling, that touch he had longed for but never in a thousand years expected… with her own hands clutching his over her wildly beating heart.
Gods, how could anyone have done what they’d asked of him in that moment?
He loved her with the heat of a hundred suns on a summer day. He hadn’t known it, not like he did now, or perhaps he wouldn’t have even gone to the temple.
But the stone. Some of the heat in his chest went cold. It was real. It was true. The prince wasn’t a conniving liar. Technically, he was right.
Well, if Alekur was right, Jav had to be wrong. There wasn’t much choice about it. But that didn’t change the fact that this woman, this girl, his friend, this person he clearly loved but to whom he could never, ever confess his love, was deeply corrupt.
Maybe he was corrupt too. Maybe the gods just hated him, to punish him like this.
He focused on the steps. Less thinking. More surviving. If the gods hated him, there wasn’t much he could do about it, except wonder what fresh tortures might lie in store. There was plenty of time for that later if he survived.
Focus on the stairs. First one step, then the next. Go as far as you can. Maybe you can save her.
If he couldn’t? Better to die trying to protect her than pretend to live, dead inside from killing someone as kind, as innocent, as sweet as Iseris.
Chapter 11
The City Streets
Iseris hurried down the steps, doing her best to guide Javarin as she clutched his arm to her side. He was hurt. She had no idea how badly, but each grunt and groan he tried to stifle filled her with new guilt. And fresh dread.
While this passage would keep their progress secret, it was not especially direct. The steps led to long stretches where they couldn’t fit side by side as the passage went between walls of rooms, then opened up again to more stairs. This way took time.
Too much time.
The palace guards would surely be looking for them by the time they made it out into the streets. None of her plans had involved an active hunt going on. She’d always just assumed that if it ever got to that point, it would be far too late for her to succeed in her escape.
She was no fighter. She knew nothing about how to defend herself. If Jav hadn’t been here, this escape would have failed three times over already.
But he was. He was here. How had that even happened? The notion was breathlessly exhilarating. He’d been on her side. Even with all that pressure on him to carry out their wishes. And he hadn’t done it—even when the stone had shown him the truth. Its light illuminated her true corruption, and it made her flinch in the darkness, that now he knew the truth.
At least she no longer had to hide.
But if he thought her corrupt, it hadn’t prevented him from coming with her. Even if he only did what he said and hid her away, a monster in some cave somewhere, at least he’d cared about her enough to keep her alive.
It meant something. No, it meant everything.
They reached the end of the interior passage. An old, rotting door swung out into a large storm-drain tunnel. The tunnel opened into a ditch that ran out along the main thoroughfare toward the town walls. Torchlight and street lanterns from the nearby shops cast enough light for her to see palace guards interrogating each person they passed. She slumped against the wall of the drain.
“They’re looking for us,” she whispered. “This isn’t good.”
“How far to the stables?”
“We’re on the opposite side.”
He shook his head, hung it for a second, then scanned the street again. “I don’t think we have time for that. We’ve got to get out of here. And fast.”
“What does that mean?” She bit her lip.
“It means we’re walking. Come.” He looked up at her, blinked, then grabbed some grime from the tunnel wall and smeared it on her cloak.
“Hey! What’s that all about?”
“You look too much like a princess. Too clean.”
