I turned to face him in the doorway. “I love you.”
55
Maren
Wood cracked behind my back as I closed the door. Stripping, shredding, wrenching apart. I spun around, scrambling to fit the only key into the lock.
Footsteps pounded on the other side, something large and heavy dragging behind them. A muffled, heavy thud vibrated along the lower edge of the door from a rough kick, followed by the bellowed tenor of my name.
But it was the scent of terror that made me pause. Every bit of molten metal that had tainted the air a few moments ago vanished in the place of acrid, sour fear.
Something hard and wooden exploded, causing the door to shudder again.
I cringed. I’d liked that chair.
The palace was quiet, its inhabitants tucked into their chambers. My feet scrambled down the stairs of Kye’s tower, taking them two at a time, then jogged across the sky bridge to the western wing where I fished Selena’s key from the crane’s throat and quietly inserted it into the lock.
Soft, rhythmic breathing met my ears. Two pairs of lungs from Thaan’s rooms, low murmurs through the walls of the shared office. I crept across the floor to locate the source of the third.
Selena’s eyes opened the moment I laid my palm across her mouth. She glanced up at me, a pool of calm water, though when I drew my hand away and she sat upright, I noticed her fingers dripped. She shook them out over the floor, flecking her rug with dark spots and letting her legs drop over the edge of her bed. I sat next to her, careful to avoid the lavender nightdress that rippled out around her hips.
“Are they asleep?” I whispered, cocking my head toward Thaan’s door.
Selena listened for a moment to the steady hearts beating nearby. “Yes.” I held out her apartment key, sitting in my palm next to my own. Selena’s brows rose.
I bit my lip. “There’s a pissed-off man in my tower. The guards are allincanteduntil morning when they wake up, so no one will hear him if he’s loud. And I’d hate for him to have to explain to a servant why he’s in chains alone in his room with the door locked.”
Half-way through a sleepy stretch, Selena threw a sharp glance at me. “Nikolaos? Why is he chained up?”
“To keep him from following me.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get the stone.”
She stared at me for a moment, shock igniting the blue in her eyes. She stood. “No.”
“I didn’t come here to ask for your permission.”
“No, Maren. Go back to your tower. Climb the stairs. Apologize to your husband.”
“The moon is full in three days and Thaan wants me to kill Hadrian.”
Selena’s heart sped. She looked a bit green as she gulped back a thought, waving her arm with a shaking hand. “So kill him.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do mean that. Do I want Prince Hadrian dead? No. But if the alternative threatens your safety, then there’s nothing to consider.”
“He’s Kye’s brother,” I snapped in a whisper.
“Nikolaos won’t be the first to lose a sibling to Thaan,” she snapped back. “Don’t place the fault on your shoulders. You didn’t write your contract, Maren. But you did sign it.”
I sighed, the taste of poison suddenly creeping up the back of my throat. “No. If I’m to stain my hands with blood, I at least get to choose the paint. And I don’t choose Hadrian’s.”
Selena crouched, inserting herself into my line of sight. “The moment you touch the Juile Sea, Sidra will know where you are. She’ll find you before you find her.”
“I know. I’m counting on it.”
