Luce had a plan. But what kind of plan could she have that included her getting captured and thrown in a cell without magic? The seed of hope in my chest flickered. I’d been in here for weeks unable to find a way out, what could Luce possibly do from the inside?
“Lennox?” Nol’s voice was rough with sleep as he shifted on the makeshift bed, the lantern casting him in shadows and orange light.
“Does your plan allow room for one more?” I stepped aside to reveal Nol.
“Luce?”
My cousin sucked in a breath. “Nol?” Her voice wavered. “Is that really you?”
Nol stood. “It’s a long story, but yes, it’s me.”
“I don’t—” Luce placed a trembling hand on Nol’s shoulder. “You’re real. You’re not dead.” Her voice wobbled. “I knew you weren’t dead. I told everyone I could feel it. Holy fuck. Nol, you’re alive.”
She threw her arms around Nol, crushing him to her. “I’ve missed you.”
“Not as much as I’ve missed you,master storyteller.”
I let Nol and Luce have their reunion—they had always been closer—Nol and Luce were a pair and me and Kara and I were the other.
They’d always had so much in common being the heirs. They were each other’s best friends, and Kara was mine.
I sat back and listened as Nol filled Luce in on how he had ended up here and what had transpired since I arrived.
“They put a hand on you?” Luce whipped her head toward me.
Iflinched as I remembered the sting of the whip against my back. My still-healing scars tender against my clothes.
I lifted my chin. “Yes.”
“Luka will go on a killing spree when he hears that.”
Besides everything, I let myself smile slightly. “Not if I do so first.”
Luce rolled her eyes. “Has she told you about him?” She bumped her shoulder against Nol’s.
“About her mate? A little, yes.”
“Wait until you see the two of them together, they’re insufferable. You should have seen how they tried to resist one another. Drove us all insane.” She smirked.
Nol’s eyes met mine. “I can’t wait to meet the male who has managed to win over my sister’s heart.”
“How is he?” I asked tentatively. “Luka, how has he been?”
“Insufferable. We have to practically force him to eat and sleep. He’s ready to run himself into an early grave looking for you.”
“Is he mad at me—for what I did?”
Luce placed a gentle hand on my arm. “No, he’s not mad at you. He knows you, Lennox. He knew, walking into the mountains that day, you would trade yourself for Kara if it came down to it. He’s worried about you. And he misses you.”
The mark on my palm burned. I traced my finger over the lines.
“And he’s been irritable as fuck, but I’m sure that’s partly because he’s gone from fucking you incessantly to nothing.”
“Luce!” I shrieked, slapping her on the arm.
Nol groaned. “I didn’t need to hear that.”
“Better get used to it Nol, because Lennox and Luka are not quiet, and you know the moment they are reunited they’re going to start ripping each other’s clothes off.”
