“I don’t just mean tonight,” he cut me off. “You need to leave Elion’s castle.”
“What?” It was the last thing I expected him to say.
“You aren’t safe here.” His voice lowered, but he didn’t add anything else.
“Because I was at the party?”
“It doesn’t help when you do stupid things, but no.” A muscle in his jaw twitched. I only saw because I realized I’d been staring at his mouth. “King Elion isn’t who you think he is.”
That snapped my gaze up to his. “And who doIthink he is?”
“Your escape from Dahes, your savior. I don’t care how you want to look at him, but Elion isn’t it. I’m assuming right now that your life is drastically better than it was in Moriann, but you can’t stay here.”
“You’re a dick.” I turned to open the door, but his hand caught my wrist. I stared at our skin, realizing mine still had color. My Token wasn’t reacting.
He bent forward, his breath hovering close to my ear. “He’s keeping you for collateral. Eventually there will be something Elion wants, and if Dahes is after you, you’ll be the first thing he trades.”
I turned around slowly, my back pressing against the door, as my breathing hitched. He let go of my wrist, but he didn’t move out of my space.
I knew there was another reason Elion was keeping me, and being kept for collateral made sense, but I couldn’t shake the feeling there was something more.
But it didn’t matter his reasons. For now, staying here worked in my favor. I was going back to Dahes one way or another, and I couldn’t leave here until my hunt was done.
“What?” I asked, not realizing he said something else.
His gaze hardened as he took me in, and I felt like he could see right through me. “I said, you should be scared.”
I went to open my mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “Why do you even care? You completely ignored me all day and now you want to pretend you’re helping me?”
He didn’t answer right away. His gaze lingering on mine for a heartbeat before he spoke next. “Leave tonight. Head to Inyaerille. You can blend in as a commoner there.”
I swore I saw the slightest hint of emotion flash across his face, but then it was gone, and he was already turning around to leave. I watched him walk away, my hands shaking with my back still pressed against the door.
It only took me a minute to recover before I went into my room fuming. First, because of the audacity of Arrik. And second, because I was pissed he thought I’d blend in as a commoner of the Fourth. From what I knew about Inyaerille, it wasn’t much better than the streets of Moriann. Most of the exiles came from there and it made up ninety percent of Viven’s crimes.
Why did he even care if I stayed?
Why didIcare?
What was his point in telling me to leave? What did he mean byentertainmentand if he was supposed to find it, why did he let me go?
Suns, I couldn’t sort out any of my thoughts. I wasn’t even used to thinking this much. Most of the time, my mind was blank, and besides blocking out whatever horrendous thing Dahes made me do, I usually had nothing to think about.
My life was predictable. Horrible. Dreadful. Suns-awful. But predictable.
I started pacing my room, contemplating sneaking back out, but fear had me momentarily staying.
Ineededto leave. Ineededto find out any information I could on Hael and the fact that I had none right now was stressing me out.
I couldn’t go back to Dahes empty handed…
What if he wouldn’t honor our deal?
I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t risk Dahes’ retaliation compared to one night of being some rider’sentertainment—whatever that meant. Dahes could do more harm to me than anyone else here.
Because if I didn’t do exactly as Dahes wanted, he’d go after Masin.
So I left. Again.
