Page 40 of The Cost of Blood and Bonds

The words land flat and final. A ripple moves through the yard because we never end this early.

“Weapons away, and everyone out,” Grier says with no further explanation.

Then, quieter. “Gemma, come with me.”

I stand there, watching her walk away, and the space I thought I had with her feels like it just narrowed. Like someone drew a line I didn’t see until I’d already stepped over it. And the worst part is, I know I’m on borrowed time. I can’t miss her while she’s still here. I won’t push again, but I have to find ways to be around her before she’s gone.

Chapter 13

Gemira

Three weeks, and still nothing. I search night after night, always turning back before dawn. I’ve covered every corridor I can justify being in, every route I can explain away, and it’s led me back to the same two doors I can’t get through unnoticed. The princes’ suites and the King’s.

The doubt creeps in. I fold the panic away and focus on what’s solid.

Grier and Finn have checked the dungeons, every entrance and every corridor, but the certainty doesn’t settle the way it should. Those spaces are too well concealed, built into the earth below the training yards, with stone shaped so seamlessly that the grounds seem to have simply grown around them. The King’s kind of magic. The kind that makes hiding places invisible.

What if there are more, somewhere none of us have thought to look?

My resolve sets, and I move outside.

I find the cold stone below the training yards and move slowly along the wall. My hands do the work, feeling for seams that aren’t seams and rough patches worn too smooth. The cold creeps into my fingers, and still the wall gives nothing away. I keep moving.

Then the pattern shifts along the far edge of the yard. Not loose or hollow, but different. A section of wall shaped with a care that doesn’t match the surrounding weathering. It’s too smooth and too intentional, like something there once moved and was persuaded to be still again.

My pulse spikes. I’m right.

I test it gently, but nothing answers. Magic has hidden it.

I can’t do anything with it tonight. It will need watching, one of us at a time, switching out before anyone stays long enough to be noticed. If the stone ever opens here, if someone slips in or out, then we’ll see it.

Hope flickers in my chest, and I turn back toward the castle, startling a bird from a branch overhead. I look up and find the sky has already begun to pale. Dawn is already closer than it should be.

I’m almost to the servants’ entrance near the kitchens when footsteps echo ahead of me. I stop.

A guard rounds the corner with his gait unhurried. He’s not rushing or alert, just doing his rounds.

I shift back instinctively, but it’s too late. He’s already looking at me.

He slows.

“Swordmaster,” he says in a neutral voice.

My chest constricts. I turn, schooling my expression into something calm. “Morning,” I say.

“Training staff aren’t permitted in the inner corridors before the kitchens open,” he says.

I hesitate for just a fraction. “I thought I’d go for a walk.”

“These corridors are restricted until the morning rotation,” he continues. “I’ll need to note your presence.”

The space between us feels suddenly very narrow, and my stomach drops.

Footsteps approach from behind him.

“There you are.”

Rye’s voice cuts cleanly through the tension. He jogs up beside me with the ease of someone who expected to find me. He looks at me and is about to glance away, then hesitates. His eyes drift over my face and a frown starts to form, like I’m not quite what he expected.