Page 68 of Queen of War and Ruin

“What are we going to do?” I whisper, half to myself.

“What in the hells were you thinking?” he replies.

I step back. Zarek looks like he’s about to scream.

“Why did you stand up?” he asks, in a low growl. “Why didn’t you stay where you were?”

“Excuse me?” I reply, anger curling inside my gut.

“You were safe!” he snaps.

“They were about to search the stalls!”

I didn’t realize how much my voice had risen until the echo plays back to me. I glance at the door to the room, my heart fluttering in my throat, waiting for the guard outside to throw it open and demand to know what in the hells is going on in here.

When I turn back to the window, Zarek shakes his head and closes his eyes.

“I wanted you out of here,” he whispers.

“Well, excuse me for trying to save everyone else,” I growl. “You might not have noticed, but I don’t think the guards believed that you were alone.”

Zarek doesn’t reply. The window casts his dim reflection into what’s left of the night. My anger fades as fear seeps in, crawling down my spine like a row of torches descending a mountain. I turn away from Zarek and sit on the edge of the bed, my hands twisting in my lap as I stare at the dark stain on the carpet.

Was that just last night? It already feels like a distant memory, maybe from another life.

Zarek sighs. “I distracted the guard once,” he whispers. “I’ll do it again.”

He turns to me, his eyes wide and his face pale against the shadows in the room.

“Go back to Elrick’s room and out the balcony,” he says. “Follow the same path across the roof, down to the stables⁠—”

I shake my head. “I can’t.”

“You can,” he says, leaning down to meet my eyes. “You’re braver than you think, Princess.”

“No,” I say, as heat rises in my cheeks. “We locked the door to Elrick’s room before we left. And then we pushed the dresser against it. From the inside.”

“Shit,” Zarek mutters.

He turns to the window, then back to me. “There’s a ledge in that wall. It’s not much, but it’s enough to climb across to the balcony⁠—”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Zarek, if the guard opens that door and we’re not here, where’s the first place they’re going to look?”

His head drops.

“The stables,” I say, answering my own question. “And if we’re not there, they’ll start to search the roads, right?”

Zarek doesn’t respond. I lower my voice.

“And if they search the roads,” I whisper, “they’ll find Elrick. And then what in the hells was the point of any of this?”

Zarek shakes his head. My chest feels tight as I watch him pace to the window, then back to the foot of the bed.

“You need to get out of here,” he says. There’s a harsh, ragged edge to his voice; he still looks like he’s about to scream. “It’s not safe. Not with⁠—”

He waves his arm at the wall blocking our view of the massive army marching toward the palace of Ethiria, before pacing back to the window. He runs his fingers through his hair, then turns to stare at me with wild eyes.

“You need to go out through the window,” he announces.