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“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” she replies as she straightens her gown.
“You have to stay alive, Flora. You cannot taunt him.”
Her eyes are full of tears when she turns to Rafferty. “I don’t have a choice. Serving him after what he did to my brother—” She chokes out, and rage burns hot through me.
“He forces you to stay here,” I say, recalling what she said when she came down. She doesn’t have a choice—not any more so than Rafferty chooses to remain behind those bars.
“Part of my sentence,” she snaps.
“He—” I choke out, my voice not wanting to form the words.
“Taranus is a monster,” Flora tells me.
“You need to get her out of this castle,” Rafferty tells Flora.
“It’s impossible. They watch her like a hawk.”
“Not right now. They can’t find her.”
Flora narrows her gaze at me. “True.”
“So get her out. Now.”
“Um, excuse me, I’m standing right here.” Feeling like a third party in a conversation that directly involves me, I raise my hand. “Literally, right here.”
Neither bothers to look at me. “Get her out. That’s an order.”
“In case you’ve forgotten, we’re both here because of one of your orders. You’ll excuse me if I’m not jumping to follow another that would lead to us both dying.”
“Flora—”
“No,” she interrupts. “I’m not leaving you. Besides, they took my wings, Raffe. We won’t make it past the gates before we’re both so full of arrows we’ll make the quivers jealous.”
Rafferty reaches through the bars and grips Flora’s hand. I watch, feeling like a third wheel, yet again, as her bottom lip quivers. “My fate is sealed. Yours is not. Perhaps you don’t get her out tonight. Play the game, stop with the rebellion, and sneak her out at your first opportunity.”
“Your fate is not sealed. I will get that key, and I will free you.”
“Key?”
“To the cell,” Flora replies. “Conary carries it with him everywhere.”
“He spends a lot of time with Taranus?”
“Yes.”
“I can get the key.”
Flora stares at me a moment before crossing her arms. “You can get it.”
“Yes. As it happens, being a hungry orphan earned me some skills as a pickpocket.”
Rafferty grips the bars, and my pulse increases quickly when his eyes meet mine. Probably not a good thing, given I’m pretty sure Flora and he are a thing. “Doing so could get you into trouble,” he says.
“Staying here seems like it will do the same. I’d rather take my future into my own hands.”Besides, it’s not like I have long left to live, anyway,I add silently. Just because I’m feeling better doesn’t mean I’m not still dying.
“If you free me, I will get you out of here.”
“I want to go home.”
