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Daein comes down to the atrium, and once his boots touch the atrium floor, I step away from Elden.
Cutting my gaze to Daein, I see a flash of ice in his eyes before he turns to his brother. “Try not to torment my toys while I’m still playing with them, brother.”
Elden only replies with a cruel, dark smile before saying, “If only you let me have her for one Quiet.”
“And she would be returned in pieces,” Daein says as he pulls on his leather gloves and flexes his fingers. “Be gone, April.”
I nod once, an almost-bow, and scurry out of there like a rat to a dark corner.
My dark corner is the lake down the back of the castle. Only, when I finally arrive, Terry is nowhere to be seen. I must be late.
As I turn back to the castle to return to my room, I wonder how long the prince will be gone to the palace after the race. And then a terrifying thought creeps into my mind—
What if, in the drunken times they spend at the palace, Daein does agree to give me over to Elden?
Elden blames me for Daein’s rejection of this royal marriage. That’s why he seeks to destroy me.
It makes me wonder how safe I’ll be when the bargain is over and I return to my world, my little village where there is no deal to protect me.
Maybe if I just keep my head down and lay low for the next five weeks, keep out of the way, he’ll forget about me. Maybe Daein will come to his senses, as much as it pains me, and agree to the marriage.
That will get Elden off my back.
Perhaps for good.
It feels like no matter where I am or what I do, I’m a target.
