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He shrugged, but a smile lingered on his face. “Nah.” He snuffed. “Well, actually that’s not entirely true. There was this group situation once…”
Neia groaned but her expression was grateful as she looked at Orman and me. She knew the motivation for me running off the guards then.
“Thank you, Orman,” I said.
He nodded and kicked back against the wall again. With the guards gone, everyone’s postures slumped, and the tension seemed to drop to a low buzz between us. Ishir leaned against a corner, his gaze fixed on the hallway. Orman yawned and closed his eyes while Neia and Elisa whispered together.
It left me alone with my thoughts and gave my mind space to shift to the memories it wanted to linger on, hold, and examine.
Lira.
Lira, knife in hand as she begged me to help her get away. Lira hunched and frowning as her eyebrows knitted together. Lira warm and soft and so incredibly beautiful in firelight that it stole my breath even more than her hands on me did.
I hadn’t even feared her elemental powers in that moment.
I was in awe, like I couldn’t believe she would allow me to be with her. Like I was Goddess blessed to share the same air she did, much less know her so intimately.
Leave it to me to destroy that.
I observed the members of the team scattered throughout the cell, thought of Luz somewhere in the palace, and my siblings—Amyra sitting with a pile of paperwork as she prepared to take the role of maharani, my youngest sister, Veena, twirling around and singing in the palace courtyard, Shaan and the heaviness that had surrounded him in the last six months. My choices couldn’t be about my feelings. I had others relying on me.
It didn’t change how my heart and mind wound around Lira and every moment we’d shared. I closed my eyes and leaned back but even after every member of the team eventually drifted off to sleep, all taking turns to keep watch, I sat awake staring at a dimly lit crack that ran along the stones on the ceiling.
My thoughts kept slipping back to Lira.
It was almost like I could feel her presence in the palace, the warmth of it.
That was ridiculous, of course. You couldn’tfeelanother being. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but imagine her laying wide awake somewhere in this palace, as restless as I was.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
LIRA
Sleep evadedme as I stared at the spools of fabric that made up the canopy of my bed. Lennox slept in the next room, though I was certain he was behind a locked door. He may like me—God knew why, I was trouble everywhere I went—but he wasn’t a fool.
I thought of everything Luz had told me about the history of the fairies, how they liked Lennox but hated his father, and the plans the Seelie had for the Prasanna. Sai had to know about those, didn’t he? He must if Luz did. All his scheming and stealing was to help his court. I was right to believe he was loyal to it. He just wasn’t loyal to me. I was a stranger, and I couldn’t blame him for that. It might have been different if we hadn’t had sex. I knew the act could be casual, but to me it had been the opposite. It felt like my soul had merged with his.
I rolled over and curled against the pillow. More signs of my foolish, immature heart to believe such nonsense. God, if Mother knew, she’d use that as an example of what a child I was. She’d always been right.
You’re smart and resourceful.
Luz’s words echoed through my mind.
How I needed them to be true.
Before the gala, I could free the group from the jail. I owed it to Neia and Elisa if no one else. They’d both been kind to me, Elisa especially. The idea of the King executing her sent a jolt of terror and revulsion through me.
I jumped out of the bed, the ivory nightgown a serf had provided me with spooling around my ankles. Damn it. How would I get them out of jail, though? I paced and thought and worried. As the sun rose in washes of tangerine, an idea formed. I didn’t know if it would work. It might cause me to end up locked in with them. I had to try, at least.
I dressed quickly, struggling with the laces in the back of the skirt, before tangling my hair into a quick updo and approaching Lennox’s door to knock.
Several minutes passed, and I considered raising my fist again when the door pulled back and Lennox appeared in a gray wool outfit. The sunlight that poured in through the windows in my room contrasted against the shadows of his.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
“All’s fine. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
His expression hardened like he wondered why I would suggest he was still sleeping at this hour. He appeared perfectly coifed and pulled together but he was also still in his room and had taken a while to answer. “No,” he said. “Did you need something?”
