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Her gaze dropped again with a sigh. “Not tonight.”
My heart elevated in my chest, letting bright energy stream into my core. “But you will do it? You will try to find it?”
“Tomorrow, when he is assessing the soldiers,” she said. “I believe I know where he keeps it.”
“Thank you…” I all but exhaled, unable to stop the way I reached for her shoulder.
But only until she lifted her hand, stopping me, making me shift back onto my heels. “You best leave now,” was all she said before she dismissed me with the same swat she had used on the maid.
But shewouldhelp me.
In that, I found a grapple of hope and a faint caress of that love I’d always wanted from her. It had to be enough. Hells, it was more than I’d ever expected, so I turned away… only to stop.
“There isn’t nearly enough time for Lord Brisden to prepare for this attack. Not a single wagonload of grains made it to the keep yet from the granarys in the north. The Ravens got their fate back.” A heavy swallow. “Prince Malyrwilltake Tidestone. You should leave this place, seek refuge in Ammarett or somewhere near the capital. Betrayal or not, King Barat needs any allies he can get—even the treacherous ones.”
When no answer came, I returned to my room.
The maid must have been here already with how my down blanket puffed up from my bed like a cloud, how the fire ate at the new pieces of oak, and how my nightgown hung over the privacy screen to the left. She’d also closed the window, which I must have forgotten after I’d collapsed back in here, given the lower temperature.
I slipped out of my shoes and let myself fall into my bed, loving the puff of down that caught my weight and slowly let me sink into its familiar comfort. With luck, Lady Brisden might find the amulet tomorrow, but what would happen once I had freed my gift? Each day I remained here was dangerous, but where would I even go?
I shook my head at how I was getting ahead of myself again, sensing something poke through my strands and scratch my nape. Without the ability to shift, I was stuck here, doomed to either wait for Lord Brisden to catch me… or Malyr.
When the poking continued, I reached behind me, letting my fingers find something elongated, firm, smooth and…
What was that?
I sat up and turned, finding the shaft of a feather peeking out from beneath my pillow. Was that a… a down?
I clasped the shaft and pulled it out, my guts tangling up at the sight of pitch-black vanes. A raven feather. And there, beneath the downy barbs, a tiny piece of parchment had been rolled around the shaft and tied with a blue silk ribbon. How had this gotten here? My eyes flicked to the window, then around my empty room, and finally back down to the feather.
Dread ran through me with a shiver of adrenaline that made my heart thrash against my ribs. My breath hitched, and I clutched the feather more tightly. My other hand trembled slightly as I reached for the blue silk ribbon, my fingers slipping on the smooth material before I managed to untie it. The tiny piece of parchment unfurled, revealing hastily scribbled lines.
A spread-winged raven perched on a skull.
“I will come for you,”Malyr’s dark threat purred through my memory,“because you are mine.”
Liquid anger pumped hot through my veins until my cheeks itched. I grabbed this little…gifthe must have left behind for me before he’d escaped detection when the maid had come to my room and tossed it into the fire. The feather hissed. The parchment browned. The ribbon crinkled.
I needed to get out of here.
I needed to shift.
ChapterTen
Galantia
Present Day, Tidestone cliff
The winds cutting along the cliff whipped at my face, tugging at the loose tendrils of my hair with a frosty bite, even though the clouds had lifted to reveal the lowering sun. I stared at the violent clash of waves below where they churned at the rocks. White foam rose and sank to the rumble that shook the ground beneath my soles. Was I truly going to do this? What options did I really have left?
I couldn’t escape the upcoming attack alongside Moth—Lady Brisden—who had heeded my warning. All day, they’d readied her carriage so she may leave for the capital during the cover of the night, right after she would, hopefully, return my amulet. Ammarett, however, being the cauldron of human hostility against Ravens, would gain me no safety. And returning to the Ravens meant returning to Malyr. As much as I knew that it might have to happen one day, I wasn’t yet ready to face him, the heartbreak, the court, the utter humiliation.
No, Ihadto figure this out.
With a deep breath, I stepped forward until my toe shoved a dusting of snow over the edge of the cliff, the taste of fear and freedom intermingling on my tongue. Sebian’s father had tossed him over a cliff to force his first shift. And Olivar, the stableboy at Deepmarsh? The children had forced him over the edge up at the parapet walk. If they managed to fly, why would I not? All I had to do was jump off this cliff.
Simple.
