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“We’ll take the first one that’s fueled.” Grux led her over to the control tower.
Scarlett looked around, noticing something peculiar about the ships. Why weren’t any of them moving? Usually, with an active place like the capital city, tons of traffic would be coming and going, but it seemed that every ship was still grounded.
Stepping into the control tower, Grux led the way up the winding stairs. Her legs started to burn about halfway up, her breath punching out of her lungs while she continued to climb after him. She couldn’t believe how easily he was doing this. Was she reallythatout of shape?
When they got to the top, Grux let her lean against the wall outside of traffic control. He tilted his head, giving her a funny look while brushing the back of his hand along her cheek. “You all right?”
She managed to hold a thumbs up, trying to quell her racing heartbeat. “Mhmm.”
Deciding not to push it any farther, Grux nodded and nudged the door to traffic control open. He propped the stopper down to hold the door ajar, coming up short at the chaos inside of the tower.
The commotion made Scarlett push away from the wall to come up behind him and look inside of the tower herself.
“What the hell is going on?” his voice boomed over the people inside running around.
One of the controllers spotted them and headed right over to them. “Your Highness! Are you here about the airstrike?”
“Airstrike?” Grux mimicked. “What the hell are you talking about?”
The controller’s shoulders straightened at Grux’s tone. “Jorvlens struck a few out-going ships at 1700, sir. We’ve had everything grounded since and are awaiting clearance.”
“What the hell?” Grux rubbed the back of his neck. Scarlett couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. He turned to look back at her. “I’m going to need to take you back to the palace.”
Her heart squeezed. “Please don’t take me back there.”
He turned to her, putting a hand on her shoulder gently. “Scarlett…”
She wanted to cry. “Your father is going to send me back with the bounty hunter.”
He shook his head. “I’m not going to let him do that. I promise you.”
She shook from head-to-toe. This couldn’t be happening. Not when they were so close to getting away and being free.
She hugged herself, clenching her teeth so she didn’t let the sobs escape her and embarrass her in front of all of these Lorrians.
His arm came around her, guiding her back toward the stairs and out of the control tower. Once the noise and chaos were a little farther away, she felt Grux wrap his arms around her and hug her tightly.
“I’m not going to let them get you. I promise. You’re too important to me, Scarlett.”
She buried her face in his chest, breathing in his dark scent.
She wanted to believe him so badly. She wanted to trust him with every fiber of her being. A part of her truly did, in the end. The only thing holding her back was the fear that this was all some kind of horrible nightmare tricking her into believing it was real.
He rubbed her back gently. “I need to get you somewhere safe before I talk to my father about what the hell is going on.”
Dragging Scarlett back to the palace was the absolute last thing Grux wanted to do.
He felt horrible that they were now caught in some kind of turf disagreement with the Jorvlens on top of everything else that was going on. It was one thing after another, with neither of them being able to catch a break.
He wanted to protect Scarlett and their unborn baby with everything he had. But with all that was being thrown in their direction, it was starting to look like a fool’s errand.
Instead of hiding her away in her room, Grux decided to take Scarlett to another part of the palace, far on the other side.
Her room would be the first obvious place to look if they were hiding a fugitive anyway, so putting Scarlett somewhere else would at least buy them both time to figure things out.
Taking her to the library was the safest bet. Not only would she be able to duck and weave between bookshelves if someone she didn’t recognize came in, but she’d also be able to keep herself preoccupied while he sorted out the Jorvlen mess with his father.
“Wow,” Scarlett breathed out, her eyes darting around to take in the rows and rows of books.
