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“Only they’ve already voted and in the next hour, that hunting party will be on the ground.”
His brows squish together as he tilts his head. “Your father did–”
“No,” I say through clenched teeth. “He agreed. Not to mention,” I hold up Alice’s skin. “I marked Alice, spelled her so she couldn’t leave. I knew she’d go after Luri and she fucking cut her shoulder off to remove it. Alice is out there. The hunting party will leave soon, and I can’t have her in the middle.” Finn’s lips stretch wide into a toothy grin. “Why are you smiling!?”
“Because I’ve never been more proud. She just flayed her skin open to personally say fuck you.”
“No shit. She literally wrote that in her blood on the wall.” I pace back and forth, the skin flab still in my hand. My free hand scrubs down my face, pinching at my jaw on the downstroke. “I don’t know how long she’s been gone. And if she’s willing to do this,” I hold up the flappy chunk of skin again. “What else is she willing to do?”
Finn fist bumps the air and I stop pacing, shooting a death glare across the space between us. “My girl is about to get her first kill,” he says, standing to stretch. His spine cracks as he twists, sending a shudder through my own.
Heat boils my blood at his mention of Alice being ‘his girl’, but now it’s the time to get into a pissing match. “You’re maniacal.”
“It’s better than having a stick up my ass,” Finn mutters as he walks past me, grabbing his sword belt off the end table near his bed. Instead of turning around, he backpedals until he can look me in the eye. “That was aimed at you, by the way… So, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t have her get hurt. I know it was wrong for me to spell her in–”
“You’ve got that right,” he says, clasping the belt around his waist.
“As I was saying, those villagers are out for blood, and some of them even viewed her as a threat. They wanted her thrown into the prison world, too, but my father said no. They’re looking for a reason to object to his wishes. All it takes is the full support of the council, and due to his own fucking rules and clauses, they can override his judgment. As of now, two of the ten agree that Alice should stay.”
Finn’s mouth parts, going slack. “What? Why?”
“For the same reason they’re going after the cat. They’re scared. They think that she can become dangerous.”
Without a word, he crushes his mouth into a fine line, then turns and disappears into his closet. When he reemerges, a heap of clothing is in his hands and he tosses half the stack at me. Catching it on impulse, I stifle through it, finding peasant wear.
“What are these for?” I ask, grimacing and wondering why the fuck this is in his closet? What need does he have for these?
“Get dressed,” Finn says, shedding his shirt and shoving a dinghy one on. “They can’t know we’re with the crown and someone has to go help her. So, we’ll blend in.”
“And if we get caught?” My fingers work at the buttons of my blouse.
“We won’t get caught.”
I groan, slipping the linen down my arms and laying it over the couch. Shrugging the new–well, old–one on, I step in a small circle until my mind narrows on a thought. “What if we joined?”
“Hello, that’s what we’re doing,” Finn says, shucking off his pants. The man doesn’t have a shred of shame.
“No. Likejoinedthe hunting party. We disguise ourselves as villagers and quietly intervene.”
Finn’s head tilts, and a sinister grin stretches slowly across his face. “So… sabotage?”
“Exactly like sabotage.”
13
Kai
I’m not sure who the hell these clothes belonged to, but whoever it was, they had a severely lop-sided ass. The left portion of my pants fit great. The right? It nearly sags from the excess fabric, and don’t even get me started on the crotch situation. Either someone was very ambitious and thought highly of themselves, or they were trying to manifest something that doesn’t seem logical.
It’s no secret. I’m not a small man. Nor do I hide it, but this is a bit much.
“No one needs this much room,” I whisper to Finn. We’ve been walking through the woods, hanging near the back of the pack of villagers, armed with bows, arrows, magic, and swords. They didn’t even question our attendance. Nor did they bat an eye at our subpar costumes. Somehow, the gig is holding up, thanks to Finn and his closet of horrors, along with a tiny bit of magic.
“Shhhh, stop talking to me about your dick problems,” Finn hisses out the words loud enough for the man a few feet in front of us to glance over his shoulder.
“My dick problems areyourdick problems,Honey.”This is the last time I ever let Finn come up with a cover story. It was brilliant to go undercover, but to say we’re married? Was that necessary? Why not brothers? Or, I don’t know,friends?
