AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rolling my eyes, I peered around the corner of the alleyway to watch as the last of the drunkards staggered out of sight.
“Because our coronation outfits wouldn’t have drawn attention to us when slumming it out here? Besides, at leastthisshirt isn’t soaked in your Blessed blood,” I hissed, catching a fistful of that same shirt and dragging him with me across the road where we ducked into the shadows of yet another alleyway, depressingly similar to the last in both appearance and stench.
Ren hummed his disapproval. “I’d rather blood than fleas.”
“It doesn’t have fleas,” I said in exasperation, although I was hiding a smile at his dramatics. Those first couple of days while he’d been recuperating from the arrow wound had been terrifying in their sombreness. A quiet, sincere Ren was not one I ever wanted to meet again, not if such characteristics only came with him nearly dying.
“Yours certainly does,” he murmured as we hurried through the back streets that had become so familiar to us recently, careful to keep our faces averted from any windows and doorways in case anyone was looking our way. “I went to kiss you this morning and found every inch of your skincoveredin bite marks.”
“Funny how those bites look less like the work of insects and more like some ridiculously horny prince crawling his way over me last night.”
“That horny prince had to satisfy himself somehow,” he whispered back, although the attempt at being quiet was entirely ruined by the loud slap he landed on my ass. “Considering you wouldn’t let him fuck you.”
“You’re still healing!”
“I’mfine,” Ren said blithely, only to give a sharp inhale of pain when I grabbed at his arm that told of how dishonest he was being. Mouthing out an apology, I gestured for him to back up, tucking us both into a crouch behind a pile of discarded crates.
“What is it?” he breathed in my ear, and then stiffened as he heard it too.
The very distinctive, accented voice of my brother speaking Quarehian.
“We know you’ve offered Aratorre aid,” Valeri said sharply. I peered cautiously around the crates, spotting him handing over the reins of his horse to one of his guards and closing in on the couple who had been sheltering and feeding us for the last week.
The shorter señora Hernández wiped her hands on her apron and shooed her wife behind her, glaring up at my brother with an admirable amount of scorn considering the difference in their height and status. And as this was Quareh, their genders also put her both socially and legally below that of the male prince standing before her, even if he was a foreigner.
“And we have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” she snapped.
Val stretched, rolling his neck from side to side. I knew him well enough to recognise the movement as a sign of stress rather than deliberate intimidation, but it made both Hernándezes stiffen, their expressions drawing tight.
“Let us not feign ignorance,” he said. “One of your customers made the palace guard aware that you are harbouring a pair of rather distinct guests. Where are they?”
“Our customers? Asleep in their beds, I would imagine, considering the hour.” Señora Hernández’s words were pointed, accusatory, and I watched them rile up the Quarehian guards standing with Val’s own. “We run a laundry, Your Highness, nothing more sinister than that.”
At Valeri’s nod, two of his guards brushed past the couple and entered the tiny building that was both their home and business. The taller of the two Hernándezes shot them a sour look but made no move to prevent their search. Faces had begun to peer out of nearby windows, curious yet not brave enough to venture out on the street for a closer look at the exchange.
“Yourun it?” jeered one of the Márosian palace guards, his face contorting into an ugly snarl. I clenched my fists, my nails cutting into my palms. “Where the fuck are your husbands?”
“Getting drunk off their asses in a place called Why Do We Need Them?” señora Hernández shot back, and her wife clutched her hand in warning. “It’s down the road from It’s None of Your Business and just past Go Fuck Yourself.”
All of the Quarehian guards lurched forward at that, and my heart rushed into my mouth as two of them drew their swords.
“Stand down,” Val commanded, his voice terse.
“You don’t get to order us-”
“You were given to me by King Welzes to assist me inmysearch,” he snapped. At his feet, Wolf’s ears flattened against his skull as he let out a low growl. “I outrank you no matter my nationality, and if you can’t follow a simple order, I don’t expect your master will have any concern with me rewarding your disobedience with a flogging.”
That quietened them, at least until his own men emerged back into the street with a silent shake of their heads. Then the palace guards clamoured for the Hernándezes to be arrested for treason.
Ren hissed out a furious breath in my ear. If we let ourselves be seen, surely they’d chase us rather than waiting around to arrest our alleged accomplices? But with the guards so close and numerous – with my brotherright fucking there– would we be able to escape if we did?
“No,” Valeri said, narrowing his eyes as he surveyed the couple refusing to cower before him. Fuck him for being a good enough person to let them keep their freedom while also planning to throw Ren to the wolves like he was nothing. “I need them to pass a message onto my little brother. You will tell Nathanael that Aratorre’s days are numbered. Tell him that with the hundreds of men we now have combing the city, he has no choice but to surrender his prince. Tell him,” he growled, leaning in as if to utter a secret despite his words being loud enough for the whole street to hear, “that there’s no fucking way they will leave Máros alive.”
And with that, he marched sharply back to his horse, mounted it in one elegant movement, and led the procession of guards back to the palace.
I turned to look at Ren, who was watching me with wide eyes.
“We’re leaving Máros,” I snarled. “Tonight.”
