Oliver’s eyebrows rose.
“No clue,” I answered, walking into Ronen’s immaculate sitting area.
Oliver whistled, turning in place. “Huh. This suits him.”
“It does.” I pointed to Ronen’s wall of weapons. “It’s right there.”
Thank heavens it was. I’d played a tricky game asking for it. But we needed to know if he had it on him, and hope he wouldn’t take it to the ball.
Oliver luscelered over and grabbed the dagger. “What the—” He yanked harder, then used two hands. “Lucy, we may have a problem.”
My stomach dropped.No.
I marched over and grabbed the top of the sheath while Oliver grabbed the hilt. “One, two…”
“Three,” we said in unison, pulling as hard as we could. The knife gave easily, and we both toppled to the floor, Oliver knocking into one of Ronen’s chairs.
I glared at him.
“I swear it was stuck!”
It hummed through the leather, vibrating my skin. “Weird,” I mumbled, feeling the urge to unsheathe the blade, take off my glove, and press it against my hand. I’d forgotten how magnetic it felt to me.
Oliver stood, then helped me up. “Come on, let’s go. If we’re lucky, no one heard that.”
“Wait, we need more weapons.” I snatched a few daggers off the wall, placing them in all my empty loops. Oliver tried to do the same, but he couldn’t remove them.
I handed Oliver a blade, confused. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I, but we don’t have time. Let’s go.”
We hurried toward Ronen’s door, and right as we stepped out, Alexei turned the corner. He was dressed in a black suit with a floral tie that matched the blue of his eyes. He even had a matching pocket square. His hair was combed back into flowing locks, and his golden skin glowed. He cleaned up nicely.
“Aren’t you two supposed to be changed and at the ball by now? Why are you in Ronen’s room?”
“Ronen had to talk to us, and we were in there longer than we realized,” Oliver lied smoothly.
“He’s in there now? I wanted to ask him something.”
Oliver opened his mouth, but I beat him to the punch. “Yep, he is!”
“Great. Well, hurry up and get changed. I’ll see you two down there.”
We moved out of the way, and Alexei went in, calling out Ronen’s name and shutting the door. I grabbed the handle and coated it in a solid block of ice.
“Like that’s going to hold the lightning wielder for long.” Oliver latched onto my hand, jerking me into a run.
“Did you have any better ideas?”
Oliver grumbled under his breath, which meant no.
We passed a few maids and castle staff carting around food and drink trays. They lurched to the side as we barreled through, and Oliver cursed the entire way. We were leaving a trail of witnesses, but we couldn’t very well run down the main stairwells. They’d gossip about it, but what could they actually say? It’s not like they’d report to the king that his daughter was missing. I was inconsequential to them.
Once we burst through the back doors of the castle, our uniforms heated. We sprinted to the barn, scurrying inside and slamming the big wooden doors shut.
I leaned my head against the wood and sighed. We were almost there.
Oliver elbowed me in the side. “Uhm, Lucy… turn around.”
