My hands shook as I reached for the manor’s window latch. Focus. Practical matters. Steal the valuables and get out.
But another patrol was coming down the street, so I scrambled up the side of the building instead, hauling myself onto the sloped roof with practiced ease. The rough stone scratched my palms, the gritty texture familiar and comforting. Up here, away from the streets and the guards and the memories, I could finally breathe.
Rooftops had always been my sanctuary. When the world below got too complicated, too painful, I could climb up and watch it all from a distance. Safe. In control.
So why did I feel like I was falling apart?
I settled onto the peak of the roof, wrapping my arms around my knees and staring out over the glittering city. The brisk nightair helped clear my head, but it couldn’t stop the thoughts that kept circling back to the same impossible question.
Was Valen like my father or not?
Tullus had been charming, manipulative, and selfish. He’d used my mother’s love to fulfill his own desire, made promises he never intended to keep, and then vanished the moment things got complicated. He only cared about himself.
But Valen... Valen had killed his own brother tonight. I’d seen his face afterward, the way he’d looked like something inside him had died along with Drudon. That wasn’t the expression of a man who only cared about himself. That was grief—raw and terrible and real.
He’d been strange in the tunnel afterward—cold and distant. I’d thought it was because he didn’t need me anymore, but what if I’d been wrong? What if it had nothing to do with me? Anguish over his brother’s death was a better explanation.
He hadn’t told me he was planning to hand off the jewel to a stranger and send it out of the city. But then, he’d always been a secretive bastard, never telling me why he wanted to steal the jewel. Maybe he was acting on the queen’s or prince’s orders, maybe not. Keeping secrets from me… I didn’t like it but couldn’t judge. I hadn’t told him everything either.
But what about Lurena? He’d manipulated her and betrayed her, showing exactly the type of man he was. I’d be a fool to wait around for him to screw me over, too.
He did it to keep her from attacking us with magic, whispered a voice in my head,to buy us precious seconds we’d needed to escape. It was calculating and ruthless, but it was also practical. Strategic. The kind of thing someone did when lives were on the line.
Then there was the moment everything had gone wrong, when the guards had spotted us in the street. Valen had pressed the jewel into my hands and told me to run. He’d been settingme up to take the fall while he played innocent. I’d seen it all before when I was younger, greener, and still worked with other thieves. But what if...
What if he’d been trying to save me?
What if, when the plan had collapsed and the guards closed in, he’d made a split-second decision to sacrifice himself so I could escape with the jewel?
The city surrounded me, all silver spires and crystal domes catching starlight like scattered diamonds. Somewhere out there, Valen was being marched to the dungeons, facing execution for treason and murder. And here I was, safe on a rooftop, trying to decide if I’d screwed up everything.
Did I trust him? That was the question, wasn’t it? Not whether he’d made mistakes, but whether his heart was true. Whether what we’d had together was real or just another beautiful lie.
I thought about the way he’d looked at me in quiet moments. The careful way he’d held me, the longing kisses. The fact that even now, even facing death, he’d protected my identity.
My throat closed up, and I pressed my face against my knees. I’d been so determined to see betrayal that I’d missed everything else. So convinced that all fey men were like my father that I’d painted Valen with the same brush.
What if I’d been wrong? What if I’d run from the one person who’d actually tried to protect me?
I had to decide. Trust my cynicism and leave him to his fate, or trust my heart and do something about it.
A cool breeze stirred around me, and a bat squeaked as it flew overhead. Below, another patrol passed through the streets, their voices fading into the darkness.
Time was running out. Whatever I was going to do, it had to be soon.
Chapter 43
Valen
Ihadn’t been caught committing a crime in over a decade. Too old to be called a boy, too young to count as a man, I’d sat hunched in a room in the palace. It was a luxurious chamber with wide windows and soft cushioned chairs, but I’d known it was a holding cell. Guards had stood just outside the door. Only my new rank as a knight had kept me out of the dungeons—for the moment. I’d expected to be there by the end of the day.
The doors opened, but it wasn’t the marshal or a magistrate who walked in. It was Queen Verena.
I leaped up and bowed deeply. “Your Majesty! I...”
“Good day, Sir Valen.” She swept gracefully over to the chair across from me and sat, two bodyguards taking up positions behind her.
She gestured at my chair. “Please sit.”
