I reached into my cloak for a dart that was tipped with my favorite blend of sedatives and hallucinogenic herbs. The victim might not fall asleep immediately, but the hallucinations afterward would make him question whether he saw me or not. I’d had to use it once on myself in training and had been convinced I was a bird. I’d tried to eat imaginary nits out of Thorn’s hair, and he’d teased me about it for months.
The guard I targeted was more concerned with something out at sea, so he didn’t even see me coming. I was only five feet away when I threw the feathered dart at his neck. He swatted at it like it was a wasp, and fell to his knees, then his face, not thirty seconds later. I rolled him over so he wouldn’t suffocate, took his weapons, and ran past a stack of logs.
“Crap!” I skidded to a stop just in time to avoid falling into what must be the pit—an enormous natural sinkhole that spat water up every time the tide rolled in. Not much water yet, but that would change soon. “Kavin!” I shouted into the hole but heard no answer. I ran back for the torch and held it high. “Kavin!”
From below, I heard a moan and a scraping sound, then a splash.
It was him. I glanced around. There had to be some way to get prisoners out of the pit. Aha! I found it not twenty feet away: a coil of woven jute rope. Rough, but that was good. I’d need the knots to hold. I jammed the torch back into the lip of the sinkhole, hoping it would give enough light to see when I reached the bottom.
I tied the rope to the closest large palm, thanking the Guild once again for the solid, torturous week of knot-tying lessons, and wrapped it around my waist one and a half times.
Then, as carefully as I could, I rappelled to the bottom, using the rope around my waist to provide the tension to keep from falling. I felt my waist bruising, but my cloak kept it from tearing my skin, and in seconds I was at the base.
“Kralovna?What are you doing down here?” His voice was weak, but Kavin sounded relatively lucid. I couldn’t see if he was injured.
“Saving you,” I answered, unwrapping the rope. “Any chance you can climb up?” I stopped, letting my hands glide over his form in the dark. “Are you hurt?”
“If I say yes, will you keep touching me?” I smacked him on the chest, then tucked a pinch of the herb I’d given Altair into his mouth, ignoring the way his lips closed around my fingertips.
Not the time, Roya. Survive now, sexy Alphas later.I pulled my tingling hand away. “This’ll wake you up.”
“Cofi root? I hope you haven’t been taking this.”
I had tried it once, but I knew better. “Why would you care?”
“Roya.” His hands settled on mine, trapping them. “The herbs you were taking to suppress your nature were more dangerous than you knew. This… What happens when Omegas take this, and then stop, is much more severe.” He sighed. “I should have told you more of what I knew of Omegas.”
“I haven’t been taking it,” I admitted. “I tried it once, in training. I had to give it to a friend just now.” I took a breath. “I need to find out more about how herbs affect me. But I don’t think we’ll be able to get to your books anytime soon. If Thorn could help…” I held my breath, hoping Kavin wasn’t going to tell me Thorn had been killed.
“They took him,” he said at last. “I'm not sure if he's still alive. The guards that arrested me beat him badly. He was unconscious, Roya. One of them said they were going to throw him into the sea.” Kavin’s voice grew stronger, and suddenly he stood. “Let’s go. Maybe we can find him. He could have woken and swum to safety.”
I handed Kavin the rope. “You first. There’s a man at the top. Altair, the prince. Don’t, um, let him try to fly, or run back to kill Gullen with his hands, or anything.”
“He’s awake?” He growled slightly. “You gave a sick man cofi root?”
How dare he judge me? “Yes, and quite a bit more than I gave you—he’d been kept sedated for years. He’ll be able to help fight if we’re spotted.”
He didn’t answer but began to climb. Kavin was incredibly strong, even after being drugged and imprisoned, and he was at the top in less than a minute. I wrapped the edges of my cloak around my raw hands and ascended, then ran to join them both in the shadows of the palms.
“What now?” Altair asked. His eyes glinted wildly in the torchlight. In the distance, we heard shouts; our absence had been noted.
“Away from here. Kavin, take us to where you thought they threw Thorn in. We could at least find… Maybe Altair would know the t-tide patterns, and we can…” To my horror, a sob threatened to break free.
“We’ll find him,” Altair promised, his long hair whipping in the constant wind. “They would have taken him down to the barracks. There’s a holding pen there. In my mother’s time, it was for unruly drunks after the festivals. I would imagine my uncle has repurposed it for darker means.”
“And if they did throw him into the ocean?”
“The tides would have washed him out around the pier, and to the other side of the island, there.” He pointed across the sand.
“Sounds right,” Kavin agreed. He studied Altair in a way that indicated he didn’t entirely trust him. “How about you go there, and we’ll check the beach.”
This was all stupid, I knew. A terrible plan, and a waste of our lives if we were caught. But I could not let Thorn go. And it seemed these men would support whatever course of action I decided to pursue.
“We have to stay together, Kavin. Find Thorn, find a boat, and get off the island,” I murmured. “If I’m caught, I’m dead or worse. Same for you.”
Altair nodded. “If they catch me again, I will end my own life before I allow my uncle to finish ruining my island and my people. And if my life can save yours, Omega, I will give it.”
“Can we just kill the regent?” Kavin asked casually. I smiled in the darkness, liking the part of this man that was as bloodthirsty as I was.
