I glanced up to see Aiden watching me with an impenetrable gaze. “Is there somewhere I could keep most of this?” I asked. “Where it won’t get stolen? Perhaps with the rest of the gold.”
“The rest of the gold is gone. Spent.” His smile made a brief appearance at my incredulous expression. “I told you I needed it. But thereissomewhere safe you can keep your gold. It’s where I put my father’s ring.”
I tried to crush my rising panic. If all the gold was already spent, there was no hope of me getting it back. Certainly not before Father’s deadline. Gods damn it, I needed more time. Which meant I had to keep this information to myself for now. Renwell could wait.
Aiden peered more closely into my eyes. “We don’t have to go now if you would prefer to go back to the apartment to get some rest.”
“No, no, I want to go.” I really didn’t want to carry Asher’s blood money with me, and I also wanted to see where Aiden had deemed safe enough to hide his ring.
“I believe Maz and Ruru will also be waiting there,” Aiden said, gesturing toward the door.
I tied the bag of coins to my belt and draped my cloak over it. “Then perhaps you can tell me about my role in your... plan?”
“Yes. Maz and Ruru are aware of what you know and that you’re staying. I thought it best to discuss this with them.” He gave me a half-smile. “They were much happier about it than I was.”
My heart swooped high, then low. “You still wish I weren’t here.”
His eyes traveled over my face, lingering on my lips. “It’s complicated.”
My skin tingled under his taut gaze. Very,verycomplicated.
“Should we go?” I whispered.
He jerked his head in a nod, and I strode to the door. We left the stuffy warehouse and walked into an ocean of heat. Immediately, sweat rose along my skin. Holy Mynastra, even a cloud would be nice. I looked up at the clear, bright blue sky.
Aiden led the way, angling west, then south, following the wider road close to the west wall of the city. The same road Ruru and I had fled down not long ago.
But everything seemed so different in the daylight.
Carts, drawn by animal or human, rumbled along the road. Day guards joked and spat in the dirt from shaded corners. Children carried buckets of water from a wide cistern nearby.
“Gods, Maz must be suffocating in this heat,” I grumbled, garnering a few strange looks from passerby at my heavily cloaked appearance.
Aiden flashed me a heart-stopping grin. “Days like this, he refuses to even step outside unless it’s to a bathhouse.”
A rusty laugh scraped from my throat. Aiden’s gaze warmed. But then he nodded to a tower we were approaching. “We should skirt the city prison.”
I skidded to a halt. “Where are you taking me?” I demanded, my voice high and sharp.
Aiden frowned. “To the Temple. Is that not...”
The rest of his words faded as memories swallowed me.
A rickety scaffolding erected in the square between the Temple and the city prison.
A line of prisoners awaiting execution. Julian’s beaten face and sad eyes among them.
His gaze held mine until the last moment.
“Kiera? What’s wrong?” Aiden gently pulled me to the side of the road. Then understanding dawned in his eyes. “Ah, I forgot. The boy. Julian.”
I flinched.
“We’ll take a route that will shield you from the square, Kiera. Unless you would rather?—”
“No, it’s fine. Let’s just go around.”
A cry arose from near the tower. A large crowd had gathered in front of it, near the execution square.
