I was on my feet, too. “Afraid of what? Be specific, Dee.”
She grimaced and dropped her face into her hands. Then, a moment later, she lifted her chin and shook her head again, staring at the ceiling, a fresh wash of tears trickling down her cheeks.
“I’m afraid he’s giving in. Giving over,” she breathed, then covered her face again, so that the rest of her words barely reached my ears. “I’mterrifiedhe’s going to betray you and Melek, when the final moments come. Not because hewantsto, but because he’s soscaredof what will happen to me—”
“Melek?” I hissed. “You think he’s going to reveal him? And the army?”
Diadre lifted her head to meet my eyes. “I don’t know, but… yes. I’m afraid of that.”
Panic screamed in my head. “Melek is out with the army, Dee. He just left. Where’s Jann going?”
“I don’t know,” she wailed. “That’s what I’m saying.I don’t know.”
I wanted to jump out of my own skin. I tore through the room, to the weapons stacked in the corner, and began filling every sheath and belt I could fit on my body until I was bristling with blades.
“Melek is at the caves. He needs to know,” I said tightly.
Diadre nodded, but her expression was pure despair. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It’s been so hard—”
“You stay here. You staysafe,”I insisted.
Diadre’s head bobbed again. “He won’t hurt me. I know he won’t. He won’t let anyone hurt me.”
No, he’ll just hurt the rest of us, to keep you safe.“I pray that’s true,” I said flatly. “You stay here. I’m going after Melek.”
“I’m sorry, Yilan—”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s your mate—”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, when I suspected.”
My lips tightened and my head screamed.Yes! Yes, you should have told me, and Melek and—
I shook it off. “You can’t control what your mate does,” I said through my teeth. “Let’s just pray he doesn’t actually give in. That… that your suspicions are wrong.”
She nodded, but her gaze was empty. Fixed in the middle distance. The very picture of discouragement and desolation.
When I’d slipped the final blade into the sheath at my back, I stalked straight to her and took her arms, forcing her to meet my eyes.
“I’m going to warn Melek.”
“Wh-what about the hounds?”
“I’ll shadow walk,” I said, hastily praying that Melek was wrong, and they wouldn’t be able to sense me. “No matter what, you don’t tell Jann—if he comes back here, you keep him here. You tell him I went to find Istral. He can’t know, do you understand?”
She nodded dumbly. “I understand.”
I hugged her briefly. It took a moment, but then her arms slapped to my back and she squeezed me so hard, I lost my breath.
Then I tore out of that chamber, relieved that I really had waited, exactly as Melek said. I hadn’t left until it was a matter of life and death.
If only we’d understood how close death was, before this moment.
If only I’d trusted my instincts, and cut Jann loose from the beginning.
Help us,I begged God silently, as I slipped into the shadows and started through the palace, then out into the city, closing my ears to the screams and grunts that painted the night tonight.
I didn’t have any choice. I could shroud, but I couldn’t fly. It wasmilesout to the caves, and I had to evade any attention on the way.
