I nodded, “Yes. We will need to see how they work together tomorrow. I have a feeling those two might be left behind to watch this place.”
Ajax settled in on my other side. “We should also have them explain to us how everything works here. It seems vastly different on the other side of those mountains.” Then he looked at Rykon and then back to where Zayden was on the bed.
“Well, it looks like you lose out since you need to be in that bed.” Ajax’s smug voice rings out.
Zayden looked at Rykon. “Look, it’s only fair that he gets a turn next to my gem tonight, since he was acting like a little bitch boy yesterday.” Rykon pushed up, about to launch himself at Zayden, when I held onto the back of his shirt, preventing him from getting too far.
When he looked back at me, I shrugged, “We don’t need them to hear us fighting.” Using logic on Rykon was always best because I could see him thinking about what I said, his shoulders visibly lowering as he got back down to the floor.
“A thank you would be nice.” Zayden said, but I looked up at him and mimed zipping his lips. He smiled as he kissed his hand and blew it at me. He looked back down at the two guys at my side and then back to me as he started, “My gem, you know I want to spend every waking and non-waking moment with you-”
I smirked, not upset in the slightest, as I finished for him, “but you’re not going to pass up a night on a comfy mattress when you don’t know when you’ll have this opportunity again?”
His eyes twinkled, an emotion I was not used to seeing started to climb up into his eyes but he sighed and turned around, laying down on his pillow as he looking up at the ceiling, “You are so fucking perfect, you get me.”
I covered my smile with my shoulder as I turned down to sleep. As soon as my head touched my pillow, I felt Ajax and Rykon both scoot closer to me as they drifted off. I needed to give Vance an update, but for once I was tired, and I decided to do it in the morning before we left.
Chapter 22
Iwokeuptoa scratching noise. I thought it was Zayden fucking around, so I lifted myself up and hit him in the head to signal him to quit it.
“Ouch, what the fuck was that for?” He lifted his head and peered over the bedrail, glaring at me like I was some foul thing underneath the bed and needed to be eliminated.
“You’re making all that scratching noise.” I laid back down and noticed that the green-haired beauty wasn’t next to me like she was when I went to sleep.
“No, I’m not!” Zayden screeched, but now I was on a whole different mission. Where was Em?
I popped back up to see her sitting with her back against the wall writing on some old-looking piece of parchment. Zayden followed my line of sight and saw her, too. “What are you doing over there, my gem?”
Her head popped up, looking at us like she didn’t know we were up yet. She looked down at the parchment. The light scratching noise happened again and she wasn’t even writing in it. “I was giving Vance an update.”
“How?”
“Did you tell him about our magic?”
Mine was the last question, and sounded a little accusatory, but I didn’t like that she was telling him about our personal business. I wasn’t even really ready to try it out, let alone tell the crown prince about it.
She gave me a dirty look before acknowledging Zayden. “With this.” She held up the piece of parchment. “This parchment is a two-way communication tool a fae woman gave me when I was just a kid and helped her out of a dangerous situation. She didn’t have money, but she gave me this in thanks.”
Zayden scrambled off the bed to go look. I was also curious, but all that kept churning around in my head was that she was communicating with the prince behind our backs. Almost like it was a dirty secret. I didn’t like that at all, but since it wasn’t like we were officially together, I felt like I couldn’t say anything. That still didn’t keep me away. I got up slowly, curious about the magical aspect of this communication tool.
“So, how do you use it?” Zayden asked, looking over her shoulder.
She smiled, “Like this.” She took her pencil and wrote,We need to get to the librarian, we don’t have a choice. Hemlock is our best shot. She pulled the pen away from the paper and the words seemed to sink into the parchment, disappearing before our eyes.
Zayden looked under and around the paper, looking for the words, but couldn’t find any. Then I heard that light scratching noise again and words appeared on the parchment.Please be careful! I don’t know anything about these tribe leaders, so I don’t even know where to start if you get yourselves in trouble. After she read the words, they disappeared like they had never been there.
She huffed as she furiously wrote back.You need to worry about yourself. This is just an update. We are fine. What about the nobles?
Soon I heard the scratch again and all three of us leaned our heads in to see what he wrote.It’s going slower than I expected.There was a pause before more letters showed.A few are showing some interest though.
Keep it up. She wrote, then she turned to us. “I think it’s good for both of you to know about this, just in case something happens to me, you can get in contact with him.” She looked at me again, “I’ve only been giving him vague updates.” The worry and jealousy I felt before were dwindling by the second. It seems like my original assessment was correct and they were truly just friends.
I wasn’t a fool. I saw the way he looked at her from the first time I saw them when I was in a prison cell. He felt something more for her, but then when we went to leave, he was more standoffish and made more of an effort to not be too close to her. In their writing it’s no secret love notes, no declarations. Just facts and hopes for each other to succeed. It seems something happened between them before we went on this excursion.
“How did you and the prince become friends?” Surprised splashed across her face as she looked at me. “It’s just surprising, is all. It would seem like you two would run in different circles.” I tried to cover my tracks, making sure it made sense why I would ask that question, and it wasn’t because I was trying to gauge their relationship.
“Um…” She looked like she didn’t really want to say anything, but Zayden captured her gaze, nodding like he wanted to know, too. “Well, I guess it all started when we were both small, lonely kids. My father instructed me to keep out of sight and I found the hidden passageways within the castle. I was spying on everyone and would give my father a run-down each night on what I learned. One day, I ran into Vance and we just became unlikely friends. The assassin and the prince.” She puffed out a chuckle as she rolled up the parchment. “I was hardly ever there, so I gave him the twin page when I left.”
