“How did they know they were Infi?” Dorian asked.
“I wasn’t told much,” Lex admitted. “Just that they’d been found and the men were calling up for support.”
“We need to hurry before word spreads,” Aydra said. “Guests will be here in the morning. We don’t need them knowing about this, nor do we need Rhaif finding out. Come—” the sudden look Aydra saw on Draven’s face made her words cease.
His hands were on his hips and he was staring at the ground with widened eyes as though something had just occurred to him that he’d not thought of before.
Frozen.
Paralyzed.
“Draven?” Dorian sounded.
Draven’s widened eyes rose to meet Aydra’s, and she saw the color had drained from his face. He didn’t speak, but instead rubbed his his face in his hands, starting to pace on the carpet as his hands tugged on the roots of his hair. “I’m so stupid—”
The wind began to pick up around them, and one of the windows burst open, hitting the walls hard. Dorian and Lex jumped, ducking slightly at the sound of it. Aydra’s chest constricted, and she watched with a tightened jaw as Draven’s frustration nearly caused the rug beneath their feet to billow off the stone.
“We need to go,” Aydra insisted.
The four of them ran through the castle in silence with their cloaks high over their heads as they headed into the darkened streets. Most Dreamers had gone to sleep, but the fires were still lit outside one of the shops on the smithing street. As they neared, she could hear a rumble of people speaking inside.
Lex opened the door and went inside first. Aydra allowed Dorian to walk in before her, followed by she and lastly Draven. Twenty Dreamers were gathered around the fire lit room. They spoke animatedly in hushed, harsh, voices. They barely seemed to notice the four coming inside. She recognized the one she knew as Grey towards the back of the room, arms folded over his chest.
Three men were tied up and subdued in the middle of the circle. Aydra swallowed hard at the sight of their reddened faces, the streaks of blackened blood where it looked like men had beaten and struck them with irons to keep them from running.
One man did a double-take at them then, and he said, “Who let you in, Belwark?”
A brow raised on Aydra’s face, and she whipped her hood off her head. “I believe it is my kingdom. My Second can go wherever she pleases.”
“Your Majesty’s—”
Dreamers dropped to one knee around them, and Aydra’s jaw clenched. Dorian removed his hood then, and he slowly started walking around the three Infi in the middle of the room. He paused in front of one, pressing a finger to its face and pushing its head sideways, looking over the beaten streaks on its face.
“Where did you find them?” Dorian asked aloud.
“It was just past sunset,” answered Grey from his knees. “They were sneaking around the back of my shop.”
“Stand,” Aydra told the Dreamers.
“How did you know what they were?” Dorian continued, pausing over the next one. He grabbed its hair and lifted the Infi’s head, revealing the slow blink of the yellow eyes Aydra sometimes saw in her nightmares.
“You see those eyes once…” Grey said as he stood from his knee, “you can’t really get them out of your head.”
“I thought we were rid of this filth,” said one of the women.
“The Infi are possibly growing bolder and coming down from the mountain towns,” Draven said then, slowly removing his hood. “They—”
“What’s he doing here?” said someone.
“Venari King— He has unleashed these beasts into our streets!”
“You are not welcome here, traitor!”
“Get out—”
The noises of their protests filled Aydra’s ears to the point that her heart shattered in her chest. She looked at Draven, seeing the crestfallen expression in his features, his fists tightening at his sides.
He had not asked for this.
