“Aydra, tell me!”
“If they find out, we will die,” she snapped.
Draven froze on the spot, and she watched as the words radiated through him.
A heat rose on her chest and neck, and she felt nervous as her weight shifted, and she swallowed hard as the still silence encompassed the room.
“If they find out, they’ll drive a knife through my stomach and throw us both from the tower. We will be condemned. They will not understand or see this child as we do. As a bridge between our worlds. They will see it as a monster.”
“She is correct, Venari,” came the Nitesh’s words.
Draven stepped forward and took her hands. “So then we’ll fight.”
The tears whelped up inside her, and Aydra couldn’t stop her heart from beginning to throb in her chest. “If they find out, we won’t be able to fight. We won’t be able to run. We have one chance. If they find out about the child, that chance will be gone,” she managed. “If they find out, and we escape, my brother and the Council will destroy everything to find us, to destroy us. The peace we just bartered between our lands will cease to exist. The war will turn between Magnice and every other realm instead of the united Echelon against the strangers. Everything we just acquired will have been for nothing.”
The words seemed to click in his head then, and she watched his jaw tighten. He reached for her bag on the bed and threw it over his shoulder.
“One chance?” he asked.
She swallowed hard and nodded. “Only this one. There is no other.”
“Someone should inform the Chronicles,” he muttered as he picked her other bag off the floor.
She frowned at him. “Of what?”
“The only time they’ll ever hear me utter these words.” He paused after swinging her last small bag on his arm, and then he met her eyes. “We’re running.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
THE NITESH FOLLOWED them out of Aydra’s bedroom and through the halls.
Draven’s steps were wider than Aydra had ever seen of him. He didn’t speak, and she could feel her body swelled with anxiety and anticipation of Belwarks being around every corner. The adrenaline pulsed through her bones, and she kept one hand on her sword on her belt.
“I will meet you in the Forest,” the Nitesh spoke to Aydra as they walked. “I must see my mother. Tell her of what has happened.”
“Do you think Haerland will help us?” Aydra asked.
The Nitesh’s jaw tightened. “I will not pretend to know of her reaction. I can only hope she knows the two of you, approves of your mating.”
“You make us sound like a pair of wild Wyverdraki, Nitesh,” Draven mocked ahead of them.
“What he means to say is we appreciate you,” Aydra insisted.
She could see the smirk on Draven’s face, so different from his attitude only minutes earlier, and her chest swelled with the sight of him hauling her things through the castle to run away with her for their child.
“Swift in your journey,” the Nitesh told them. “You cannot rest.”
“We could take the phoenix,” Aydra suggested.
The Nitesh froze on the spot. “Take what?”
Draven stopped walking, and Aydra nearly ran into him. She felt the tense energy come to the surface of his core beside her. He didn’t turn, but Aydra watched as his jaw tightened.
Aydra frowned between them, unable to focus on just one of their suddenly annoyed facades. “The… the phoenix…”
“What sort of phoenix?” the Nitesh hissed deliberately.
“A… black… one…” Aydra said slowly, watching as the Nitesh’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, am I missing something?”
