Maybe she was.
But she knew, deep in her gut, that if anyone could find the queen, it was Alyx. Not Arkwright. Not a guard. Just a winged serpent with more brains than half the court combined. She didn’t know how she knew.
She just did.
“Go,” she urged the beast, unlocking the cage and flinging open the door. “Find her.”
With a screech, Alyx exploded into the Roost and shot toward the door—a blur of blue and green.
Gritting her teeth, Olivia sprinted after the serpent.
Praying all the while that they weren’t too late.
Chapter fifty
Seraphina
The darkness of the stone passage swallowed her whole.
Cold, damp air clung to her skin as she was led by Coreto through the narrow corridor like a dog on a leash—his hand firmly gripping the rope binding her wrists.
Lord Bennett walked ahead, his torch throwing jagged shadows across the cramped wall. Rough hands belonging to her former guards shoved her forward. The silk gag bit deeper into the corners of her mouth. The rope burned her wrists.
Her shoe caught on a loose stone, sending her tripping. Clenching her jaw, she caught herself and kept walking.
Refusingto give these men the satisfaction of seeing her fall.
Wellane trailed behind her, his breath coming too fast, too loud. His betrayal was yet another dagger carving a fresh hole into her chest.
“Forgive me…he has my wife.”
As if that absolved him.
As if that excused treason.
Her teeth ground against the gag. Aldric had said the same sort of thing, had he not?Reyla—his reason, his excuse. And just like Wellane, it was a very human reason. One she could almost understand.
Understanding didn’t stop the hollow ache from gnawing at her chest.
It didn’t make betrayal sting any less.
Another shove. She stumbled again, her shoulder brushing damp stone. The narrow passage twisted sharply left, then dipped downward—a steep incline that forced her to brace her heels to keep from toppling face-first into Coreto’s back.
The air grew colder. Heavier.
Where were they?
Think. Think.Her pulse hammered in her ears as she tried to map the twisting route in her mind. They were deep within the palace walls, one of the ancient outer corridors, judging by the slope. Which exit were they heading toward? Where was Coreto trying to take her?
But more importantly: how could she escape?
The weight of Aldric’s dagger still pressed against her left wrist beneath the sleeve of her gown. Still strapped there. Forgotten. No,overlooked.
Fools.
On her right hand, the cool weight of the poison ring Olivia had gifted her just before the summit rested, hidden, beneath her glove. And tucked into the seams of her bodice, just between her breasts, the dagger her godmother had once given her waited where no guard would dare look.
No one had thought to check her for weapons.
