“One moment,” Duke Percy promised, a weak smile quivering across his lips. “Go on, love. I will be just amoment.”
Just a moment.
Sheneeded a moment. A moment not to think about Tristan sprinting alone into a dying city for the Shepherd. A moment not to think about whether he’d already been cut down by Coreto’s men. A moment not to wonder why she wasn’t already sprinting into the darkness after Seraphina.
Her flask weighed like a stone against her hip. Tempting her. Lady, she wanted a sip—just enough to stop all this thinking. All this worrying.
But right now, she needed to think. She needed her wits. At least until she knew Seraphina was safe.
After all that, she could drink herself stupid on dream petal and sleep for a week.
Duchess Edith thinned her lips at the two of them and ducked into the darkness of the secret passage.
In the near distance, men shouted. Wood groaned.
The barricade gave way inch by inch.
Stepping into the wardrobe, Olivia thrust out a hand and helped the duke up into its tight confines as well. The wretched cold of the hidden corridor wrapped around her, making her shiver. “Spit it out, Percy. We don’t have all day.”
“Olivia.” The Lord Chancellor’s voice—low, strained—cut through everything. The shouts. Her Pain. The cold. Reluctantly now, she met his gaze. But she already knew, both from his tone and from that look shining in his eyes…
That he was about to do something supremely stupid.
“Don’t,” she hissed. “Whatever you’re thinking, just… don’t.”
Percy’s smile turned sad. “I need you to listen to me, Olivia.”
“I’m too sober to listen to idiotic ideas—”
His hand reached out and wrapped around hers. “I must stay behind,” he whispered, his voice so soft she almost didn’t hear him.
For the span of a single moment, Olivia could only stare at him, this man who had been the only true father her best friend had ever known. Thatshehad ever known.
Duchess Edith would murder her if she left him behind. Seraphina would never forgive her. Besides, what was Elmoria without its Lord Chancellor? He had been the blasted Lord Chancellor longer than she had been alive.
She shook her head, refusing to listen. “No—”
“I cannot run, Olivia,” he reasoned, so gentle, so calm. He raised his cane as if she needed an illustration, as if she weren’t as crippled as he was. But he didn’t know that. She had kept it so carefully hidden all these years.
Now she wished she hadn’t.
“I will slow you down,” he whispered. “I will get Sera killed.”
Olivia’s throat tightened. Her eyes stung.No. She refused to cry. “Then we’ll drag you. I’ll carry you if I have to—”
“Percy? Olivia?” Duchess Edith called from the darkness of the passage, tense. Edged with just a hint of fear. “What is taking so long?”
On the other side of the wall, a piece of furniture cracked as the barricade finally gave way. A man cursed. Another shouted orders.
They were out of time.
Percy shifted his grip on her hand, trying to gently pry the ring of keys from her grasp. “Get Edith out of here. Take care of her.Take care of Sera. They need someone sharp and ferocious like you now.”
She tightened her grip on her keys.
The duke frowned. “Give me the keys, Olivia. I will seal the passage once you are through.”
“This is the stupidest plan I have ever heard,” she mumbled, her throat thickening.
