“P-Princess?” He rubbed his eyes again quickly. “Am I dreaming?”
“No, you’re not. Be quiet and come here,” Vi commanded sternly. The last thing she wanted was his surprise to rouse his sleeping parents below.
Darrus slipped out of bed, looking uncertain, and crossed the room to her. Halfway, the air must’ve hit his bare chest and caught up to his sleep-hazy mind, because he looked down and hastened over to a short dresser. Vi resisted the urge to roll her eyes; it was hardly the first man’s chest she’d seen. But she allowed him his modesty as it only took him a second to pull on the knit sweater and make his way to her.
“What’re you doing here?” He eased open the shutter the rest of the way and leaned out, looking around.
“I’m alone.” Vi suspected he was looking for Ellene and Jayme.
“Just what’re you getting up to in the city alone?Again.” While Darrus had never mentioned it to anyone, he clearly had not forgotten the first time they ran into each other.
“I need to get to the clinic.” Vi didn’t mince words.
“What?”
“I need you to help me get into the clinic.”
“No, no, no.”
“I have to.”
“If you want to get in there, seek out another cleric.” Darrus leaned away from the window, folding his arms over his chest. “I’m still an apprentice. They’d cut my lessons entirely if I took, of all people, the crown princess in there.”
“Or I could command them to cut your lessons entirely if you don’t.” Vi lowered her voice, giving him a hard stare.
His arms fell to his sides. “You wouldn’t.”
“You have no idea what I will and won’t do.” Vi was still learning herself. “One is a possibility, if we get caught. The other is far more certain.”
“Why me?”
“Because I know you can keep a secret.” That was an honest answer. “No one can know I was there.”
“Why do you want to go?” The question was skeptical, uncertain, but wasn’t as firm as his first objection.
Vi had anticipated the query, and thought of a number of angles from which to answer it. There was doubling down on her threat. Commanding him outright. Telling him some part of the truth of her visions. Or… a lie that may hit a little too close to home after what Ellene had told her.
“It’s…” She forced her voice to go soft, looking away from him. The guilt for the lie wasn’t as overwhelming then as when she looked him in the eye. “It’s personal.”
“What is it, princess?” He leaned forward once more. Oh, Darrus did love a good damsel to save. She’d seen Ellene tap into the fact countless times.
“There’s a woman there—she came with one of the caravans. I was talking with my uncle and he said that she… that she may be related to my father’s family, through my grandmother.” Vi buried her face in her hands. “I never knew my family, and now my father, he’s—” She didn’t have to fabricate the choke in her throat. “—he’s gone. I feel like I’m losing everyone before I even knew them.”
She pulled her face away from her palms and looked up to him. Darrus sighed, his whole demeanor softening. Guilt began to rise; Vi hastened to close her mental floodgates, blocking it from pouring out.
This was for the best. What she was doing was for everyone—for the whole world. She’d do whatever it took to find the apexes. Every action she took toward that goal steeled her further.
“I understand.” Darrus rested a hand on her shoulder.
“You do?” she asked, making her voice thin and frail, as if she teetered on the edge of tears.
“I do.”
“I just want a few moments alone with the woman… Can you help me? No one else will. You’re the only chance I have.”
He sighed, and Vi knew what he’d say before he said it. “All right. But we’re in and out quickly. If anyone finds I took you there, I’ll be in a kind of trouble I don’t even want to imagine.”
“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Vi reassured him. “We’ll be fast, and I’ll stay hidden under one of the plague masks.”
