“I need you to do something for me, Lyrae.” I tugged against his unrelenting hold, but Varian hissed, “I need you to swear that for once in your fucking life, you’ll do exactly what I say.”
I laughed, rolling my eyes. “Since we’ve known each other our whole lives, you know how ridiculous that statement is. Seriously, Var, why are you acting like…”
“Go back to the house and find your sister. Pack one bag each. Whatever you can carry and get yourselves outside the city walls as fast as you can. You remember that place in the forest I showed you?” He didn’t bother waiting for my reply. “Stay close to the rocks and hide. At dawn, blend in with the farmers leaving Blackcastle and head south to the Havens. Steal enough money and food to get yourselves to the nexttown, then the one after that. Don’t stop moving until you reach the ocean.”
His expression was so hollow my blood chilled. “Then get on a boat. Any fucking boat to any fucking where, so long as it takes you and Ariel off this godsdamned continent.”
Every muscle in my body turned to water, the air hollowing out of my lungs. This time, I managed to pull free, rubbing my wrist. “What is going on, Varian? You’re scaring me right now.”
“I’m giving you permission to survive. I’m giving you a chance, Lyrae. You’re strong, and you can do this, but you have to go. Right now.” His gleaming eyes frantically searched mine, our lips almost brushing before he tipped his forehead against mine.
Oh gods, was this…was he…saying goodbye?
I dug my fingers into Varian’s shoulders as Ryland’s foul curse drifted down from upstairs. Another wave of power raced through the house, a fresh burst of foul magic burning my nose.The heist.
Something had gone wrong with tonight’s job. Upstairs, Ryland spoke in that tight, low voice that was so much more terrifying than any shout.
“We’ve been set up. There was no gold in the safe, not a single coin.” Varian talked fast as he herded me toward the door. “The old bastard had only one thing in there. The King’s Book of Secrets. Fucking Jules touched the thing and the second she did, a spell triggered. The tracking magic has already marked everyone in that room, me included. Ryland, now, too.”
He smoothed his hand up my arm, face full of emotion. “It’s too late for us, Lyrae. None of us will ever escape thiscity, even if we did, the king’s soldiers would track us, no matter how far we ran.”
“And Jules?” I asked, my mind racing.
There had to be a way to salvage this.
There was no way everything ended right here, right now.
Varian pinched his lips together. “Dead. But you can still get ahead of this.” He shoved me down the hall, roughly herding me toward the rear of Lord Maldrake’s house. “Out the back door, at the end of the alley, make a left. Grab Ariel from the safehouse and don’t stop running until you’re free of the city. Avoid the king’s patrols and keep your heads down until you reach the forest. Then stay hidden, don’t talk to anyone.”
“But…you have to come with us, Var. We can hide. We’re fast. If we keep moving, we can stay ahead of the soldiers.”
His hands tightened around my arms, like he meant to hold onto me forever, then he shook his head.
“The tracking spell stays active until the king himself removes it, or we’re executed. The rest of us are good and fucked, Ly, but you…being in that room with Ryland…” His face twisted in something that resembled jealousy. “Protected you from the initial surge. If you stay much longer, you’ll be contaminated, too.” He pushed me away, hands fisted at his sides.
“Go. Now. Before you can’t.”
My body was trembling; something wet rolled down my cheek before Varian pulled me against him, hand gently cradling the back of my head to hold me tighter than he ever had before. Iwasn’tcrying.
Inevercried.
“I know this is bad,” he murmured. “But don’t make ourfate yours, Lyrae. You deserve to have a life. A future. I want you to have everything you’ve ever wanted.”
But the life I deserved was here, with the two males I was eternally strung between, now marked for execution. And the Shadow King was not a merciful ruler.
“I don’t…understand.” I blinked up at him. Surely this was a joke, one of Ryland’s twisted attempts at humor, something we’d laugh about later, when we went home and…
“Lyrae, get your shit together. You need to focus.” Var opened the door, cold night air sweeping in, reeking of the city. “At worst, tonight was a trap meant to scoop up our crew. At best…we are all in the wrong place at the absolute wrong time. Go.” He pushed me through the door, but I caught the doorjamb with both hands.
“Fucking Lord Maldrake.” I glared one last time around the opulent house I’d been so envious of a moment ago. “I knew he was a corrupt arsehole, but didn’t think he was a fool.” Actually, Ididthink he was a fool, which was why we were stealing from him, while the lord made his nightly visit to the local whorehouse.
In retrospect, we should have known this was too good to be true.
Ry had been hired by some secretive, rich Fae asshole who claimed he wanted revenge on Maldrake, giving us everything we needed to crack the safe and clean the fucker out. Plus, he was paying us cold, hard cash for our troubles—and we’d jumped at the chance.
Because this rich asshole and his piles of gold were definitely two things that should be parted.
But the Shadow King had one weakness.
