Who wouldn’t be half in love with Lyrae Antares after she patched them up? For all her sharp, prickly edges, she was easy to fall for, and I should know. I’d been falling for her since I’d been old enough to know what love felt like.
“We’ll leave just before nightfall,” Ryland was explaining. “Varian will fly us to town, we’ll find a cart and a couple nags and be on the road to Evernight by dark. Once we rile up the beasts, well, I expect things will progress rather quickly.”
There was a long pause, broken only by the crackle of the fire and the wind outside while my heart raced inside my chest.
“We…uhm…there is one small complication. A second partto the plan.” Ryland’s eyes drifted to Lyrae, and instantly, she went rigid with anger.
“You bastards. You’re not leaving me behind, so don’t even bother making an argument.” She elbowed me in the stomach. “Neither of you.”
“Ow.” I caught her arm and pinned it down. “Leaving you behind is not the second part to the plan, Lyrae. We saw something today during our recon. Something we did not expect to find. Tonight will not only be a recovery mission for procuring the Crown; it’s also a rescue mission. We’re getting someone out of that castle.”
“We don’t have time for side quests,” Rooke snapped, frustration sharpening his accusation as he whirled on Ryland. “There is only one thing that matters right now, and we don’t have time to fuck around, Storme. Time is running out.”
“Kaden’s right. We focus on the Crown.” Lyrae turned her pointed glare on Ryland, her body quivering with either anger or excitement. “Besides…whoever is inside that castle…chances are, they want to be there.”
“No, actually, I’m pretty sure they don’t,” Ry crossed his arms over his chest.
Before the two of them could start arguing, I wound my arms around her, savoring how perfectly she fit against me. Wishing with all my heart I could protect her from what was coming.
“We never really told you how we know Rooke,” I murmured, Kaden’s gaze whipping to me, the look on his face nothing short of shocked, since I wasdefinitelybreaking the promise we’d forced him into, the night we’d arrived.
Don’t say a fucking word to Lyrae about our reasons for being here. She doesn’t know about Gravelock and if you open your big, fat mouth, I’ll cut your throat in your sleep.
Or something along those lines.
I smoothed my hand down her trembling arm. “Or why we’ve been here so many times.”
That pale throat bobbed. “No, you never did.”
“The rich aristocrat who hired us for the Maldrake job…the one who sold us out to the king and ruined our lives…was Gravelock,” I said flatly, and she went perfectly still. “He met with Ryland, said the job was for revenge only, and we were free to keep whatever we found in the safe, plus his generous payment. We were blinded by the money, and never asked the right questions.”
“That was…Gravelock…” All the breath slid out of her in a whoosh.
“He stashed the king’s Book of Secrets in that safe,” Ryland growled, “and set us up to take the fall, made sure the tracking spell was strong enough to mark all of us, so no one would get away.”
“We thought you were dead,” I explained gently. “All these years, we’ve blamed him for what happened to you, Lyrae, and when we weren’t in the High Barrens, we came down here to plan a way to kill him.” I pressed my lips to her temple.
“Except, as you’ve seen, he’s nigh unkillable, and we ended up being hunted across the black sands, and not by Grimbeasts.”
“Well, notonlyGrimbeasts,” Ryland corrected, settling on the low table in front of us, so he was at eye level with Lyrae when he took both her hands. “Gravelock’s soldiers chased us across the sands for days. We thought we were goners, but then we stumbled upon this island and Rooke, and found we shared a common enemy. And an alliance was born.”
I didn’t think Lyrae was even breathing, nothing morethan a long, slender blade of tension held captive in my arms, and I hung on tighter, tight enough she could never, ever fall.
I wouldn’t fucking allow it.
“There is a good reason Gravelock fucked us on the Maldrake job, and I’m sure he was behind the one at the Citadel, too, except that time…” I paused, dread clenching my gut.
“That time, the bastard got what he was after.”
“What was that?” Lyrae whispered through bloodless lips.
“The Crown isn’t the only treasure in Evernight,” I explained gently, tightening my hold around her waist, feeling her every panicked breath. “Ariel is inside that castle, Lyrae. We both saw her. Your sister is being held in one of the spires on the western end as Gravelock’s prisoner. She’s been there this entire time, we’re guessing.”
All the blood drained from her face, her body sagging against me, like she’d forgotten how to breathe.
“She seems safe,” Ryland added quickly. “She appeared unharmed, from what we could see.”
Lyrae squeezed her hands into fists, tight enough the knuckles went white, then she slowly released them, taking a deep breath as she shivered against me. “Ari is…in that place? With Gravelock? Why…why would she…” Her brow scrunched together. “She’s been gone for…years.She’s good at getting in and out of secured rooms. Why wouldn’t she escape?”
