I don’t want these words to affect me, but they do.
And it might not have been a challenge, but it feels like one anyway.
“No, Your Highness,” I say, and I put my foot on the first step.
Each one seems to take forever. I have to triple-check my balance because I’m so worried I’m going to fall, especially as we go higher. Sweat has collected between my shoulder blades, but the prince is unhurried, completely silent.
He’s right, though. If he offers me a hand, I really will knock him down the stairs.
As if the thought has power, my next step lands slightly off balance, and my right knee nearly buckles. My breath catches and I put out a hand automatically.
The prince catches it.
I steady myself and scowl, pulling free at once.
Without a word, he lets go.
Once we reach the top, one of the guards draws a door open, and I follow Prince Rhen into the castle.
When we cross the threshold, I clamp my mouth shut and try not to stare. The space is larger than any room I’ve ever seen, and I can’tstop craning my neck around, trying to see everything at once. The floors are marble, the walls lined with wood and velvet, and the ceiling stretches a mile overhead. Another staircase is at the back of the room, and I swallow, hoping I won’t have to climb that, too. It’s the middle of the night, so only a few candles flicker along the walls, but a massive unlit chandelier hangs high above us. I’ve never seen so much cut glass all in one place. It sounds like my breath is echoing.
“This way,” says the prince, and that gives me a jolt. He gestures to the left, and I follow.
Our boots echo across the floor to a hallway featuring more wood paneling, more marble, and a dozen closed doors—though it eventually opens into a dim sitting room that’s larger than the entire house I left behind in Briarlock. A fire must have been burning earlier, but it’s gone to embers, leaving the room in shadow. The prince offered privacy, but I’m still surprised to realize that guards haven’t followed, that we’re completely alone here.
He glances at me lingering by the doorway, then strikes a match and lights two lanterns on the wall. Sofas and armchairs surround the hearth, while the back wall is entirely taken up by two massive windows, both cracked open to allow cool night air to flow inside. This room must have an incredible view of the grounds during the day, but just now I can only see the distant stars in the sky, and the occasional torches marking the sentry stands among the trees.
The prince is looking at me expectantly, and I realize I’ve been doing nothing but staring.
All of a sudden, everything I came to say feels small and unimportant. “Forgive me. I . . . I shouldn’t have—”
“Jax. I know you wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t important. Disarm yourself. Sit.”Disarm yourself.No one has ever said that to me, and it takes me a moment to realize he means the bow strung over my shoulder, the quiver strapped to my back.
So I do as he says, and I lay the weapons on the floor. There’s still soot on my fingers, so I hastily swipe my hands against my trousers. My hair is wild and unbound after talking to Nakiis. I don’t want to touch anything, but I don’t want to be rude, so I perch on the edge of a chair.
“The guards were sending me away,” I say. “How did you know I was here?”
The prince glances at the open windows. “I could hear them arguing with you.”
I frown. “So youweren’tasleep.”
“They thought I was.” He moves to the hearth and picks up a small kettle that’s nestled in among the embers. “But sleep has been hard to come by since magic began to threaten the kingdom again.”
Again.I always forget that Emberfall was once terrorized by magic, that the prince in front of me paid the price. The proof is quite literally written on his face.
Prince Rhen pours from the kettle into two earthenware mugs that are situated nearby. “You said you received a message?” he prompts.
Oh, right. The whole reason I’m here. “The scraver Nakiis brought word from Tycho.”
The prince straightens, studying me. “Nakiis was here? On the grounds?”
I nod. “Yes.”
He’s stock-still for a moment, and then his eye flicks to the window. “He made it past the guards.”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
