Lora tilted her head up to the door. She was sitting at the edge of her bed, unsure what to do. She couldn’t help but think about her conversation with Layken. Had she upset him so much that he had left, or did he have other orders from Karwyn?
Lora couldn’t understand anyone willingly working for or with her cousin. Her thoughts led to Rhay. Would he stay and go against his oldest friend?
Rising from her bed, she started pacing again. Waiting was its own torture. She felt like everyone else was putting things in place, making plans, scheming a rebellion, while she was contained in this room.
Frustrated, Lora let out a groan.
“Rough day?” a low voice said from the bathroom, the door ajar.
Lora’s gaze snapped to the familiar fae standing in her room. Just hearing Eyden’s voice took some of her anxiety away and replaced it with a warmness she couldn’t name, or didn’t dare name.
She opened her mouth to reply, but her eyes wandered to her door. A guard was still waiting in front of it. She needed to be careful.
She pushed Eyden into the bathroom. An amused smile graced his lips, and she fought the urge to kiss him right then and there. Instead, she turned to lock the door behind them.
She only talked once the faucet was running. And to be extra careful, she turned the shower on too. “I’ve been going stir crazy. What’s going on? Did you get the talisman? Do we have a real plan now?”
“We do. It might be better the less you know. But I need you to do one thing,” Eyden said.
Lora hated not knowing every little detail, but she had to agree. “Anything.”
“Tomorrow, when Karwyn is holding his speech in town for Caelo Night, we need someone to lead Karwyn to another tunnel by the left back door. Amira said they would take him away through the tunnel access that connects to the palace. We need to get to him before the guards can lead him there.”
“Karwyn won’t follow me.”
“I know. But if the guards are occupied, he might listen to Rhay. Amira wasn’t sure Rhay would listen to her alone, but Ilario thinks he can be convinced, and you said you have gotten closer, right? If worst comes to worst, we’ll have to take a bigger risk and push Karwyn to that tunnel ourselves, but it will draw suspicion.”
Rhay.The only person Karwyn cared about. The only one he might trust. They had to get him on board.
“We’ll talk him into it,” Lora agreed even though she had no idea what else she could say to him. Lora’s gaze travelled over Eyden, looking for signs of new wounds. “Is everyone all right? Areyouall right?”
Eyden’s grin increased, twisting her insides in a pleasant and torturous way all at once. “Are you worried about me, special one?”
“I’m always worried about you,” she confessed, her voice almost drowned out by the running water. Judging by Eyden’s sharp inhale, he caught every word.
“It’s not me you have to worry about,” he replied.
Her head filled with images of how tomorrow could go. Would she live to see another day? Would the people she cared about? The list had grown since arriving in Liraen. Her family had been the only thing on her mind at first, but now she had Eyden, Elyssa, Ilario, Farren, Rhay, and even Amira to worry about. She didn’t know much about the princess, but they shared a similar impending doom. Lora was trapped through her family connection, Amira through her upcoming wedding. And she could tell Elyssa cared about her.
Eyden reached into his pocket, drawing her attention again. He pulled out a familiar-looking object—a phone. “I got you a new one.”
Her fingers wrapped around the device, the cold material almost making her shiver. What could she tell her family now? Lora could never explain everything that had happened to her.
And then there was the fact that her biological father was out there, in Rubien. Would she ever get to meet him? Did she even want to? It was too much to think about when she didn’t even know if she’d make it another day. Voicing her discovery aloud when her mind was already in overload was too much for her.
She didn’t feel the tear running down her cheek until Eyden lifted her chin and wiped it away. Eyden dropped his hand, but didn’t move back. He was so close, she could almost feel his breath on her cheek.
“I know you don’t want me to think about what could happen tomorrow, but…” She trailed off.
Eyden let out a breath, his eyes full of warmth. “But you don’t want me to promise everything is going to be fine?”
She nodded, fighting her tears.
Eyden tilted his head down to move closer to her. “You do know I’ll try everything, right?”
“That’s what scares me too,” Lora confessed.
“I can handle myself,” Eyden said, a reassuring smile on his lips. “I’ll be by your side the entire time, even if not physically.”
