I smell something like sweet mint and spoiled wine.
And then, there’s only darkness.
Epilogue
Ronan
When I wake, I feel her absence immediately.
She was just here with me, in my bed. And now I can’t feel her anywhere at all.
I try not to panic, but I’m already screaming inside by the time I reach for the hidden button on the wall that calls the guards to me. I know she isn’t in my chambers, but I check anyway. I check the living room, the washroom, the closet. I look under the damn bed in case she fell in the night and couldn’t get back up.
Taran arrives when I’m checking the balconies. “Has anyone seen her?” I ask.
“Sylvie?”
I give Taran a deadly look. Now is not the moment to play dumb.
“No. Not since last night. We thought she was with you.”
“She was. And now she isn’t. I can’t feel her. I can’t feel her at all, not anywhere.”
It’s the night at the theatre all over again. Only I don’t know how I’m going to get to her, even if I can find out where they’ve taken her.
Not with a war raging.
“Do you think—” Taran stops himself.
“Say it.” I already know what he’s thinking from his feelings.
“Do you think there’s a chance she left on her own? That she waited until you fell asleep, and she left? Maybe she changed her mind. Maybe it was too much for her.”
I know he’s angry with her, and he’s angry with me for forgiving her, so I’ll forgive him this lapse. “Never speak of her that way again. Don’t even think it, Taran.”
“I’m sorry, sir.” Taran looks at me as if I’m a crazed animal preparing to bite, and I might as well be with the way I’m feeling.
They took her. Her own people. They broke in here, and they took her from right underneath me somehow. They have her, and she’s hurt, and she’s unconscious.
I refuse to consider any alternatives. I can’t let myself think of them. Not if I’m going to find her.
I march from the room, not bothering to dress in anything other than my robe.
“Are you coming with me?” I ask Taran. It’s an actual question, not an order. I know how he feels about her.
“You can’t mean to leave at the beginning of the war. The people need you.”
“Fuck the people,” I say, but I don’t mean it. And then: “Of course I’m not leaving. Not for long.”
He follows me from the room as I head to the stables. We pass the other guards on the way in, and I give them the instruction to scour the room and the grounds for signs of her as I get Kira ready.
I work with Marta, the stablemaster, to get her fed and into the straps. Kira’s so patient. She’s frightened after everything she heard last night, but she lets me comfort her, stroking her neck. I’m leading her out into the courtyard when Paul, one of my guards, returns.
“We found this,” he says, giving me a ring made of silver.
Sylvie’s ring. She must have dropped it for me when they were taking her. I don’t see how it could have come off otherwise. “Where?” I ask.
“Near the western gate, sir. One of the passages out.”
