I’m grabbing the drapes to pull them closed when a large shadow moves outside the window.
I gasp and scramble back, but then my eyes adjust, and I realize that someone is perched on a tree branch.
My heart shifts into another gear as Theo reaches out and knocks on the glass.
CHAPTER35
DAYS UNTIL THE CORONATION:ONE AND A HALF
I haven’t seen the King in almost a week, and now that he’s waiting outside my window in the pitch black, all I can think is:It’s about damn time.
He motions for me to unlock the window, but I’m still frustrated by the days of silence.
I shrug and put a hand on my hip.
He freezes, looking unsure, then points to himself and mimes climbing down the tree. Finally, he cocks an eyebrow in question.
I shake my head too quickly, giving myself away. I unlatch the window and tug, but it doesn’t budge. “Good luck getting in, because it’s stuck,” I call, still trying to pretend the way his eyelashes brush against his cheekbones doesn’t tie me in fucking knots.
“You think that’s going to stop me?” Theo’s voice is muffled by glass, but I can hear the smirk in his tone. He reveals a crowbar and jams it under the window, slowly prying the oldglass a few inches open. “Stand back.” He tosses the crowbar onto the carpet and wrenches the window the rest of the way up. A cool burst of earthy, rain-scented air whooshes into the room.
I cross my arms. “What if I’d already been asleep? Would you have pried your way in anyway?”
“That’d be a bit dodgy, Wheeler. I wouldn’t sneak into your room without your consent.”
“Oh, really?”
“Of course not. I would, however, request that you be given this exact room for this exact purpose.” He’s perched on an overgrown tree branch, wearing sneakers, dark jeans, and a black jacket. His hair is falling over his forehead, his cheeks rough with stubble, and I wonder if it’s possible to get used to the way I can’t breathe when he looks at me. Every time feels like the first time.
“Victoria says it’s cringey to knock on someone’s window,” I tell him.
He grins. “I embrace the cringe.”
“A brave and noble cause that will definitely get you roasted by a teenage princess.”
He grabs the window frame and leans in slightly like he’s dying to come inside. “Has she been terrorizing you?”
“I can handle her, but it’s confusing the way your siblings won’t leave me alone.”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Almost like someone told them not to?”
I think back to Henry showing up in the middle of the night, bringing me Comet, watchingDoctor Whowith me when I couldn’t sleep. “Henry too? AndLouise?”
He shrugs. “There was a schedule.”
I imagine Theo gathering his siblings and forcing them to sign up for “Wren duty” and don’t know how to process it. “But I thought you were mad at me.”
He blinks at me in surprise. “Why?”
“Because when you found out about Victoria’s insulin, you let me wander into the dark without following me!”
“In my defense, you told me not to, and we could see you the whole time,” he says.
I don’t remember saying that out loud, but Iwasfeverish and delirious. I also thought I walked alone for miles, and it was only a few hundred feet.
“Not this again. You really thought I abandoned you out there?” He sounds royally annoyed, and I’m even more confused than I was five minutes ago.
“I thought you’d never forgive me.”
