“What is that?” I asked.
“You’ll wear the scabbard on your back when you ride. Surely you know how to do that.” He pulled the cloak closed, fastening it. He tucked the leather strap under his arm.
I had no idea how to grab it from that position, but it didn’t seem like a good time to argue. “Thank you.”
“The guard will be in their rotation. We have moments. If you aren’t quick enough, you’ll never make it through the hall. You’ll need to conceal the sword under your cloak,” he said.
“I’ve got it.” I struggled to tuck it under my arm. The flowing fabric of the cloak easily swallowed the lump from it.
Soren cracked the door open slightly. He held his hand up toward me for only a moment, before he grabbed my hand and tugged me into the hall.
When we rounded the corner, he led me toward the alcove where I had confessed everything to Fyn. I held my breath as we got closer to where the hall ended.
Soren leaned his back against the stone wall—it gave way behind him.
“There’s a hole in the wall.” My stomach sank.
“Will you be quiet and follow?” He pulled me into the dark passage, pressing the wall closed behind us.
“Follow you? I can’t see where I’m going.” I pushed back. “This is how you saw us.”
“A palace corridor is not the place I’d sneak off with someone,” he snapped back. “You could have at least had the decency to let him claim you elsewhere.”
Soren pressed forward without hesitation, pulling me behind him.
It seemed exactly like a place I shouldn’t have been alone with him. Like he could do anything to me here and no one could hear me when I’d scream.
I had trusted him, and now I was in a dark corridor with a man who probably wanted me dead. “You didn’t take me in here to?—”
“That would have been easier.” His voice cracked as he said it. “I don’t brutalize women.”
No, he just subdues them with calming tonics and threatens everyone they’ve ever cared about. “Where is Fyn?”
“He will be where he is needed.” He tugged me forward.
I nearly tripped on him when he stopped and traced his hand over the wall.
He pressed his forearm into what should have been solid stone, and it gave way to another alcove nearly identical to the one we had left.
Beyond it there was another slender door with a guard stationed in front of it.
“Stay here.” When he left me, he walked back up to the guard and slapped something into his palm.
When Soren came back to me, he pulled up the hood over my scarf and checked the placement of the sword.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Hold on to my arm,” he murmured under his breath.
I tried to balance the sword under my cloak. “Why?”
“I told him I snuck someone in and needed to sneak her back out.” He didn’t flinch when he said it.
“Do you do this often?” His extensive knowledge of the corridor made me believe he had.
He rolled his eyes as he held out his arm. When I stepped toward the guard at the door, he only nodded at Soren.
It was safe to say Soren did this often. “Have you been doing this while I’ve been here?”
