She wanted to feel the warmth of Khayrivven’s hands on her skin, wanted to feel the burning attraction that had always existed between them, even when she’d still hated him and he’d pretended to be indifferent toward her at best, but her mind wouldn’t shut up.
“We have about three minutes before this carriage will stop in front of Ashthorn’s main gates and we won’t be able to talk about anything of substance.” It wasn’t as much a warning as a fact—one that made Lory’s stomach tighten with the anticipation of stepping under the eyes of the Triad to report her findings.
“We need to find a better way to break Elina out.” Lory hadn’t thought it through, even when the idea had taken hold the moment she’d watched Khayrivven enter the dance floor with his sister. “As soon as she’s out of his reach, you’re free to leave Ashthorn and fight for the freedom of your homeland. All we need is a plan.”
For a long moment, Khayrivven just stared at her, his features almost turning into the cold mask that was his favorite, but his eyes kept burning, alive with the passion, not for her body but for a cause so much bigger than Lory could have ever imagined—and a deep devastation.
“Do you think I haven’t tried everything?” He let go of her face to run his hands through his hair, the ends sticking up in all directions. “I’ve looked at it from every angle, Lory.There’s no scenario in which Elina would survive such an attempt as long as Ulder is alive. And even if there were, he’d know it was me, and he’d come for everyone I’ve ever cared for.” There it was, the bone-deep defeat Khayrivven had been carrying in addition to the responsibility for his sister’s life. “He’d come for Anees, and for Hadrian, and for you, Lory. I couldn’t bear it if any of you got hurt because of my selfishness.”
“Are they in on it? Do they know about Elina?” Lory barely dared ask. “About the rebels you’ve been sneaking out of Ashthorn?” Anees had admitted as much as knowing about his sister, but the rest?—
Khayrivven nodded, burying his head in his hands as he rested his elbows on his knees. The golden embroidery on the collar of his jacket glimmered cold silver in the starlight. “There are only three people you can trust within Ashthorn’s walls: Anees, Hadrian, and me.”
“What about Aiden?” Lory’s voice trembled as she spoke his name. “Did he know?” That Khayrivven was Flame-born? That he was secretly saving rebels? About Elina?
Shadows danced on Khayrivven’s face in the half-light inside the carriage. “Aiden knew more than either of us could fathom.”
Before Lory could ask what he meant by that, she was pressed into her seat as the carriage stopped, announcing the end of their discussion. She was about to reach for the door when Khayrivven caught her hand and leaned close enough for his mouth to brush the shell of her ear. A wave of sage and embers engulfed her as she sucked in a breath ofsurprise, and her stomach tightened with the sort of heat she knew only he could sate. “I heard you earlier, Lory.” His lips skimmed her cheek, then her mouth in a soft kiss that sent Lory’s heart into a frenzy.
Then, Khayrivven reached over her to push open the door.
When Lory climbed out of the carriage, her legs were shaking and her pulse spiking, just because of that little touch, and as Khayrivven followed, holding out his arm for her to loop hers through the way he had at the palace, Lory accepted, grateful to have something to hold on to, and savoring those final moments they could be so close, before Ashthorn would swallow them once more.
Behind them, the carriage rolled off, the horses’ hoofs thudding on the packed sand defining the ground in front of Ashthorn’s gates, and when Khayrivven knocked on the blackened steel covering the mouth of the beast, Lory wondered when they’d next be able to talk like that.
So Lory hooked her free hand into the crook of his elbow, rose to her toes, and whispered, “We’ll find a way to get Elina out.”
The next morning,Lory woke bleary-eyed and exhausted. Her ribs hurt from the stays of the corset, and her head was a dead weight on her pillow.
“Looks like youhad quite the night.”
Lory nearly jumped from her bed as she spotted Anees leaning on the backrest of the chair in the corner of the room that Lory had never seen before.
“Where the fuck am I?” High-up window, a bookcase at the side of the room, a desk, and a chair with Anees grinning at her from behind it.
“Don’t worry. Brunn had you transferred here after Khayrivven reported the news of your findings at the dance.”
Lory gathered her nightgown and swung her legs out of bed, feet landing on the cool stone floor of the bedroom—thedoublebedroom. Lory hadn’t noticed the second bed positioned against the wall on the other side of the stone-tiled space.
“Naturally, Khayrivven suggested these particular rooms would be the best option if Brunn wanted to get you out of the common quarters to not have you interfering with the other students’ schedules when you come and go for late-night missions.” What exactly amused Anees about this, Lory had yet to find out.
“Whose bedroom is this?” Lory took in the plain gray sheets and the dressers with two rows of drawers next to the bed.
Anees beamed at her. “Ours. And don’t look at me like that.” She gave Lory a mock-accusatory glance that once more highlighted the acting gift Anees possessed. “I wasn’t in the least amused when Khayrivven carried you in here in the early morning. At first, I thought you were dead.”
Lory tried to remember, but after the conversation with the Master of Veils, Lory had fallen straight into her old bedand dreamed of people in Ashthorn uniforms dancing the dondura while Ulder and Lenya watched from the dais, Lory’s father and Khayrivven’s sister to their left and right, as they decided the fates of hundreds of students. She hadn’t felt a single thing.
“He kept you asleep,” Anees explained as if it was nothing special. “It’s another one of his annoying gifts, just like his brooding.”
Lory was still processing when Anees pushed away from the chair to extract a fresh set of clothes from the top right drawer of the dresser, a grin on her face. “Chop, chop, Lory. Breakfast is in ten minutes, and we don’t want to be late.”
Adrenaline flooded Lory’s veins the moment she heard the wordbreakfast.
“You’re a thornling now, so you won’t be executed if you’re late, but the Triad won’t be happy anyway.”
“About that…” Lory caught the bundle of fabrics Anees tossed at her. “Khayrivven said youknew…”
The grin vanished from Anees’s pretty face, her emerald eyes flashing with warning. “Not to talk details, but yes. I know pretty much everything there is to know.”
