“Who made you the boss here, Altair?” She was smiling, her blue eyes alight. Great, she had a plan. We were utterly fucked.
“Tell me what you’re thinking so I can tell you no and drag you out of this castle.”
Grin still wide, she stepped towards me, straightening my lapels. “Where’s daddy’s office?”
***
“Shh,” she hissed, her hands pressed to the wood.
“I don’t care how strong yourwillis, that door isn’t opening. My father built these wards himself.”
“Shh!”
Rude. I watched as she worked, tapping my foot and looking around. We were going to get caught. There was no doubt about it anymore. How this made sense in her head, I had no idea. Regardless, we were, at best, going to die tonight.
Turning to look at her again, I readied to complain, but I moved just in time to see the door open. “Got it!”
“Universe spare me, how did you do that?”
“Same way I did yours and you did mine.” She shrugged, rushing inside. I followed, awe leaving my jaw slack.
“You have no idea how dissimilar those things are. My father has had years to perfect those wards. He made them when he still had the stars’ essence.” She ignored me, tossing up a burst of stars and darting around the space. “What are you looking for?”
“Anything we can bring to Commander Maitoza. We aren’t failing this worthless mission.” She began throwing open the drawers, tugging out papers and tossing the ones she didn’t care about. I groaned, closing the door behind me and rushing to her side.
“Let me do it.” Nudging her, I quickly replaced the papers before sifting through the desk, pulling out anything that I knew could be considered important or useful. District maps with handwritten notes. Planets they’d searched for Nova andI. Meeting times. Numbers on officials, grunts, and elites. Then I found exactly what Maitoza wanted. A strategy map. “Perfect. This is more than enough to—”
The door flung open, revealing none other thanCal.His head tilted to the side, eyeing us suspiciously. “So, this is who you’re impersonating now?”
“Dammit, Cal!” I shouted, unable to help myself. I grabbed the papers, folding it all and shoving it into my pocket since we couldn’t shadow walk within the castle wards. Father was always sure to strengthen the wards when outsiders came, making travel in and out of the grounds impossible any other way than by foot. “What are you doing here? And how’d you know it was us?”
“You didn’t even try to lie!” Nova screeched, her voice higher than normal. I ignored her comment, grabbing her wrist and leading her towards Cal. He crossed his arms, blocking our way.
“You’re taking me with you.”
“We can’t, Cal. Not this time.” Not ever, really. But he didn’t have to know that.
“Liar, I can tell even with this face. Nova, you have to see that I’d be useful!” He was looking her right in the eyes, not hesitating to believe it was her. She frowned, looking between us. I knew the exact moment I’d lost, because she rotated her hand and wrapped her fingers in mine.
“He’s right.”
Groaning, I threw up my free hand in defeat, trying to salvage the mission in any way I could. “Fine. I’ll write to you and we’ll plan a rescue for all three of you. But just so you know, you disappearing will be what finally pushes my Father over the edge.”
“He’s already there, Az. Send any messages to our place in the woods.” He was smiling now, his hands moving to grab my arms.
“Fine.Now you have to let us go. I can tell you why later, but if we don’t get out of here then none of us are surviving this.”
Nova nodded in agreement at my side, her arm lifting so she could squeeze Cal’s arm. “We’ll come for you.”
Okay, none of that.
I tugged her further into me, much to Cal’s amusement. His grin grew as he stepped to the side, motioning for us to go. “Don’t you dare go back on your word, Altair. I’ll find you either way.”
“See you soon, Cal!” I whisper-shouted as I dragged Nova down the stairs. We’d spent far too much time in that office, and I had a feeling we were pushing it. I pulled her into my side, lifting her as we made our way down the spiral staircase that led to the foyer. We were down and both speed walking to the door before the first scream came.
Yep, time to go.
We passed a group of people who were jogging towards the ballroom, looking for what the commotion was about. Another chorus of screams came from the room moments after. I had us at the open double doors before the shout came.
