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“Please, she needs help!” Tears blur my vision. “I’ll break it myself if I have to!”

After dragging a hand through his hair, he finally drops to the keyhole.

A moment passes before he stands up again. “There’s no one there.”

“What?” I shove him back to look myself. The strange wooden rack is still there, but there’s no masked woman or man, and the candles have been blown out. “But she was just there! We must’ve been too slow… He must’ve taken her somewhere else!”

“Eden.” Lux takes my hands.

“We have to find her.”

“Eden, enough.”

“He was hurting her! We have to help⁠—”

“I will deal with this,” Lux says, forcing me to look at him. “But first, let me take you back to your bedchamber.”

“There’s no time!”

“Phillion will take you then,” he offers. “And I will stay here and deal with this situation.”

I don’t like how calm he is. Didn’t he hear the way she cried? “He was forcing himself on her,” I sob. “I saw her naked and tied up and he had this rod and he⁠—”

“Damn it.” Lux scrubs a hand over his face. “Go with Phillion,” he orders, and as if on cue I hear the oaf’s heavy footsteps running towards us.

“Princess Eden!” he wheezes. When he sees my tears, he glares at Lux. “Is she hurt?”

“No, but you need to take her back to her bedchamber,” he barks. “Now.”

“But I can help!” I yell. “You need me to identify him.”

Ignoring me, Lux storms down the hallway. Before I can follow him, Phillion grabs my arm.

“Get off me!” I squirm against his hold.

“You heard the man. You’re going to your room,” he grunts.

“I don’t want to,” I scream, but there’s little point. Against Phillion, I may as well be a mouse.

“The man had white-blonde hair!” I cry over my shoulder to Lux as I’m dragged away. “And they were both wearing black masks.”

But Lux doesn’t look back. He just marches away, his fists clenched so tightly I can see the white of his knuckles.

9

EDEN

Phillion blocks my door all night and doesn’t let me leave until the sun is well above the horizon, casting golden afternoon light onto the sunflower field outside.

The little sleep I had was filled with nightmares about the woman in the room – a few where I was back out in the hallway, others where I was the one tied up and the masked man was stood over me. One particularly confusing dream had the masked man removing his mask to reveal a crooked smirk and deep-set eyes. Castor’s eyes.

When the servants finally entered to ready me for the day, I couldn’t throw my clothes on fast enough.

I have to speak to Lux, have to know what happened to that poor woman, if they found her, if he is being punished.

But when I arrive outside Lux’s bedchamber, the guards stop me before I can knock on his door.

“He’s out in the gardens, Your Highness,” one of them says. “Try the fountain first. He likes to sit there with his friends.”