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“Castor! Thank fuck!” I’m almost knocked over by the speed Lux runs into me.

“Love you too, brother.” I grasp his shoulders. “Glad to see you’ve remembered how much you need me.”

But he doesn’t smile at my joke. Not even a lip twitch.

“What is it?” I growl.

“It’s Eden.”

I grip his shoulders hard enough to bruise. “What about her?”

His voice shakes. “She’s gone.”

37

EDEN

Snow whips at my face, my teeth chattering so much I can barely think. Ahead of me, Meera flicks the reins of our stolen horse while my arms are locked around her waist. I probably couldn’t let go even if I wanted to. I’m already so cold and we’ve only been riding for ten minutes.

“How far is the palace?” I shout.

“About another hour if we gallop the whole way,” she yells back. “Which I intend to do unless you convince me otherwise.” Something in her tone tells me there’s very little I could say that would convince her to slow down. Not that I would want her to. Even an hour feels too long.

Scrunching my eyes shut, I press myself against her back, desperate for warmth. But she feels just as icy as me. There’s no way we’ll make it.

“Perhaps we should make a fire?” The wind is almost painful on my cheeks.

“There’s no time and the ground is too wet. The snow will put it right out.” Meera flicks the reins again, but even the horse seems to be slowing down. It won’t do more than a light trot through the thickening snow. “Come on!” she snarls.

“What if we stop at a village until the snowstorm passes?”

“Do you want those psychos to catch us?” she yells. “The palace is the only safe place for you.”

Holding her tighter, I glance back over my shoulder. I don’t fancy getting caught by the two princes. But more than that, I don’t fancy freezing to death.

“Meera, I really think we should find somewhere warm to stop,” I panic. “You must know of some place that would be safe? You’re injured. Let me care for you.” I feel bad even touching her. Forget the cold, she must be in so much pain from her burns.

I try not to think about who did that to her. How I dreamed about his touch after he left Lux’s bedchamber last night. Did he wish me goodnight then go straight back to torturing Meera?

Sniffling, I hug her tighter, careful not to press against her burns. Nobody will ever know how the princes made me feel. That’ll be my awful secret. Mine and theirs…

“There’s nowhere close by,” Meera shouts over the wind. “But…” She curses under her breath when the horse now refuses to even trot. “We can take a detour to a village I know. It’ll only take us ten minutes⁠—”

“Look!” I point at a funnel of smoke blowing up to the clouds. “Someone made a fire!”

Meera frowns. “That’s not possible.”

“Maybe there’s a house over there?” I look around her, but I can’t see through the snow. “Please, Meera. It’s not safe out here. Even if the princes are searching for us, they won’t make it far in the storm. If we can’t travel, neither can they.” I don’t mention that they could’ve been smart enough to bring cloaks. Right now, I’m too cold and worried about Meera’s injuries to think about anything else. “Please,” I beg when she ignores me.

“Fine,” she huffs, finally steering the horse towards it. “But you have to let me check the place first. If I let Amaryllis’s sister wander into a den of bandits, Kasimir will be the least of my worries.”

I smile through my shivers. “Thank you.”

It takes us less than a minute to see the bright orange flames of a campfire through the trees. But my brow dips as Meera pulls the horse to a halt.

“Why are we stopping?” I’m seconds from jumping off the horse and dragging us both there myself.

“There’s no one by the fire,” she stammers. “Why is there no one sat by it?”