Page 84 of Heart of Night

“What are you doing?” Not that I really want to know. But now that she’s mentioned it?—

“Something you don’t want to see your sister doing, so shut up, and let me focus.”

I try to do exactly that while they seem to be moving through the corridors near the gate, leaving behind the older guard, and for a brief minute, it works. For a minute, I can ignore the groans and whispers Kaira channels my way to keep me informed about the progress of her mission. A mission I really wish she didn’t need to take upon herself, and not just for her sake. Then, another voice mingles with the sounds, and I almost leap out of my skin. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Myron shoots me a confused sideways glance, but I shake my head. I will tell him later about everything I just witnessed. For now, I need to fully focus so we don’t miss the moment we need to sprint for the inconspicuous door, praying that none of the guards manning the many small towers will notice us.

“Move your naked ass and step away from her. Because if you touch this female again, I will cut more than just your hands off.”

Oh, I know the voice. I know it too well, and I’m not ashamed to admit that the first time I heard it I was scared shitless.

“This shall be interesting,” Kaira narrates as Herinor’s growls sound through her mind into mine, and the soldier begs for mercy. I can only imagine what is going on by the grunts and swears waving through Kaira’s thoughts. I have the faintest sense of something wet spraying onto my shirt before Kaira’s voice returns to my head.

“Is the gate clear?” she asks Herinor, who grunts his confirmation. “All right, Ayna. Hurry. I’ll open the door for you.”

I don’t tell Myron and Clio how I know the gate is clear as I grab his hand and get to my feet, waving Clio along as we stumble from shadow to shadow to the steel-enforced rectangle in the wall that means safety for now—and a point of no return. Once we’re in, we must continue to the dungeon. And this first door will have been the easiest.

Despite the rush and the stop-and-go of our progress, my feet are light on the cobbled ground, my breath even and my focus clear. There’s something to say for those fae senses I have been gifted alongside a mate Mark, if that’s what the tattoo on my shoulder is called. Whatever the gods did, they knew exactly what they were doing.

We dodge eyes as we slip from one corner to the next, easy as ghosts in the night, starlight never touching us longer than a few heartbeats between the ripping clouds above. Thank the Guardians for bad weather.

The gate draws nearer, my heart pounding in my throat as I want to sprint the final distance to make it inside safely. The door is opening, and it’s not far enough away to risk another stop.

“Wait!” Kaira shouts in my mind the same moment Myron’s arm snatches me around the waist, tugging me against the wall beneath a narrow roof so hard it knocks the breath from my lungs. Clio is gasping for air on his other side, wriggling her shoulder out of his grasp and ready to complain when a male form steps through the gate, stalking toward the nearby bushes and?—

Fuck me—“Is he…”

“Peeing on the royal bushes? He is,” Myron confirms with that cold amused voice I remember from the early days we shared at the Crow Palace.

Clio laughs between deep breaths. “That was close.”

“It’s one single human guard,” I point out, catching my breath while I relish Myron’s touch, the way his fingers are splayed across my stomach. “Even I could have incapacitated him with my water magic.”

The look Myron gives me drives a shiver deep through my bones. “You don’t actually think I’ll let anyone who sees you in this palace live?”

He’s right. I know he’s right. If word gets around that I’ve returned to the palace—and with an escaped prisoner—there’s no way Erina won’t mobilize his entire army to keep me there.

“I’d rather you not become a killer tonight.” His gaze softens, and something like a blush creeps into his cheeks that makes him look utterly adorable while simultaneously horribly attractive—and the meaning of his words trickles through the haze his attention creates in my mind.

“You know I’ve killed before, on the Wild Ray. And at your own palace.” I no longer care to try to correct myself that the palace in the Seeing Forest was never actually his. We don’t have time for technicalities. The guard is done peeing and buttons up his pants before returning inside.

“I guess that particular one doesn’t care about the reputation of Erina’s court,” Clio comments, ignoring our ongoing conversation.

Myron’s gaze doesn’t leave mine as he uncurls his arm from around me, inhaling deeply through his nose as if scenting whether the air is clear.

“Kaira?” I reach out in my mind, ready for anything, but she hums in response, opening her thoughts to me.

“I’m all right. Hiding in an alcove but all right. He didn’t see the other guard’s body, thank the Guardians, which means I’m cowering right next to a dead man.” The image she sends makes me shiver, and I try not to show my distress in any other way.

“Is the air clear now?”

I wind my fingers through Myron’s, ready to inform him about everything I just learned through the magical channel connecting me to my sister, but Kaira occupies my attention again. “You need to hurry. The man poked around for a bit when he realized the gate was abandoned. It’ll be a matter of minutes until he reports and new guards fill in for the ones Herinor disposed of.”

So, he killed them both. I’m glad I didn’t have more to eat.

“Let’s go.” This time, it’s Myron who takes the lead, his senses stronger than mine perhaps and picking up more from the palace than me, or he just has an infallible instinct for danger. Does it matter when it gets us to the gate and the door opens, led by Kaira’s calloused hand, and she waves us inside?

Forty-One

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