Page 180 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Aiden whispered, “We need to move.”

She wasn’t delusional in hoping the princess would find another room to occupy when they were standing in the only bedchamber on this level.

Removing his knuckle, Aiden carefully closed the door and grabbed her hand. The cold of his scaled ring shot a jolt through her, but she ignored it as he pulled her outside and ordered, “Take that door”—pointing to a hill leading to a doorway—“to the first room we searched. It leads to a lower hallway. Go left until you reach the servants’ quarters and follow them to the kitchens. Then, third door on the right, to the main foyer.”

Alora threw him a wary look. “What about you?”

“There’s a vault here somewhere. I’m not leaving until I get inside.”

She glanced between the door and him. “What if you get caught?” What ifshegot caught?

As if in warning, Erissa’s agitated voice growled, though Alora couldn’t discern what venom she spit and to who.

Aiden’s eyes danced with something wry, cunning, as he answered, “With this face? Oh, I can get away with anything.”

This can’t be right.

Deeper and deeper into the swallows of the castle, Alora clung to the walls as her salvation. Keeping her steps quiet by carrying her heels and clinging to Soulstryker latched to her hip inside her dress.

There were no servant quarters.

No kitchen.

Nothing but endless hallways and locked doors.

Alora turned a corner, stopping dead as crow-picked corpses.

A voice like summer and as bright as his dawn-kissed hair brushed along the walls, ripping her heart into a panic. Her legs felt like they would liquefy. Breath short as she surveyed each doorway and the end of the hall.

Scuffs of boots and rushed footsteps slammed off the corner in front of her.

They could round it at any moment and see her standing there, caught in a daze.

Alora moved to run back the way she came, but footsteps echoed behind her, boxing her in.

Move. You have to move.She couldn’t just stand there. Time was running out.

“Do you need help?” someone snickered down that hallway.

The voice like sunlight snarled, “Does it seem like I need help?” That was a reprimand, not intended for an answer.

That serpentine voice hissed anyway, “Yes, Your Highness. You do.” She recognized that voice. “I will not allow distractions and setbacks to bring ruination to our plans,” Silas warned so callously her legs threatened to buckle. This male. This wretched vile male who sold faeries and collected others for servants to the king …

Alora’s feet padded the stones before she convinced them to move. With a mind of their own, they carried her along the corridor, gripping handles and yanking them.

But every door was locked.

Dawn. Try to dawn.It would’ve been a good idea. A great one. But the best she could hope for was lighting the hallway aflame. And seeing as this kingdom collected Marked Ones for Magnelis, that was aterribleidea.

“The female. She is a problem.” Ezander’s low voice was like a dagger to her back as she jiggled another knob. Still nothing.

Metal scraped on something as Silas’s voice became muffled, and Alora looked over her shoulder to see their shadows drawing closer against the faelights lining the halls.

Another door. She had to try another?—

A handle twisted.

Alora wedged her shoulder into it and scrambled inside the darkness. Before she could seal it closed, shadows darkened the doorway as the male she thought was her friend and the other she knew as an enemy slowed to a stop.

---