Page 54 of Dark Reign

While I waited, I fidgeted with my hair, using the brush to detangle my damp strands, attempting to settle my nerves.

It didn’t work.

The silence on the other end was not only frustrating. It was heartbreaking.

What if I never got to speak to them again?

What if the next time they heard of me was during a news update, explaining that I’d met my end swinging from the bottom of a rope, or at the point of a sword.

When communication between us ceased roughly eight hours ago, I could only imagine what my team must have thought, what they must have assumed. And now … there was only static.

I lifted a hand to remove the piece when a voice stopped me …“Cori! Cori, is that you?”

Tears welled in the corners of my eyes. They were still there. They hadn’t given up on me.

“Yes!” I whispered. It took everything in me not to yell out to them, but I knew better.

“You’re okay?”Felix asked.“We slept in the command center in case you were able to contact us.”

And I was so,soglad they had.

“You’re okay?”Felix repeated.

I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I mean, I was alive, sothatwas something I supposed.

“I am,” I finally answered. “But I won’t be able to talk long. I think the com is about to die on me and I don’t have the spare.”

Another wave of sadness came with that admission.

“What’s going on? Where are they keeping you?”he asked in a rushed, panicked tone.

My eyes scanned the room, taking in the vaulted ceilings with crown moldings of gold, expensive window coverings, centuries old artwork, and silk bedspread.

“The palace,” I answered as quietly as possible. “A suite in Prince Julian’s quarters.”

Felix was quiet, and for a moment, I thought I’d lost him.

“Fe?” There was no missing the hint of terror communicated with that one word.

“… I’m here, it’s just … wow. Liv and I were certain they’d locked you in a cell,”he answered.“How did—”

His question stopped there, but I knew what he wondered. How did I end up in the cushiest place in this quadrant of the dynasty after having committed what the Ianites considered to be a heinous crime?

And my answer to that question?

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

I was going to say more, was going to tell Felix that first chance I got, I’d make a run for it, but a chipper, sing-songed, “Good morning,” caused the words to seize in my throat.

Glancing over my shoulder, I found Elle smiling. I wasn’t sure whether she had been waiting outside the door all this time, listening, but I feigned innocence just in case. If she hadn’t heard me whispering, it’d seem to her I’d only been securing my ponytail before she walked in to greet me.

She crossed the room at high speed, bounding toward me and my heart leapt.

“I’ll keep quiet because I hear you have company, but I’m not going anywhere,”Felix promised through the earpiece.

My gaze shifted up when Elle appeared behind me in the mirror’s reflection. She focused on my eyes a moment and I didn’t understand why.

“Brown,” she quipped. “I like them much better this way.”

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