Page 86 of Gilded Locks

Fury in his eyes warned Grace of his approach before he stalked toward her. Grace’s training kicked in, and she widened her stance and sank low to keep her balance, raising her hands in defense.

When he went for her wrist, Grace twisted and moved around him, locking his own arm behind him.

The sheriff let out a guttural growl. “You’ll rot for this.”

Her parents stepped forward at the same time. Father took Grace’s place, and her mother placed herself directly between Grace and the sheriff. “I don’t think so.”

With a bang, the doors to the town hall flew open.

“Here’s your proof!”

As one, the jammed crowd turned to the door. Standing there, framed by the intricately carved wood, was the Rogue!

He shouted, “Free Cyrus!” then waved a salute and darted away.

The sheriff tried to lunge forward, but Grace’s father still had a hold of him. He hissed in pain.

Grace had started pushing through the packed group the second she saw the Rogue, so as people closed in on the door, Grace was able to extricate herself and follow the two guards as they lunged after the Rogue.

Before they made it through the assembly hall and out of the building, another shout came from outside.

“Stop! Thief!”

The cry crystalized Grace’s burning blood.

“Get him. Don’t let him escape!”

Grace burst through the front door and bounded into the town square.

The scene before her was hectic and confusing, especially in the meager light of the crescent moon. Across the square on the cobblestones in front of Lizzy’s manor, a man clad in a verdure cloak was trying to pull free of someone, desperately holding the hood on his head with one hand.

Running toward the home, also in a verdure cloak, was the Rogue.

The guards that had exited before Grace stood frozen in bafflement.

Grace, too, skidded to a stop.

Two of them. There were two of them.

Which one had she been spending time with? Had it always been the same one?

Grace felt her heart constrict within her. Was this why he didn’t want to show his face?

Well, she wasn’t going to gently question him like she had the night before. She was done with his secrets.

Chapter 21

Grace recovered faster than the guards and resumed her pursuit. After all, to her, the concept of two people playing the Rogue wasn’t foreign.

A shout of frustration in the mystic tone created by the face cloth rang through the square. Frank Tucker, who Grace now recognized as the man holding on to one of the Rogues, noticed the duplicate of the person he wrestled. Using the distraction, Frank’s Rogue elbowed his face and pulled free, running for Sherwood Forest. The sight of his verdure cloak waving behind him left Grace in a panic.

The deep forest-green cloak had a large splotch of gold near the right shoulder. The metal appeared uncommonly smooth and reflected the moonlight and scenery the man passed, just like the cloak Grace and her parents had tossed into the pit with the Zerudorn gold from Willa’s home.

This was the person who’d used the gold. He’d been trying to break into another home! Thank the heavens Frank was there. Though, if the gold had dripped onto the cloak, what else—who else—on the porch might it have spread to. What if Frank had touched that contaminated spot of the cloak…?

If she stopped to check, the vandal might get away. She must get him first.

Though night had fallen, making it hard to see the man, as he bolted between manors where less light reached, the crescent moon hit the mirror patch, betraying his location

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