Page 108 of A Storm in Every Heart
I lock the door behind me and test the knob, making sure it doesn’t budge. Then, I cross the room quickly and throw open the curtains, letting the faint morning light stream inside. The light hits Kastian in the face and he shields his eyes as he too sits up to look at me. “What’s going on?”
“There are Hydrattan guards downstairs looking for us,” I whisper, nervous that somehow they’ll be able to hear us moving around from downstairs. “Someone kick Captain Connell awake, we need to go now!”
Kastian throws his legs over the edge of the bed and starts pulling on his boots as Jett walks over to the pirate and shakes him awake. “Hey. Get up!”
“Bugger off, mate,” Connell mumbles. “I just finally got to sleep. Do you know how uncomfortable this floor is?”
“I’ll make it more uncomfortable if you don’t get up now.” Kastian says over his shoulder.
“What’s happening?” The pirate asks through a yawn.
“There are guards downstairs looking for us,” I repeat. “That innkeeper called them in after all, he thinks the captain and I were kidnapped.”
“Well, he’s not wrong, darling,” Connell says. “But don’t worry. It may surprise you to know that a man of my profession isn’t much of a fan of royal guards. I won’t sell you out.”
My stomach lurches. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Connell might sell us out until he brought it up, which only goes to show how ill-suited I am to sneaking around or doing anything illegal.
Fortunately, Jett jumps in, clearly not struggling at all with suddenly being on the wrong side of the law. “I don’t believe him. He was working with Magnus. His best bet is to walk right up to those guards and tell them he needs to deliver Dessa to the king and Kas and I have captured them both..”
“Ye of little faith,” Connell says with mock horror. “Do you really think I’d stoop so low?”
Jett scowls. “I think you’d lick the soles of those guards’ boots if it meant you’d go free.”
“It doesn’t matter what Connell does,” Kastian says, getting to his feet. “We can’t even walk past those guards. If any of them recognize me, we’re fucked.”
My already racing heart skips a nervous beat. “How are we going to get out of here without walking through the front door? I didn’t see any other exits.”
Kastian comes up behind me and leans over my shoulder to look out the small window. He tries to shove it open, but it doesn’t budge. “I could break this,” he says slowly. “But I don’t think any of us could fit through anyway, and especially not with wings.”
I turn to Jett. “You’re the one who’s always telling those stories about how you escaped from one heist or another. What do you think?”
His dark eyes dart from left to right as if he’s cataloging the room in his mind. “If we can’t get out, we need to hide until they think we’ve already left and go look somewhere else.”
“But where?” I moan, gesturing around at the sparsely furnished room.
Before anyone can answer, we hear movement downstairs, and the muffled voices grow louder. Jett swears harshly, and I feel sweat bead on my brow and along the back of my neck beneath my braid.
I wish desperately that the floor might open and swallow us whole. That a larger window might appear. That we could turn invisible.
Wait a minute.
That thought sparks something in the back of my mind, and an idea hits me just as the sounds of boots on the stairs reach us.
“Which room?” the guard’s angry voice demands, loud enough that it feels as if he’s already in the room with us.
“Top of the stairs on the far left,” the innkeeper says. “I put them all in one room to make things easier.
Asshole! I knew every room couldn’t be taken.
Indignation shoots through me, even though that’s not really the point right now and we have far more important things to worry about.
Focusing on the issue at hand and the idea swirling around in the back of my mind, I shove both hands into my pockets, feeling around into the corners.Please, please still be there. Please, please!
My fingers close around a tiny wilted flower stem, so shriveled and droopy that it had fallen into the very deepest corner of my dress pocket. I pull it out and hold it up in triumph. “I’ve got it!”
“Got what?” Kastian whispers, his eyes on the closed door.
I don’t bother to explain, just break the stem into smaller pieces and shove a bit at him. “Eat this.”
