Page 38 of The King's Queen

“I should have done something though.” I burry my face in my hands. “But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t bring myself to stab him.”

“Don’t be ashamed of your pure hands, Vera, some of us wish we could wash ours clean again.”

“Even you?”

Kya pauses for a moment before her shoulders slump forward in a moment of vulnerability. “Some days,” she admits, “I can’t tell where the blood ends and the paint begins.”

We stay there like this for a moment, my head resting on her shoulder with her tracing soft shapes across my shoulders. Not a sound in the room save for the near silent susurration of the wind blowing in from the open window. The scent of jasmine and wisteria drifts in, caressing us into peace until Kya sneezes again.

“Bless you.” I laugh, but she’s already on her feet, daggers poised and ready. Her eyes warn me we weren’t alone. I want to shout at her to hide and to put those damn daggers down.

“You’re not going to skewer my maids.” I hiss between clenched teeth.

“Please don’t. I quite like my organs where they are.” Torin drawls from his position, where he leans lazily against the door. “Kya, I presume?”

“Friends. Both of them.” I whisper to her as Blaine steps into the light, his handsome face grim and set in a hard line. Kya sets her face in stone to match and sheaths herespas, but noticeably keeps her hand close to the hilt. Wary, but willing to listen.

Throwing off my covers to reveal a dark blouse and fitted trousers already stuffed into thick-soled leather boots, I stalk towards the entrance and my friends.

“They’re coming with tonight.” If Kya is surprised, she doesn’t show it, much to her credit, just cocks a single eyebrow skyward.

“Rowan won’t be happy.”

“I’ll deal with Rowan.”

She sucks on her teeth, then huffs under her breath, “I’m sure you will.” She nods to the window and tosses out a rope. It unravels slowly, rippling towards the ground silently. No guards startle or appear to apprehend them. Kya juts a chin towards it. “Let’s make this quick, before the guards notice. There are two horses so we will have to ride double.”

I try not to think about that last statement as I slip out the window with graceful skill. The rope no longer snags or burns beneath my touch. I barely make a sound as I land, and Kya lands silently beside me. Blaine and Torin then follow, albeit clumsier than the two of us. My friend motions for us to make for the horses as she cuts the rope, and I mount the sweet chestnut gelding waiting by the outer wall. Blaine mounts behind me and moves to take the reins from my hands, but I grip tight.

“I can handle it,” I hiss between clenched teeth. His eyes flash with a moment of shock and hurt, then back to that cool indifference. Good, let him wonder how much he truly knows about me.

Ever since he found out where I’ve been spending my nights, Blaine has kept his distance. Not that he can come into my room whenever he liked, I’m supposed to be sick, but he could try. The only conversation we’ve had since was the one we had this afternoon where he and Torin said they were coming with tonight.

There wasn’t much room for argument, not when Blaine fixed that glare on my bandaged midsection, where my wounds were healing slower than usual. I had been quick to pull the hem of my blouse down and agree quietly.

Blaine’s legs hang tightly against the gelding’s barrel; occasionally, his bad leg will swing forward and brush against mine. The lightest touch, and my knuckles go white against the reins. If Blaine notices, he doesn’t say anything.

Neither of us mention the blush I keep blaming on the cold rather than his arms wrapped around my waist.

The moonlight slowly disappears beneath the shadows of the growing and spindly trees of the forest. My grip tightens, and Blaine silently shifts closer. His arms tense against my midsection.

There are no lights to be seen in the dense forest, not as we cross that one boundary separating the blessed towns from the cursed. And despite my growing lack of fear of the cursed, a shiver drags its icy fingers down my spine.

Normally, Rowan and I would plod along a well-lit path to reach the compound, though I understand Kya’s reasoning for choosing this unfamiliar path. The darkness will conceal the way, and if Blaine or Torin were to report to the king the dwellings of the most notorious criminals in Krycolis, they wouldn’t be able to lead the way back to us.

“Are you alright?” Blaine whispers, just loud enough for the two of us to hear. Torin and Kya pull ahead of us slightly, disappearing into the unnatural dark first. I straighten my spine. It’s the first words he’s spoken to me today, the gravely tone of his voice now slightly unfamiliar.

“I’m fine.” My voice cracks as I respond, my knuckles turn white as they grip the reins tighter now. That darkness… I can’t go in again.

Slowly, Blaine reaches forward, his gloved hands closing over mine to disentangle the leather reins from between my fingers. With one hand, he guides us into that unholy void, and the other, he holds flat against the plane of my stomach. A constant reminder.

“Lean back and close your eyes.”

“But—“

“I’ll leave a light on.” His voice fogs in the air before us, the darkness soon claiming even that. Just ahead, I can barely make out the silhouette of Kya and Torin’s mare.

“I’ll leave a light on,” he repeats, his fingers splaying across my stomach. I’ll leave a light on. Our phrase since we were children. An oath he had yet to break and used so rarely. Trust. He is asking me to trust him despite my fear, despite my panic. Trust him to get us out of this safe and alive. I haven’t heard him say it since… well. Since before he left me and promised to return.

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