Chapter 18 Aurora #3
He nodded, but Selena cut him off before he could say more. “It’s too public there. Too many eyes.” She tapped her chin, her dark eyes unseeing as she fell deep in thought. “You said your mother took you out on the balcony to show you the fireworks. Do you remember your childhood home?”
“I grew up in Russkaya,” he corrected, “but, yeah, I remember Ma’s house.”
“Then that’s how you get in. It must be somewhere close to the palace since you could see the festival’s show from your window. Any chance your family took you to Derzelas’ Temple?”
He shook his head. “Even if they did, I was too young for it to make an impression. I don’t remember.”
It dawned on me that I didn’t know Radu’s age. But seeing as in the vision of him, Conin and his mother he’d been past the maturing age, and adding the long decades fighting Souleaters, he couldn’t be much older than me. Maybe ten to twenty years. Fifty tops.
Hard to tell when every child of Derzelas stopped aging in their twenties.
Seizing the opportunity, I took my chance.
“And how long exactly do you reckon that was?” I asked, schooling my face to seem indifferent.
He read right through me. The bastard. “Where would the fun be if I told you that?” His chuckle was deep, like the rumbling of distant thunder, and soft as silk.
“Fine,” I scoffed, and got back to serious matters. “Let’s say we portal to your mother’s house. We’d still need to cross half of the First Ward on foot to get to the Temple. And even if we manage to hide your hair somehow, people will recognize me.”
“Not if you’re with him, they won’t.” Selena slumped into the plush emerald armchair she’d unearthed from a pile of forgotten furniture.
Her face took on that collected expression that usually meant she was about to recite a sequence of events that would lead to us arriving safely at the Temple, and would probably start her story right around the Arrival of the Dark Sons millennia ago.
I held my hand in the air, stopping her before she could start. “That’s exactly what I want to prevent. They will know what he is straight away.”
Derzelas, was it too hard to grasp that if word got out that a varcolac was walking freely on the streets, mayhem would ensue? And not only that, but the future queen was the one who’d smuggled him inside the walls?
“Aurora, darling,” she said with a sly smile. “How often have you been seen in the company of a man?”
I winced.
Thanks for that, Sel.
“That rare, huh?” Radu snorted, but his smug grin said he didn’t mind it.
My cheeks flamed like a sacrificial pyre. “Oh, hush,” I said and rolled my eyes. “I didn’t want to give them more material for the gossip columns, they had enough as it was. People live and breathe for any dirt they can dig up about life at court.”
“But they’re especially curious about their future queen,” Selena added. “Fully cloaked, you’d be just another couple keeping their infidelities a secret. No one would even consider it’s you, believe me.”
“And where in Derzelas’ name will we find cloaks to wear here?”
“I know a place. Leave them to me,” Radu said, and gave me a sinful wink. The most wolfish grin I’d ever seen crept across his face. Damn his varcolac heritage. “Your virtue is safe with me, Your Majesty.”
A scorching wave rolled through my body from my toes up to my scalp.
It wasn’t fair for my traitorous body to react to him like that when I was still miffed at him for hiding things from me.
But when he sank his teeth into his lower lip, my lower belly clenched tight, and I couldn’t hold back the groan that escaped my mouth.
“Okay, that’s enough!” Selena growled, jumping to her feet and shoving us apart.
Her head barely reached Radu’s chest, but the threat in her glower said his towering height did not intimidate her.
“Keep it in your pants. We still need to come up with contingency plans. I know it all depends on the location of your mother’s house, but we need to talk about what routes are safer in case you can’t take the less obvious ones.
How are you going to get inside the Temple without getting caught?
There are at least two guards outside the Sleeping Chamber.
If they see you and alert the Nightwatch—”
“Lieutenant,” Radu interrupted, “in my experience, the more you plan for these things, the more likely you’ll get fucked when they don’t work in your favor. The mind adapts quicker to new situations when you have fewer expectations. We’ll portal to Ma’s house and wing it from there.”
“We won’t wing anything,” I choked out. “If we’re doing this, you’ll do what I say.”
He shrugged, and I shook my head at him.
Then I continued, “He’s right, though, Sel. Too many things can go wrong and throw a wrench in our plans. We’ll avoid the main roads and keep to the quieter areas. I’ve already thought about this. We could enter the Temple through the tunnel on Moonlight Terrace. Remember the fountain?”
Her eyes glittered in recognition, and she nodded enthusiastically.
“Ravenwood Heights is far enough from the boulevard, and Sable Street leads straight to the square,” I further explained. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll detour through Shadowbrook. It’s riskier since we’ll have to cross the bridge over the Blackwater Channel, but the crowds will thin out.”
“Alright, sounds good to me,” she said, nodding in agreement. “When do you leave?”
“The sooner the better.” Radu’s voice was firm. “I assume the Transmitters won’t reach the Republic?” he asked her.
“No, they are close-range devices.”
“Tonight then. After sunset.” He looked at Hummingbird, and his lips curved in what might have been a smile if it held any warmth. “I don’t want to be away too long in case the Shepherd makes another move.”
Selena’s face blanched. I could only assume it was because she realized they wouldn’t have Harbinger to warn them in advance about the Souleaters.
“Tonight,” I repeated, my stomach fluttering with nerves. “You won’t even know we left.”