Chapter 15
NYRA
M y palms were slick with sweat as I glanced around the training grounds, taking in every detail. Wren was to my right, her long legs stretching out before her, and I nodded at something she was saying.
“Did you hear me?”
“What?” I blinked and looked down at her.
“You should stretch more. I promise it will help with the soreness later.” She leaned forward and touched her toes, and I followed suit.
The soreness. The only soreness I could think of was the way I ached between my thighs with the memory of Dacre’s touch. Dacre, who had all but disappeared after I walked off with Eiran last night.
“Have you seen your brother this morning?” I stretched my arms over my head while I looked around.
“No.” She chuckled. “I’d say he’s probably sleeping off that wine if I had to guess. I don’t know what got into him last night.”
I bit down on my tongue because I didn’t know what had gotten into him either, but it wasn’t something I was ready to discuss with her.
He was her brother.
“Does that mean I can go back to our room and get some more sleep?” I chuckled because I knew that was never going to happen.
“Not today,” a deep male voice I didn’t recognize said from behind me.
“Dad.” Wren climbed to her feet and stood up straight in front of her father. She didn’t approach him or embrace him like I expected her to. Instead, she stood like a warrior before a commanding officer.
So I did the same.
“You must be Nyra.” Her father looked at me, and he looked so much like his son it was unsettling. He had graying hair at his temples, and his face was worn with his years, but his features were the same.
All except for his eyes.
I had seen him only once before when he pulled Dacre from training, but this was the first time he had spoken to me.
“I am.” I nodded and shifted on my feet, uncomfortable under his attention.
“I hear my son has been training you.” He looked around the grounds. “Any idea where he is now?”
“He wasn’t feeling well last night,” Wren answered before I could say anything. “I could hear him getting sick through the walls.”
I kept my mouth shut because her lies to her father were none of my business.
I had my own lies to worry about.
“Then you’re with me today, Wren.” His words were a command, and she simply nodded.
“What about you?” He cocked his head and studied me. His expression so similar to Dacre’s, but he unnerved me in a way that Dacre never had.
My spine straightened under his scrutiny. “What about me?”
“Have you been out on the field yet?”
“She’s only had a few days of training,” Wren answered for me, but her father paid her no attention.
“You’ll come with us then.” He turned away from both of us. “We’re leaving now.”
“Shit,” Wren cursed under her breath, and I widened my eyes.
Her father was already walking away from us, but she pulled two different daggers from their sheaths on her vest before tucking them into mine.
“I’m going to kill Dacre.” She looked over my shoulder as if he would suddenly appear.
“Should I be worried?” My hands were trembling at my sides, but I had no idea what going out on the field meant. But I couldn’t get the image of what Dacre had told me in that cave yesterday out of my mind. Those boys. I didn’t know how I would handle that. I didn’t know if I could.
I didn’t know what I’d do if he forced me to go anywhere near the palace.
“Just stick to my side.” She tugged on the straps of my vest before her worried gaze met mine. “You’ll be fine.”
She followed after her father, and I did exactly as she said and stuck to her side as we walked up to him, two other men, and Mal.
She opened her mouth as if she was about to speak before closing it again. I hadn’t seen her since the day I had arrived, and honestly, I had been thankful for that.
“Good. Let’s go.” Wren’s father barely spared us a glance before he was leading us down a winding path that led us away from the training grounds and deeper into the narrowing caves.
He was walking so quickly that I could barely keep up, but I stayed at Wren’s side as we reached the end of a massive cave and started ascending a winding staircase that was so covered in vines that I wouldn’t have known it was there without being shown.
When Wren’s father reached the top, he lifted open the circular rock that gave way and allowed the blinding sunlight to come in. I had spent so many days already in the hidden city that I had to shield my eyes as I let them adjust to the daylight.
Wren’s father and the others disappeared through the hole in the ceiling, and Wren and I followed after them. Wren reached her hand forward to grab mine and helped pull me up before the two of us shifted the rock back over the opening.
We were in the middle of woods, surrounded by trees and a thick mossy forest floor.
I had no idea where we were, or how far from the palace, but I could hear the loud crashing water where the waterfall hit the surface.
It was a sound I used to crave at night.
I would open my window and let the familiar sound lull me to sleep after my mother was no longer there to do it.
But now the sound made me shudder, and anxiety coated my veins. We were close enough to hear it, which meant we were also close to my father.
“Davian, we need to head east,” Mal said as she looked around. “We’re supposed to meet him shortly.”
Wren’s father looked over at us once before nodding his head. “Let’s get this over with.”
We followed behind them as they moved through the forest as if they were a part of it.
Their steps were soundless, and they moved so quickly that my breaths were rushing in and out of my chest, trying to keep up with them.
Wren was almost as stealthy as they were, but I could easily spot the years of training they had over her. Even Mal.
Sweat was dripping down the back of my neck by the time they finally stopped behind a cluster of large trees, and I tried to quiet my panting as they watched the small clearing before us.
I didn’t know what they were waiting for, but the tension in the air was thick and suffocating. I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears as I watched the men in front of us, their eyes focused on something in the clearing.
“Why would you bring her here?” Mal spoke quietly as she moved to Wren’s side.
“Davian demanded it.” Wren narrowed her eyes at Mal. “Would you like to be the one to tell him no?”
Mal didn’t answer her; instead, she crouched and looked out toward the clearing.
I gasped as movement in the nearby bushes revealed a tall, broad-shouldered figure with a strong jaw and short black hair. Faris.
We had known each other for years–ever since I was a tiny girl playing in the castle courtyards. He was one of the top commanders in my father’s army, and there was no chance of him not recognizing me. I felt lightheaded as fear surged through me, and I forced myself to take a deep breath.
Davian motioned for us to stay put as he and the other men disappeared around the trees. Wren grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to her, her grip tight and reassuring. We both crouched down near the base of a massive tree, near Mal, and I could feel the tension in Wren’s body.
There was no doubt that they could feel it in mine as well.
“Do you know who that is?” I asked Wren so quietly that I barely heard my own question.
She shook her head without taking her eyes off of Faris. “I’ve never seen him before.”
“He’s a commander in King Roan’s army,” Mal hissed without turning to face us.
I watched as Faris paced back and forth in the clearing, his eyes darting rapidly. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, his face drawn and gaunt.
I felt a chill run down my spine as I watched him. Faris was known for how ruthless he could be in battle. The stories my father used to tell about his great war efforts had been enough to turn my stomach, and I didn’t feel safe that he stood before us now.
“He knows me.” I spoke the words into Wren’s ear before I could think better of them, but if I was going to have to face this, I wanted to do it with someone I trusted at least knowing part of the truth.
The only truth I could give her.
Wren looked at me, and her eyes were assessing, but there was no judgment there. No hatred.
“We wait and we watch.” Her voice was steady and calm. “We stay hidden unless my father tells us otherwise.”
I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest.
“You’re the one who asked for this meeting.” Davian stood before the others. “What do you want?”
Faris’s eyes flicked toward Wren’s father, and he took a step forward. “I have information that could be of great use to you.”
Davian’s expression was unreadable as he stood there waiting for Faris to continue.
“I have information on the whereabouts of the princess.” Faris’s voice was low, and I felt Wren’s grip on my hand tighten.
“What makes you think we would be interested in that?” Davian’s tone was hard, but I saw the way he leaned toward Faris just a fraction.
“Princess Verena is a valuable bargaining chip,” Faris replied, his eyes darting around the clearing. “The king has had men searching for her for months.”
It was the first time I had heard my name in months, and I felt unsteady.
Davian rolled his shoulders back and shifted on his feet.
“Because she’s his daughter.” He almost sounded bored by the conversation, but he was watching Faris carefully for his answer. “That doesn’t make her valuable to me.”
“He doesn’t care about her because she’s his daughter,” Faris spat, and shame flooded me. “If she had been enough for him, he wouldn’t have spent years killing his queen by forcing her to try to bear him another heir.”
Guilt and grief were worse than any blade someone could throw at me, and my hands trembled as his words assaulted me.
“Then what does he want with her? He has a new queen now.” Davian’s hand moved almost unnoticeably, but I saw the way it inched closer to the blades at his side.