Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
T he one good thing about Draven’s hunt for the Red Hand is that it gives me a lot of unsupervised time. Since Draven is gone most of the day, and sometimes at night too, I have been able to sneak out a lot. By climbing off the balcony and then in through other windows, I have searched through parts of the Ice Palace that would otherwise have been inaccessible. Like the highly guarded wing that I’m currently in.
My heart patters in my chest as I draw myself up along the white ice wall and peek around the corner. A jolt shoots through me.
Farther down the hall, two guards in silver armor are positioned on either side of a doorway. They’re wearing ornate silver helmets and are holding tall spears.
I yank my head back.
Unfortunately, just because I can sneak in through a window doesn’t mean that I can roam freely once inside. Especially not here. In Bane and Jessina’s private wing.
While cursing silently, I hurry back down the corridor and towards the deserted and unlocked room that I climbed in through.
In the week since I was recruited by the human resistance, I have managed to provide them with precious little information of value. The Ice Palace is huge, and I don’t even know which floor the treasury is supposed to be located on. That has made it difficult to concentrate my efforts. Well, that and the fact that I can’t let anyone recognize me. If someone saw me and realized who I was and reported me to Draven, I would be in a world of trouble.
Stopping outside the deserted room, I reach for the handle. But then I hesitate.
The smart thing would be to climb back out the window and return to Draven’s rooms before any of the no doubt numerous guards in the Icehearts’ royal wing catch me. This place is most likely more well-guarded than any other part of the castle, and trying to sneak into it blind is both dangerous and stupid. But at the same time, I can’t let this opportunity slip through my fingers.
I know for a fact that both Bane and Jessina are occupied elsewhere all night. Apparently, there is some kind of banquet for the court tonight. Which I know because a servant tried to get Draven to attend, but he just told the servant that he was too busy planning the hunt for the Red Hand. And with both Draven and the Icehearts busy in other parts of the palace, I can’t waste this opportunity to search the royal wing.
The only problem is of course how to get in there.
I stare at the door before me for another few seconds, weighing the risks and the gains. Then I blow out a determined breath and straighten my spine. I need to at least try.
Leaving the door behind, I sneak down the corridor in the other direction. If I can’t get past the guards protecting the entrance, I need to find another way in. There can’t possibly be only one way into the royal wing. There has to be some kind of servants’ entrance. Or an emergency exit or something.
If only Isera was here. She could probably just split one of these ice walls with her magic, and then we’d be through. Or even Alistair. He could melt a hole in one.
My heart squeezes at the thought of Isera and Alistair. I haven’t seen them since I blacked out in that throne room after Draven and the Icehearts collared us all. When Draven received the orders to hunt down the Red Hand, Jessina said that Isera and Alistair hadn’t woken up yet because of how much magic she and Bane drained from them. But that was a week ago. They must surely have woken up by now.
I wonder how they’re doing. I can’t imagine that the Icehearts are removing their collars the way that Draven does for me. I need to find a way to get to them. To talk to them. To tell them that I’m working with the human resistance. That we have a plan. And to tell them to just hold on a little longer.
But for now, I need to stay focused. So I block out my worry for Isera and Alistair and instead focus on my current problem. Getting into the royal wing without being arrested or killed.
The faelights that are set into the ceiling glimmer above me like stars as I make my way through the corridor. Outside the windows, the sky is dark. Dinner has already come and gone, and we’re halfway to midnight already.
I keep my steps soft as I sneak along the ice corridor and towards the next corner. Technically, I’m heading away from the royal wing. But if I’m right, there might be another entrance somewhere on the other side. I just need to?—
“Why did we have to get the boring shift?”
My heart leaps into my throat.
Just around the corner up ahead, another voice answers, “It’s not the boring shift. Guarding the royal wing is a great honor.”
“But guarding the banquet hall is so much more fun. This is the time of night when things always start getting really interesting.”
Oh shit.
Those two guards are coming to relieve the ones who are already stationed at the entrance to the royal wing. And to get there, they must pass through this corridor. The corridor that I’m currently in. The one corridor that I’m really not supposed to be in.
Alarm bells blare inside my skull as I whip my head from side to side. I’m too far away to make it back to the deserted room before the guards can spot me. And there is nothing to hide behind in this corridor. The only thing in it is the faelight gems in the ceiling. No tables. No decorations. Not even a carpet.
My gaze snags on a closed door farther down the corridor. If it’s unlocked, I might be able to make it there and get inside the room right before the guards round the corner. If it’s not, I’m dead.
I sprint towards it.
“I’ll take an uneventful night guarding the royal wing over getting killed by the Red Hand any day,” the second guard says.
Their footsteps are getting closer.
They’re almost at the corner now.
My heart slams against my ribs as I hurtle down the corridor in their direction. It’s all or nothing now. If I can’t make it through the door, I will be too close to them to escape. The door has to be unlocked. Please, Mabona, the door has to be unlocked.
“You really think the Red Hand is gonna sneak into a crowded banquet and start killing people?” the first guard replies.
He’s right around the corner.
I throw myself the final distance to the door.
“I think there have been too many throats slit inside the palace, and I don’t want the next one to be mine.”
My hand closes around the handle, and I shove it down in the same breath as I yank it open.
Relief crashes through me when I meet no resistance.
Leaping across the threshold, I yank the door shut as quietly as I can.
And come face to face with a pair of golden eyes.
My heart stops.
Draven Ryat jerks back in shock from where he’s standing on the other side of a table covered in maps. Stunned disbelief pulses across his whole face as he stares at me.
I open my mouth.
Black wings flare out as Draven shoots across the room.
My heart jerks back into action and then pounds hard when Draven slams a hand in front of my mouth and shoves me up against the wall. His forearm is braced across my collarbones, keeping me pinned to the wall, while his other hand remains firmly over my mouth.
“Don’t you think the risk is higher here, though?” the first guard says from right on the other side of the door.
“No. The Red Hand would never be stupid enough to try to assassinate the Emperor and Empress themselves. He knows he’d get slaughtered if he faced them head on.”
“I sure hope so.”
“No hope needed. This is the safest place in the palace.”
“Still boring, though.”
“Now you’re just…”
Their voices grow fainter as they disappear down the hall.
Still pressed against the wall, I stare up into Draven’s now furious eyes. He keeps his hand over my mouth for another few seconds before he lets it drop. But he doesn’t step back. And he doesn’t remove his forearm from my chest either.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he hisses at me.
I try to push myself away from the wall, but he just presses his forearm harder against my body, trapping me more firmly.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” I counter.
He stabs his free hand towards the table covered in maps. “I’m working. Now answer the fucking question.”
Since I can’t very well tell him what I’m really doing here, I say, “I was trying to escape!” I grind my teeth and glare at him in annoyance to really help sell the lie. “But there are guards everywhere. I’ve been running through corridors and up and down stairs for half an hour, but I still somehow just manage to get deeper into this damn castle.”
“Of course there is! What did you think was going to happen? That you would be able to just stroll out?” He shakes his head at me in disbelief. “How did you even get out of the room?”
Breaking eye contact, I turn my head to the side and clench my jaw to make him think that I’m just being stubborn.
His hand slides up my throat and then locks underneath my jaw. With a firm grip, he turns my head back so that I meet his eyes again. Unflinching command laces his voice as he demands, “Answer me, little rebel. Or this is going to be a very long night for you.”
“Some woman came by to clean,” I lie. “I snuck out while she was busy cleaning the bathroom.”
He curses under his breath. I open my mouth to make sure that he has truly bought my lies, but before any sound can make it out, Draven abruptly releases my jaw and presses his palm over my mouth again. I struggle underneath his grip and squirm against the wall.
Draven shoots me a sharp look and shakes his head. And there is something about his expression that makes me go silent and still.
A few seconds later, faint footsteps can be heard through the door.
Realization hits me.
Of course. The two guards who were being relieved of duty. They’re walking back through here to get to their next post or whatever it is that they do.
Once their footsteps are no longer audible, Draven at last takes his hand off my mouth and also lets his forearm drop from my collarbones. While he takes a half step back, I brush my hands down my rumpled clothes to make sure that the gloves and shoe covers I’m hiding in there are still in place.
Blowing out a frustrated sigh, he rakes his fingers through his hair and gives me an exasperated look. “I thought I told you to stay in your room.”
“And you actually expected me to do it?” I retort. Holding his gaze, I shake my head while anger and frustration course through me as well. “You thought I was just going to obey your orders and not try to escape?”
“I’m not draining your magic. I took off your collar. I’m trying to?—”
“You made me your slave, Draven! When push came to shove, you still locked that iron collar around my throat and sucked my magic out of my body.”
“Look, I get that you feel betrayed.”
“Do you? How could you possibly know what it feels like to be so thoroughly deceived?”
“You wanna talk about being deceived?” Pain flickers in his eyes. It’s followed by something deeper. Something more like hurt. “How do you think I felt back in that underground forest? How do you think I felt when I realized that you didn’t fuck me because you genuinely wanted to? That it was all an act. That you didn’t really want me. That you only fucked me as a distraction to steal the ring from me.”
His words hit me like a stab right through the chest.
I hadn’t even realized what that must have looked like from his perspective. After what I did, of course he believes that it was all just a cunning deception.
But fucking him by that river had never been part of the plan. The plan had always just been to soak him with that slimy plant goo and get him to take his clothes off in the river so that I could steal the ring from the pouch. Nothing else.
I slept with him because I wanted to. Solely because I wanted to, even though doing so risked my plan.
My chest rises and falls as I stare up at Draven. The words are right there on my tongue, but for some reason, I can’t make myself say them. Him knowing the truth won’t change anything. We’re still enemies. I’m still his slave. And I’m still plotting to ruin him by helping the human resistance pull off a devastating heist against the Iceheart Dynasty.
Our already far too complicated feelings for each other will only make everything worse. So in the end, I just close my mouth again.
Draven drags in a deep breath as if to compose himself. Then he takes another half step back, putting even more distance between us. And when he speaks again, there is no trace of those intense emotions in his voice or on his face.
“Listen to me. This court is brutal. In ways that you don’t even know. So you need to follow my rules and stay inside our rooms. And when we’re out in public, you need to behave.” Reaching up, he takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilts my head back so that all I can see are his serious eyes as he holds my gaze. “I don’t care if you despise me behind closed doors, but out here, where people can see, you need to act as if you’re my slave.”
Slapping his hand away, I glare up at him so that he will understand that I truly mean every single word that I’m about to say. “I will never be your slave.”
A frustrated breath rips from his lungs. For a few seconds, he looks to be debating something internally. Then he heaves another sigh, this one sounding more tired than angry. Grabbing me by the arm, he pushes the door open and then pulls me with him as he walks back out into the corridor.
“Come with me.”