49. Ryewood
Ryewood
Iwatch her go, and everything in my chest compresses into a suffocating knot. I drag a hand through my hair and turn toward the castle, holding myself together by force.
The ballroom is just as bright and loud as when I left it, with nobles laughing, champagne flowing, and music swelling. Everyone is oblivious to the fact that my entire world just shifted on its axis.
I scan the crowd for Hayes. He was barely holding it together when I left him. I need to check on him. Make sure he hasn’t drowned himself in champagne or started a fight with a Davrik. But I don’t see him anywhere.
I spot Finn and Rosie instead, still in their corner near the bar. Rosie’s cheeks are flushed, with her laugh a little too loud. Finn’s grinning at her, saying something that makes her swat at his arm.
I make my way toward them, weaving through clusters of nobles who try to catch my eye, but I can’t do pleasantries right now. I can’t pretend everything is fine when Ella is out there, doing something dangerous, and I’m stuck here smiling at people I couldn’t care less about.
“There he is.” Finn spots me first. “Thought you’d run off for good.”
“Just needed some air.” The lie comes easily.
Rosie tilts her head, studying my face. “You okay?”
“Fine.” I force a smile. “Where’s Hayes?”
Finn shrugs. “Wandered off a while ago. Thought he went to find you, actually.”
My stomach drops. Hayes, alone, in the state he’s in, is not good.
The ballroom doors burst open. Hayes walks through looking wrecked. His hair is disheveled like he’s been dragging his hands through it, his face is pale, and his eyes are wild, darting around the room until they land on me.
I’m moving before I can think, cutting through the crowd toward him. Finn and Rosie are close behind me.
Hayes meets me halfway, grabbing my arm hard enough to bruise.
“She betrayed us.” His voice is ragged and far too loud, causing heads to turn toward us. “She betrayed us both, Rye.”
“Hayes.” I grip his shoulders, trying to steady him. “Slow down. What are you talking about?”
“Gem.” He says it too loud, voice cracking, and I watch three nobles stop mid-conversation to stare. He doesn’t even register them. “I found her breaking into Father’s chambers, Rye. It was all a lie. Everything she told me—”
“Hayes.” I tighten my grip on his shoulders, forcing him to focus on me. “Stop. Not here.”
His eyes are still wild. “I trusted her. I thought she was my friend—”
“I know.” I keep my voice low and calm, even as my heart hammers against my ribs. “I know. But you need to stop talking. Right now.”
The whispers are spreading. I can feel them rippling outward through the ballroom like poison in water. The crowned heir…Gemma…the swordmaster…
Finn leans close to Rosie, murmuring something I can’t hear. She nods once, and her face pales. Then slips away toward the terrace doors, going down to the gardens, toward Grier. Good, she’ll warn them and get Ella out.
“Library,” Finn says quietly, appearing at Hayes’s other side. “Now. Before this gets worse.”
We flank him and guide him through the crowd. I smile at a servant who looks too curious while Finn claps a confused lord on the shoulder and makes some joke about too much champagne.
The library door closes behind us, and Hayes falls apart. He sinks into a chair by the cold fireplace with his head in his hands.
“Tell me what happened.” I crouch in front of him. “All of it. From the beginning.”
He drags his hands down his face and takes a shuddering breath.
“I was—I needed air. Rosie and Finn were…” He shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. I left, and I was walking, and I saw Gem heading toward the east wing. I thought I’d catch up to her. Talk to her. She’s always been there for me…I thought she was my friend, Rye.”
“I know.”
“I followed her, and I finally caught up to her outside Father’s chambers, and she had her back to me.
I reached for her hand, and there were these metal tools, lockpicks, and she tried to play it off.
Tried to—” He laughs, hollow and broken.
“She tried to flirt with me. Suggested we take a walk in the gardens. Like I’m stupid, like I wouldn’t notice where we were standing. ”
Finn is pacing by the window with his jaw flexing and his hands clenching and unclenching at his side.
“What did you do?” I ask carefully.
“I panicked. I used my magic, used vines to restrain her. And I—” He swallows hard. “I put her in the dungeons. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know who to trust. Everyone’s been lying to me, Rye. Everyone.”
The dungeons. He put her in the dungeons. I have to get to her; I have to fix this before Father finds out, before everything collapses.
The library door swings open.
Father stands in the doorway. His eyes sweep the room, taking in Hayes crumpled in the chair, Finn frozen by the window, me crouched on the floor, and his face goes cold.
“I heard the most interesting whispers just now.” The gentleness in his voice is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever heard. “Something about the swordmaster and my chambers.”
“Father—” I start.
“I wasn’t speaking to you.”
Father steps into the room further, closing the door behind him with a soft click, and his gaze falls on Hayes. “Hayesland, you’ve outdone yourself tonight. Making a scene in the middle of the Contender’s Ball. Shouting a servant’s name for all the nobility to hear.”
“She’s not a servant, she’s—”
“I don’t care what she is.” Father’s voice goes sharp. “I care that my heir is making a scene in public over some common whore with a sword.”
Hayes flinches like he’s been slapped.
“Now.” Father clasps his hands behind his back. “Someone is going to tell me what’s going on. And you’re going to do it quickly before I lose my patience.”
Silence stretches, and Hayes’s jaw sets. He’s not going to talk. Despite everything—the betrayal, the heartbreak—he’s not going to give her up.
“No?” Father draws a slow breath in through his nose and tilts his head. “Very well.”
The magic hits Hayes before any of us can move. Vines erupt, wrapping around Hayes’s throat, yanking him up out of the chair. His feet leave the ground. His hands claw at the vines, face going red, mouth opening and closing in silent gasps.
“Father! Father, stop—that’s your heir—”
“My heir should know better than to keep secrets from me.”
Hayes’s lips are turning blue. His eyes are bulging.
“Father!” I grab his arm. “You’re going to kill him!”
He turns to me, and I see his eyes narrow to small slits. For a moment, one horrible, endless moment, I think he’s going to let it happen. Going to calmly stand there and choke his son to death.
Then the vines release.
Hayes crashes to the ground, gasping, retching, hands clutching his throat.
Father steps over him like he’s nothing, and his eyes land on Finn. His vines wrap around Finn’s throat, slamming him back against the bookshelf and lifting him off his feet. Books tumble to the floor. Finn’s hands claw at the vines, his face going dark red.
“Tell me what happened tonight, Hayesland.” Father’s voice is almost bored. “Or I’ll crush his windpipe.”
“Stop!” Hayes is on his knees, still gasping. “Stop, I’ll tell you—just stop—”
The vines tighten, and Finn’s eyes start to roll back.
“I found her outside your chambers!” Hayes screams. “Gem. She was outside your chambers. I thought it was suspicious, so I detained her. She’s in the dungeons. That’s all, that’s everything.”
Father goes still.
“Outside my chambers.” He says it slowly, like he’s tasting the words.
“Yes.” Hayes is shaking. “I didn’t—I didn’t know what she was doing there.”
Even now, even after everything, he’s still protecting her. Leaving out the lockpicks, making it sound like she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Mmm.” Father releases Finn.
Finn crumples to the floor, choking, gasping for air. I want to go to him and make sure he’s okay. But I can’t move, can’t draw Father’s attention.
“The swordmaster.” Father turns away from all of us, staring at the dark window. “The pretty commoner who’s been getting too close to my sons. The one who wanders my castle like it belongs to her.”
The silence that follows is suffocating.
“Well.” He straightens his jacket and smooths his hair. “That’s easily handled. We’ll just kill her. Tonight.”
The world stops. My mind scrambles for something, anything, but all I can see is Ella’s face in the moonlight. Find me.
I look at Finn. He’s on the floor, one hand pressed to his bruised throat, but his eyes are sharp and fixed on mine. He doesn’t speak; he just mouths, Go.
I don’t think. I’m out the side door before Father registers the movement, taking the narrow staircase two at a time until it spits me into the throne room. My footsteps echo off the glass dome as I sprint across the marble floor, weaving through the trees.
Please. Please let me find her. Please.
I burst through the eastern doors and cut toward the hidden entrance below the training yards, taking the dungeon stairs three at a time.
It’s empty down here while the guards are still at the ball, and I find her in the third cell. She’s standing at the bars, still as a caged bird, face streaked with tears, and when she sees me, her whole face crumbles.
“Rye?”
My chest splits open. I want to reach through the bars and hold her, wipe the tears from her cheeks, tell her everything is going to be okay, but there’s no time.
Later. I can comfort her later. Right now, I need to get her out.
“We need to go.” I’m already fumbling with the keys hanging on the wall. “Father knows. He’s coming to kill you.”
Her face goes pale.
The lock clicks open, and I grab her hand, pulling her out, already running.
“This way—”
Footsteps crunch on the gravel behind us, heavy and deliberate. Father’s.
I drag her down the corridor, taking the back passage that leads to the southern grounds. We burst into the night air. The gardens stretch before us, silver and shadow in the moonlight.
“Rye—Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe.” I don’t slow.