CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Sev

The last time I had attempted a nighttime escape had been my flight from the dragon fortress, and nothing about that had gone as planned. I was plagued by doubt as I waited—for the sun to set, for the guard to change, for the bells to toll midnight. Was it right to help Piera and her son escape? Would the Dragons keep their word? Would Neve go along once she realized that I had lied to her about Piera?

And what would happen once I was out? I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was overlooking a reason to stay. But the army’s departure for the Seda Serat was fast approaching. I could not kill the emperor if I set sail. And as I had no good plan to kill the emperor now—he had taken to keeping his dragon at his side at all times—I had to stay alive until I did. Which meant escape. Which meant the Dragons.

When the bells tolled at half an hour to midnight, I got up and rumpled the bedclothes and arranged the pillows so that at first glance it would appear that I was still in bed. Then I reached into the wardrobe and grabbed the ends of the sheet I’d ripped into wide strips earlier in the night. I went to the curtain and stood just to the side, so that someone approaching the bed from the receiving area would not see me. There were only two guards stationed at the door. The emperor had ordered more and more guards put on the palace wall, and since I’d never tried to leave my chambers after curfew, he’d taken one from my detail.

I took a deep breath and let out a shout. I had made an assumption that the guard would investigate strange disturbances, and was gratified when the door slammed open and I heard running footsteps. I readied myself—and when the guard ran into the bedchamber, I leaped at him and wound the sheet tightly around his neck.

The guard struggled. I kicked away his flailing knife and pulled back hard on the sheet, bracing myself as he clawed at the fabric and threw himself against the wall, trying to dislodge me. But the gaurd quickly weakened, sinking to his knees and then to the floor. I took a moment to feel for a pulse. I didn’t want to kill any of them, if it was avoidable. Relieved that he was still alive, I tied him up with the bedsheet. Then I got to my feet and grabbed his knife. One down, one to go. The fingers that had been broken were throbbing, but they hadn’t kept me from doing what needed to be done. I turned my attention to the next task. I’d depended on protocol keeping one guard outside the chamber, in case of some sort of trap. But he would be suspicious if his companion didn’t appear soon.

I took the guard’s helmet and put it on, trying to ignore the sweat that ran along the rim. In the darkness, that might be enough to fool a casual observer. Then I ran out of the chamber, throwing myself against the second guard hard enough to knock him to the ground.

We grappled with each other until I managed to wind one arm around his neck and press the knife against his belly with my other hand. “Be still,” I growled.

The guard stopped struggling.

“Give me the keys to the chamber.”

Something jangled onto the floor. I didn’t turn my head. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you make me,” I said softly. “Don’t move.”

He didn’t protest as I bound his wrists and gagged him with strips of bedsheet. I prodded him into the chamber and struck him on the head with the knife hilt hard enough to knock him unconscious. Then I locked the door behind me and looked up and down the hallway. So far, so good, but I still had the uneasy sense that something wasn’t right.

I checked my helmet and fidgeted with the knife I’d taken off the guard. All had goned as planned—I just needed to get to the stables. So I quelled my worry and went on my way.

Faris had given me the patrol schedule. Each route was patrolled by two guards at a time. Routes in the inner circles of the palace were patrolled less frequently than those toward the outside. I had the guard’s keys in my pocket, so I could get through the outer door once I got there. I just needed to avoid the guards as I did so.

I made my way through the hallways, keeping to the shadows and pressing myself into alcoves whenever I heard footsteps.

The most direct way to reach the stables was through the main palace door—but that was also the most visible. Instead I cut through the kitchens and down the servants’ corridor, snagging a stale bread roll as I went through. Then I was standing before the door that led to the outer courtyard, my instincts at war.

Too easy, they screamed. But what else was I going to do? Turn around and go back to bed, untie the guards and try to pass this off as an elaborate test?

No. I had come too far. I couldn’t go back now. I flicked through the keys on the ring and opened the door. And then I stepped through into the night.

I hadn’t been outside unescorted since my capture, and despite the urgency and the smoke, there was something intoxicating about being alone. I closed the door gently behind me and walked to the stables, listening the whole way.

There was nothing except my heart pounding, my thoughts dogging my steps. Don’t. Don’t, don’t, don’t.

The stable door was cracked open. I adjusted my grip on the knife and peeked inside.

The Dragon representative was there, just as she had promised. She leaned back against one of the stalls, her leg bouncing against the ground. Nerves? Or did she know something that I didn’t?

There was no one else there, and the bells were tolling midnight. Had something happened to Neve, or Piera?

I hesitated. Would the Dragons take me if I was the only one to appear? I was wearing a guard’s helmet. If the Dragons wouldn’t help me, maybe I could get out into the city on my own. If I was lucky.

The bells stopped. The sound echoed and faded into the night. Midnight had come, but I was the only one here.

The air shifted behind me, and I whirled—to see Rafael grinning at me. His dragon loomed above us, its fangs gleaming in the torchlight.

No. How had he known?

“Drop the knife, Prince Vesper,” said the emperor.

The knife clattered from my numb fingers. A group of guards converged around us, then ran into the stables in pursuit of the lord from Oskiath.

“Very good. I believe you know my wife?” If I hadn’t known better, I might have mistaken his tone for pleasant. He raised his hand, and Piera stepped out of the shadows to stand at his side.

“Piera…” I couldn’t stop myself.

“You will not address the empress without permission,” Rafael said coldly. “Did you really believe you could turn my own wife against me?” His hand landed heavily on her shoulder.

“What?” I stared at Piera, shock befuddling me.

She raised her chin high and waved a piece of paper in front of my face. “Clever of you to encode your message, but I could not let your deceit stand. Of course I showed the emperor.”

“I don’t understand,” I said hollowly. My vision narrowed until all I could see was her face, pale in the night as she looked back at me without a hint of remorse. “I was already your prisoner. What was the point of any of this?”

“To flush out your allies, of course,” she said.

“Besides,” Rafael interjected, “it amused me.”

I couldn’t bear to look at her, but I couldn’t turn away. Inside of me was a desperate hope that somehow, this wasn’t real. “I would have done anything for you. We were family.”

She smiled thinly at me. “We are not children anymore, Severin. We cannot all be idealists. Some of us must live in reality.”

And this was the reality she had chosen, I realized. She had walked into that marriage with her eyes open. She had made the bargain willingly, and she had been on his side all along. I was the one who’d closed my eyes to what I did not wish to see.

“You’ve chosen a monster’s reality, Piera.”

“I have done what I needed to do,” she replied. “And you’ve been quite helpful, for what it’s worth.”

I couldn’t breathe. The Dragons. Their secrets would last only as long as it took the lord to break. They should have abandoned me after all. It had taken only one sad story to make me throw caution to the wind. I was singlehandedly responsible for their downfall. The army that was coming would not find a city sleeping—they would walk into a trap. The only thing I could be grateful for was that Neve hadn’t come. “Are you finally going to kill me?”

“Don’t worry. You’ll live to board your ship,” the emperor said.

“Do not pretend that is not a death sentence,” I spat.

“All the same,” Rafael said. He raised his hand, and the guards closed in around me. “Take the prince away.”

And away we went. Not to my rooms, but back to the dungeons, down the endless stairs to the cell where I had spent my first days in Irrad. The door locked behind me and I dropped to the familiar floor. All those things I’d done only to end up exactly where I had started, and what had I accomplished? Nothing. In fact, I’d only ended up ruining my image in the eyes of the people of Irrad and betraying the Dragons.

How could I have taken the emperor’s bargain? I should have just pushed him to kill me until he’d had no other choice but to grant my wish. I wished for Maren to stay away, to forget me. To stay safe. There was no hope left for me now.