Page 147 of The Cost of Blood and Bonds

I watch her absorb it.

“That’s all I have.” I grip her shoulders tighter. “But the safe houses are real. Every noble who’s survived knows about them. It’s how the royals and high-born always make it out.”

“And if you don’t come?” Her voice is small in a way I’ve never heard from her. “If something goes wrong?”

“Ella.” I tilt her chin up, forcing her to meet my eyes. “I will always come for you. We’ve established that already.”

That look crosses her face again. Something about her feels different, and I can’t pin it down. But after the dungeon, the tears, the terror of tonight, of course, she feels different in my arms.

“First light,” I promise.

“First light,” she whispers.

I pull her to my chest and breathe her in, letting the wildflowers and sea breeze settle over me, but the ember-warmth is heavier than it should be, sitting at the front instead of threaded underneath where it belongs. I hear the footsteps closing in. Nothing matters right now except getting her safe.

“Go.”

She holds my gaze for one more breath. Then she turns and walks into the Weeping Woods without looking back. I stand there with chest heaving, watching the fog swallow her whole.

I stay rooted to the spot long after she’s gone, using everything in me not to run in with her. But I can’t. If I disappear, he’ll send every guard in the kingdom after her. The only way to protect her now is to walk back and face Father. I turn back toward the castle, forcing my breathing to slow, forcing my face into something calm and unreadable.

I find them near the rose arbors. Father is flanked by two guards. Hayes is pale and shaking. Finn’s eyes are searching the gardens. I can feel his panic from here, and every instinct I have is screaming to look at him, to give him a nod, a glance, anything that says she’s okay. But I can’t, not with Father’s eyes on me. I keep my gaze straight ahead. Father sees me first.

“Ryewood.” His voice is ice. “Where is she?”

“Gone.”

Father’s face shifts from disbelief to rage, and he draws a slow breath in through his nose before cold calculation replaces them both.

“You let her go,” he says with a calmness I know is lethal. “You let a traitor walk free.”

“I put her in the trials.”

Everyone goes still at the same time. Father stares at me as Hayes’s head snaps up, and Finn freezes mid-breath.

“You did what?” His calmness is cracking.

“It was the best option.” I keep my voice steady, the way he taught me. “If word spreads that a rebel infiltrated the castle, got close to your sons and walked freely through the royal wing, the nobles will see it as weakness. A crack in your power.”

Father’s jaw locks, but he doesn’t interrupt.

“This way, it’s just a lovers’ quarrel. The prince, infatuated with a pretty commoner. She got too close, and things ended badly.” I force a shrug. “Embarrassing for us, yes, but not a threat to the crown.”

The silence stretches, and I can feel Hayes and Finn both staring at me. I don’t look at either of them. Father holds my gaze for a long time, weighing me with that unnerving assessment I’ve known my whole life. Then his expression changes. It’s not approval; he’s not capable of that. Recognition, maybe. The look of a man who’s just realized his son might be more dangerous than he thought.

“Fine.”

He turns and walks away, with the guards falling into step behind him. He doesn’t look back when he says, “But ensure she doesn’t make it out of the trials, Ryewood.”

My blood turns to ice. I had known he was going to say something like this, but hearing him order her death like it’s nothing makes my body rigid with the effort of not lunging after him. My hands are shaking, and I clench them into fists to hide it. I’d burn the whole kingdom down before I let that happen.

“Of course, Father,” I hear myself say. The words make bile rise in my throat.

He disappears into the darkness without another glance.

Grier materializes from the shadows. I didn’t hear him approach; clearly he wasn’t just nearby. He was hiding and waiting for the king to clear before he moved. He tips his head toward the gardens without a word. Finn and I follow.

Finn’s expression breaks.