Page 151 of The Cost of Blood and Bonds

We slip out of Rosie’s house and into the night. I lead her south, skirting the gravel drive in front of the main entrance. The ball is still going, music and laughter drifting through the open windows, warm light spilling onto the gardens ahead. We cut behind the stables. A guard’s torch bobs near the barracks, and I pull Gem into the shadows, pressing us both against the stable wall until he passes.

“Come on,” I whisper.

We keep moving until the gardens open up before us. We weave through hedgerows and past stone benches, deeper and deeper, until the manicured paths give way to the untamed ground. We stop at the threshold of the Weeping Woods. Fog spills through the arch, thick and unnatural, curling around our ankles, cold and damp.

“Gem.” Her name scrapes out of me. “I’m so sorry. For what I did tonight. I never meant to hurt you. I know our friendship wasn’t real to you, I know you were just trying⁠—”

I stop. I don’t even know why she was at my father’s chambers. I never actually let her explain; I just reacted.

“It doesn’t matter.” I shake my head. “Whatever you were doing, whatever you needed, it doesn’t matter. Because it was real to me.” I swallow hard. “And I’ll carry this guilt for the rest of my life.”

“Hayes.” Her voice is almost gentle. “We are friends. Real friends.”

Something cracks in my chest.

“How can you say that?” I whisper. “After what I did to you tonight?”

“Because it’s true. And I’m sorry I can’t explain right now.” She squeezes my arm. “But Hayes, you’re a good person. Tonight doesn’t change that.”

She’s forgiving me. I put her in a cell and walked away, and she’s standing here forgiving me anyway. The guilt of it is so heavy I can feel my chest caving under the weight of it.

“Gem—wait, there’s something you need to know. There are safe houses in the trials. Rye and Finn will be at the first one at first light tomorrow morning. Just wait for them there.”

Her eyes go wide as I explain the rest to her, then she pulls me into a hug, brief and fierce. She pulls back, adjusts the pack on her shoulders, and steps through the archway without looking back. The fog swallows her whole.

I stand there until the silence settles.

My knees give out. I sink onto the cold stone path with my head in my hands, and the full weight of tonight comes down all at once. I found her at that door, and instead of asking a single question, instead of trusting her, I reacted. I’m the reason she’s walking into a death trap.

The thought breaks something in me. The tears fall heavy, hot with shame. And the same question loops in my head.

What if she doesn’t make it out?

Chapter 51

Ryewood

The thoughts circled all night without reprieve. I paced my room, wearing the same path back and forth, unable to do anything but think about her in there alone. Then, first light finally came.

The sky is barely pink when we gather at the entrance. The three Davrik siblings stand in a tight cluster, Belinda in polished armor that’s never seen combat, with her brothers flanking her like they’re posing for a portrait. Six guards surround them.

They have no idea what’s waiting for them in there. Though neither do I, not really. But I don’t care about the trials. I only care about her.

Father arrives to see us off. His face is a mask of benevolent pride, the loving king sending his son into the sacred tradition. It makes my stomach turn.

He clasps my shoulder and leans close.

“Rye. Don’t forget what I said.”

I force myself to nod. He releases me, steps back, and smiles for the gathered nobles.

“May the trials reveal your true strength.” The same words he’s spoken at every trial send-off for centuries. The rest of the contenders will follow later, only once the nobility has had their head start.

Hayes is at the edge of the gathering, separate from the nobles, like he doesn’t know where else to put himself. When our eyes meet, it’s the look of a broken man who’s given up trying to hide it, who knows exactly what he’s done. He made a choice he can’t take back, and he knows it, and I know him well enough to know this will cost him for longer than today.

I hold his gaze as the horn sounds. There’s nothing I can do with it now, and everything I need to do is in there.

I turn and step through the archway first, with Finn and Grier on my heels. The fog closes around us instantly, cold and damp against my skin, swallowing everything behind us, like it never existed.