Chapter 49

YENA

I woke in the morning to a hesitant knock on the bedroom door.

Crawling out of bed, I had a vague memory of Nolan rising early and kissing me before he left. I wondered if he had gotten any sleep at all.

Rafaela was at the door. She pushed her way inside and shoved the door closed quickly, telling me she had urgent news.

“What is it?” I asked.

Her impulse to do her job was distracting her, though. She ran around the room and flipped on all the lights, making me wince and squint against them. Then she dragged me by the hand over into the bathroom, sat me down on a stool, and began running the hot water in the tub.

Then she told me what happened early in the morning.

Nolan had gone into a meeting with the King. And for whatever reason, he left that meeting and got locked away into a confinement cell.

“Where is he?” I demanded. “Where exactly?”

“I don’t know, Miss Yena,” she said meekly. “But I will find out for you.”

She loitered a moment and I had to give her a stern look before she understood that I would like her to do that now. Then she hurried away.

I closed and locked the bathroom door and sat with my back against it.

The tears came fast.

This whole thing was all my fault. Nolan warned me that Adan was trying to use me, and all I did was trust the lying bastard anyway.

All because I was desperate to have a friend. Desperate and gullible.

Then I heard Lily’s voice in my head.

You can help him, she said.

I shook my head and thought, How?

I didn’t like that she didn’t answer me right away.

But it dawned on me that it sure didn’t help Nolan for me to sit on the bathroom floor and cry about how stupid I’d been.

I stood up and looked in the mirror.

What was done was done. Now I needed a plan.

I was going to get my husband back.

Trust your instincts, Lily said at last.

You will know what to do.

I wanted to be annoyed at the vagueness of that message, but hearing it actually did give me a boost of confidence. And hope. I resolved to just put one foot in front of the other and figure this out.

I took a hot bath and got dressed quickly.

I didn’t know how the deaconess was going to get the information that she promised me, but I hoped she would. And fast.

Breakfast was on the table in the dining room. I thought eating might distract me, but I had no appetite. I had a cup of coffee and a few bites of toast.

Then I took a bowl of strawberries with me to my studio and sat at my desk.

That was where I did my best thinking.

Most of the time.

I ate my strawberries in silence.

The window behind me cast a bright light throughout the parlor. I turned around to look out at the sunlight directly, blinking to adjust my eyes. This was the last time I’d see the sun for a little while.

The week ahead would be very dark. There were sleet and hailstorms in the forecast that were expected to ice up the roads at some point.

Once that happened, it would be impossible to get anywhere.

I realized that meant that whoever was inside the palace when the ice storm hit, would be staying inside the palace until the roads thawed out. Which could be several days later.

I had a horrible, fleeting thought. I wondered if it was possible that Adan was here.

But why would he be?

Then finally someone was at my door. It wasn’t Rafaela, though.

It was Nolan’s secretary. And behind him, a single Gamma warrior holding an assault rifle across his chest.

“You must follow quickly, Miss Yena,” the secretary said in a frantic whisper, waving his arms wildly. His face was red and sweaty.

They vanished back into the hallway. I jumped up and ran after them.

NOLAN

“Yena,” he whispered. Nolan couldn’t believe his eyes.

He was locked in a confinement cell, high in a tower adjacent to the King’s suite.

He had been in here once before. A long time ago. It was not something he liked to remember.

All had been quiet in the tower since the guards that locked him inside had stomped down the stone staircase and left him there hours earlier.

Then Nolan heard a very slow rumble below him and understood that the big wooden door at the bottom of the tower was being opened. Very carefully.

And then two sets of footsteps were climbing the stairs. Carefully.

Yena emerged first at the top of the staircase, followed by a Gamma warrior.

Nolan flinched when he saw the guard, but the way the man was interacting with Yena, he quickly pieced together that this one was conspiring on their side.

The guard nodded to Nolan, then turned and jogged back downstairs to watch the door.

Yena ran over to the bars of Nolan’s cell and clutched onto them. They stung her hands and she winced, pulling back.

“What in the world?” she asked, looking at her palms.

“They’re silver,” Nolan said. “Made especially for Lycan prisoners.”

Yena tilted her head. She looked from her hands, which were still smoking a little, to Nolan’s face then back again.

“Wait,” she said. “Are Lycans… different from other werewolves?”

Nolan exhaled and looked at the floor. He had not meant to spark this kind of conversation with Yena right now.

“Yes,” he said, “we are very different, but now is not the time to discuss that.”

Yena looked at him doubtfully. She peeled a little bit of burnt skin off her palm.

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t know anything about the world I live in,” she said.

“Yena,” Nolan said firmly. “If I promise to explain more another time, can we please talk now about the current situation?”

Yena looked all around the little jail where Nolan was confined.

Inside the cell there was only a sink, a toilet, and a bench attached to the wall that worked just fine to sit on but made for a very poor bed. The walls were all stone. The only light was an ambient glow that radiated up from a tiny window in the stairwell.

She shook her head and asked, “What happened?”

He sat down on the bench and put his elbows on his knees. “My father… questioned me this morning. And did not like my answers.”

“He was questioning you about what happened with Adan yesterday?”

Nolan nodded. Then averted his eyes from hers.

Most of what his father had said during their morning chat had been about Yena. Things Nolan would never want to repeat to her.

“Did you tell him that Adan put his hands on me first?” she asked. “And you didn’t even actually touch him?”

“I did tell him that Adan set up that whole… situation,” Nolan said. “But I don’t think he believes that it is true.”

“Why?” Yena’s face was all concern. “Why wouldn’t he believe you?”

“The King trusts no one,” Nolan said flatly. “And I think Adan must have gotten to him, somehow.”

Yena’s face flushed red.

“He’s going to fight you, isn’t he,” she said quietly. “Adan. He wants to be King.”

Nolan nodded and said, “Yes.”

“And is your father going to let that happen?”

Nolan stood up and began pacing his cell. He was thinking carefully about how to answer her question.

The truth was, Nolan had no idea what his father intended to do. Now, or ever.

“Tell me how to help you,” Yena said. “I’m going to get you out of here.”