“Is that true, or just your opinion of Highmark?”
My heart eased just a little. Even now, even here, she had that sharpness. “How did you get down here, anyway?”
“The guard opened the door for me.”
I let out a laugh. “After you set a blade to his neck?”
"You forget, Dorian." She tilted her head, blue eyes cool. "I’m not on Liora’s bad list.”
My lip twitched. Fair enough.
Eury disappeared from view, and a moment later the slot opened by my feet. She pushed the tray through, and I dropped to my knees. I grabbed at the goblet so fast it sloshed and drained the whole thing without pause. The mead was sweet, too sweet, but my throat was parched and my pride wouldn’t let me show gratitude. I set the goblet back on the tray and rose to find Eury already standing.
Her hair was braided tight. She’d clasped a cloak at her neck. She looked as ready for travel as I’d ever seen her.
I clasped the bars. "Liora’s already told you, then.”
Before she could answer, footsteps sounded. Heels, tapping on stone. Not the scuffling of prisoners—the sound of feet free of confinement.
Eury stepped back toward the wall until her spine pressed against it. “And I’ve already agreed.”
So it was time.
The summer queen came around the corner, flanked by two handmaidens. Her blue dress was simple, form-fitting, kissing the stone at her feet. Her hair had been braided at either side of her head, pulled into a half-ponytail.
She arrived at my cell, took in the whole scene in a second, andclasped her hands together. Her eyes flicked down to the empty goblet, then up to me. I could almost touch her disdain for me, pinch it in the air between us.
I tied my doublet’s neck. “When do we leave?”
An emotion flickered in Liora’s expression—surprise, perhaps, or approval. She’d expected me to rage about Gawain, to demand justice or threaten vengeance. But I’d spent the night with her words rattling in my skull.The darkness,veyre. Best make your peace with it.
I’d made my peace. Or something close to it.
“You leave now,veyre.” Liora turned to Eury. "Did you bring what you need?”
Eury nodded.
“And no one else saw you leave?”
“No one.”
“Good.” Liora gestured to one of her handmaidens. The woman moved toward the cell door; with a flicker of light in the lock, the door swung open. “Step out.”
I came out into the hallway. “You going to escort us out the front gate? I’m sure Maeronyx will love that.”
“Tch.” Liora closed her fingertips as though sealing my lips. “Does he always talk so much?”
Eury’s eyes glinted with humor, but she said nothing.
Liora turned away, toward the dungeon’s interior. “This way. Save your breath, both of you, for the climb.”
Instead of up, Liora led us deeper into the dungeon—through a fake wall and down a curling flight of stairs, her blue dress winking the whole way. I walked behind Eury, and the handmaidens flanked me.
I didn’t know where she was taking us, only that our choices were limited in Liora’s domain. It was down, or nowhere.
The staircase ended in a single hallway, so narrow and low I hadto duck through it. The handmaidens brought out golden crystals from their dresses, lighting us into the dark.
“No one alive knows of this place but the five of us.” Liora’s voice echoed off the crumbling walls. “When you return, you cannot come back this way.”