9. Kiera

Chapter 9

Kiera

I hated waiting. And yet, here I was, doing it again.

Aiden and Maz had left hours ago, and Ruru had taken the position of my keeper instead. The boy had been elated that I was staying, and he was a much nicer jailer than my last one. But that didn’t change the situation.

From one cell to another , I thought grimly, lying on my dirty blanket. I doubted Aiden would appreciate the sentiment.

He’d told me to “rest and heal” as he left me here under Ruru’s cheerful watch. More like “keep quiet and out of the way as I handle matters I don’t want you to witness.”

Earning Aiden’s trust would take time, but by the Four, I would have him wrapped around my finger by the end of this. Then his secrets would be mine for the taking. If he was a threat to the safety of my family or the security of my kingdom, it was my duty to destroy him.

I glanced at Ruru, who was busy tying knots into a length of rope. Perhaps I could keep him out of whatever consequences befell Aiden.

After the cries of seagulls faded with the light, the door finally banged open. Ruru jerked upright, his knotted rope tumbling to the floor.

I merely glanced at Aiden’s dark features from where I rested. But a tremor of anticipation curled through my chest at his appearance. He wore a long cloak over his shoulders, the hood drawn up over his dark hair. The hem fluttered around dark, scuffed boots. He held another cloak in his fist. For me?

His eyes flickered to me first, as if to make sure I was still there, then focused on Ruru.

“Sophie’s got dinner for you,” he told Ruru.

“Thank the Four,” Ruru said, scrambling to his feet. He waved at me. “Be seeing you, Kiera.”

I gave him a stiff smile. “I’m sure.”

He disappeared as I clambered to my feet. Aiden watched me carefully. A strange, tense silence enveloped us like thick, sticky honey. Gods, I was hungry again.

“No dinner for me?” I quipped.

“Not yet. We have somewhere to be first.” He handed me the cloak. “Are you rested enough for a long walk?”

“I’ve had all day,” I said dryly. I pressed my fingers to my ribs. They still ached, but the pain was less sharp. “What was that salve you gave me? It worked wonders.”

He didn’t answer immediately. He always seemed to be weighing the risk of giving me information, even as innocuous as this. Unless I provoked him. Which I certainly looked forward to doing again.

“People call it Viridana’s Kiss in honor of the goddess,” he said. “Made from certain root powders and plant sap, it numbs the skin and speeds the re-gathering of blood.”

I blinked in surprise.

The ghost of a smile played over his lips. “In other words, it heals deep bruises quickly.”

“How do you know so much about healing? And where did you did get this medicine? I’ve never seen it before.”

His face shuttered. “Never mind that. Are you ready?” He cast his gaze over me from head to toe.

I’d changed back into my dried clothes and laced my boots on my feet while I’d waited. I’d also combed my tangled, salty hair with my fingers and braided it down my back.

“Where are we going?”

“To corroborate your story,” he said, yanking the door open.

My breath stilled. My story about the vault or about who I was? It had to be the vault as he would have no way to investigate the other. Unless he checked the city prison for recent executions or had someone inside the palace who could tell him if I’d really been a bodyguard.

Gods damn it. Renwell had assured me such a thing wouldn’t be possible. But what if it was?

“What story?” I demanded, throwing on the cloak he’d given me.

He looked down at me. “About Asher and the vault.”

Relief washed over me. “It’s not a story. It’s the truth.”

“All the same,” he said, gesturing out the door.

Ah yes, you don’t trust me. I pulled my hood over my head, feeling a sense of ease in its shadow.

I slipped past him and caught a whiff of soap and mint. Had he bathed while I was stuck in this hole? Perhaps if I started to stink enough, he would see fit to let me out of his sight for a few moments to savor a bath for myself.

Together, we stepped into the sultry twilight of the Docks Quarter. I took a deep breath of the briny air and glanced up at the violet sky already salted with stars.

“The Wolves won’t be out yet, but we should hurry,” Aiden said, his words stealing the warmth from the air.

I nodded, and we strode through the tangle of streets until we came to the bottom of the cliff road.

I suppressed a groan, looking up at the steep path ahead. A few supply wagons and pedestrians dotted the rocky edges.

Aiden didn’t wait for me, just kept marching.

He probably has the thighs of a god if he does this trek a lot , I grumbled to myself, remembering the very detailed sculpture of the gods Terraum and Arduen in the palace. As young girls, Delysia and I had giggled over their muscled physiques and bulging manhoods.

My eyes darted involuntarily to Aiden’s lower half as he walked ahead of me, but his cloak covered up anything interesting.

Not that you should be thinking anything of the sort .

I forced my gaze away and looked out over the harbor instead.

Torches and lamps were already glowing as the sun melted on the ocean’s horizon. I studied the ships bobbing at the dock. Which one was I meant to be on? Had Aiden told the captain I wasn’t coming? And why had he said “my” captain?

A short, sharp whistle made my head swivel back to Aiden who stood some distance ahead. The shift in focus made the world wobble for a moment.

“Eyes forward,” Aiden said as I drew even with him. “People have fallen over the side when they get distracted.”

My stomach roiled, remembering the woman tumbling over the bridge. “Understood. It’s just... rare that I get to see a view like this.”

He kept pace with me as we walked on. “The views from the palace weren’t beautiful enough for you?”

I darted a glance at him, but there was no malice in his face or his voice. “They were beautiful,” I said slowly. “I could see the sea, the sky, and the city, but they felt so far away. Untouchable. A mirage.”

“Like they didn’t truly exist but in your mind. Or a memory,” Aiden said softly.

My heart tripped. “Yes. Yes, exactly.” It was one of the reasons I’d started sneaking out when I was eighteen. That and I was tired of sitting around grieving for Julian—the real Julian. I wanted to feel something again.

I’d wanted to feel the city I stared at so often from my windows. To see how it’d changed since the rebellion. I’d wanted to rub shoulders with the people I watched like ants. In my wildest dreams, I wanted to discover what was beyond the city walls. But not by sea.

My churning stomach had more than its fill of the sea last night.

“Why are you smiling?”

I glanced up to see Aiden watching me. I whistled and jerked my chin. “Eyes forward, Aiden.”

His eyes widened, then he tilted his head back and laughed. Warmth fluttered under my skin. His laugh was rich and deep and too short. He cut it off as if surprised he’d done it at all.

“As you say, little thief,” he said. “If you tell me why you were smiling.”

Holy Four, was he flirting ? Or he just couldn’t stand to give something without getting something.

But talking to him made me forget the growing burn in my legs and ribs. I normally had reasonable endurance from Renwell’s training, but I would gladly sink this road to the depths of the Abyss.

“I was smiling because I was thinking of how I got much too close of an experience with the sea last night,” I said. “Enough to last me a long, long time.”

“Ah, the true reason you wish to remain here. Your fear of the waves.”

I scowled at him. “Being rich would go a long way to calming that fear.”

“It had better.”

We lapsed into silence once more. It seemed we couldn’t get into any sort of conversation without our words becoming knives we used to chip away at the truth. Until he trusted me, wanted me to stay, we would continue to circle and stab at each other.

At long last, we crested the top of the cliff and passed through the gate into the Market Quarter.

The quarter was much busier this time. Vendors selling off the last of their food or haggling down final deals for their wares. Wagons loading or unloading supplies. Women beating the day’s dust from rugs. Children chasing each other through the chaos.

I kept close to Aiden’s boot heels as he wove his way toward the Noble Quarter gate. I hesitated as it came into sight. He must have a very well-connected source if he was going to verify my information in there.

I used to have connections as well. When I started sneaking out of the palace, I had made friends with some of the bridge and Noble Quarter gate guards who would look the other way. A few of them I became quite a bit more intimate with. When Father found out, he commanded Renwell to “take care” of the guards. I hadn’t seen them since.

Soon after, on one of the rare occasions I’d beaten Renwell at Death and Four, my prize was the answer to what happened to those guards. He refused to say anything other than that they’d been demoted to border patrol. For simply looking the other way or for the crime of touching me without Father’s permission.

I didn’t speak to Father for weeks after that.

But perhaps Aiden had struck up a few friendships of his own among the guards.

The gate was ablaze with light from a dozen torches, giving the guards a clear view of who was coming and going. They stopped each person, demanding their name and business in the quarter.

“Gods damn it,” Aiden hissed, coming to an abrupt halt.

I caught up to him and peered to where he was staring at the guards. I didn’t recognize any of them, but he seemed to.

“We can’t go through the gate,” Aiden muttered, shuffling me off to the side. Away from the small knot of people the guards were preventing from entering. “They must have already done the guard change. And if those men have descriptions of two escaped prisoners on the loose...”

I swallowed hard. “Right. What can we do then?”

“We’ll have to go the other way,” Aiden growled and shoved me down a dark, narrow alley.

“What other way?” Holy Four, there was another way in and out of the Noble Quarter? Did Renwell know about this? Possibilities rampaged through my mind.

Aiden glared down at me, his glittering green eyes vivid even in the shadows. “We can’t wait for another guard change. The Wolves will be out soon. My guard won’t be back on shift for days. I need the truth tonight, little thief.”

I held my breath at the battle raging behind his words, the reluctance lining his taut shoulders.

“But I can’t let you have this secret. Not fully,” he continued, his words growing quieter. “I’ll have to blindfold you.”

Instinctively, I stepped back, right into a wall. He didn’t pursue me.

“Why?” I rasped.

“I feel it is necessary to protect the heart of what I do. But I won’t do it without your consent.”

I bit my lip. He’d never hurt me or tricked me, even when he had the opportunity. He’d rescued me, healed me, fed me, kept me safe. If I ever wanted his trust, I would have to offer a slice of my own.

“I’ll allow it.”

He nodded. “Don’t move. I’ll be back.”

He was gone only a few moments, reappearing with a silky purple scarf threaded with gold. He must’ve bought it off one of the merchants.

He stepped forward. Close enough that I could smell him again, that salt and sunshine mixed with soap and spice. His scent and his nearness seemed to have a habit of nudging my heart into a gallop.

But I wasn’t afraid.

“Turn around,” he said in a husky voice.

I tried in vain to calm my breathing as I faced the cracked clay wall. He tugged the hood from my head. Silk whispered over my skin as he wound the scarf over my closed eyes. Could he feel the tremble that slithered from my head to my toes?

He finished knotting it, trailing his fingers over the ends. “Bearable?” he whispered in my ear.

No. He was torturing me. Albeit a different kind of torture than one would find in a prison. This kind incited a riot of goosebumps on the back of my neck.

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

He drew my hood back up over my head and threaded my arm through his, like we were strolling through a royal ballroom instead of shadowed alleys.

“What if someone sees us?” I murmured.

“They will not question a man leading his blind wife home.” Aiden’s voice sounded deeper and richer in my darkened world. And the words he spoke...

I stiffened. I could not let him think he affected me. He would use it against me, surely.

My boot struck a stone, and I clutched his arm to keep from sprawling. “How long will this take?”

“Not long.”

We walked for some minutes, turning far too many times to be necessary. But I didn’t comment on his misdirection, focusing instead on keeping my balance. Eventually, I stumbled less and less. I anticipated his movements by each subtle turn of his body. Like we were dancing. Gods, I hadn’t danced in years.

What would it be like to dance with him? I slapped the thought away. Our story could only end in betrayal and death, not dancing.

“Wait a moment,” he whispered, then dropped my arm.

His warmth disappeared. I threw out my arms to gain my bearings but met air. There was the snick of a lock opening. Aiden grunted as he shoved against something heavy. The croak of door hinges.

What if the blindfold were to slip just for a moment? Would he kill me for peeking? I hadn’t seen any weapons on him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have concealed one somewhere. His boot or the back of his waistband, perhaps.

He’d also shown me he could cause plenty of harm without one.

Before I could decide, his hand wrapped around my arm again. “In here. Three steps down. Good. Hold still now.”

I froze, not daring to move. Instead, I listened. He had moved farther away from the scraping and creaking of heavy objects being moved around.

Dust suddenly tickled my nose, triggering a violent sneeze. The sound echoed as if we were in a large, enclosed space.

“Try not to announce our location to every Shadow-Wolf in the area.”

I sniffed and scowled in the direction of his wry voice. “They can’t catch up to us that quickly in the Old Quarter.”

His voice was suddenly so close I jumped. “Figured that out, did you.”

I shrugged. “It wasn’t hard. This must be an old warehouse from the feel of it. Since we need to get to the Noble Quarter, we must be in one of the warehouses located near the wall in the Old Quarter.”

His breath was a warm breeze on my forehead. I tilted my chin to blindly meet his gaze.

“You can see through the scarf,” he said flatly.

“No.”

“Then how did you know there were warehouses here?”

“I studied maps of the city as part of my training.” Which was true. “If the city was ever compromised, I needed to know where to take the royals. I remember this cluster of large warehouses near the wall.”

There was a long silence, but I could still feel him inches away from me.

“I would very much like to know,” he said in a deadly quiet voice, “what else was on those maps.”

A tricky request. I licked my dry lips. “I can assure you that your tunnel was not on them.”

“Why do you think it’s a tunnel?” he asked sharply.

“What else could it be? We can’t go over the wall because it’s too high, and no rooftop is close enough. So, we must be going under it.”

Another silence. I waited, my heart hammering in my ears.

“Clever little thief,” he murmured.

“Does that mean I can remove this blindfold?”

“No.” He grasped my elbow. “You may have figured out a few things, but I still have secrets to keep.” He led me on a jagged path across the soft floor. Most likely avoiding obstacles. But what kind?

“Mind the stairs. Five small ones.”

I edged closer as his grip tugged me downward, into the tunnel. The air grew damp and still, every sound muffled. Even though my eyes were closed under the scarf, I could feel the heavier darkness press around me.

How long had this tunnel been here? Aiden must use it for more than sneaking in and out of the Noble Quarter.

“Wait for me,” he whispered.

My lips parted to beg him not to leave me, even for a moment in this abyss, but he was gone. Shutting the entrance behind us.

My heartbeat spun out of control, fear clawing at my throat and my insides. “Aiden?” I didn’t care that my voice trembled.

Warm fingers slid around my arm. “Kiera.”

“Can I take it off now ?”

“It won’t make a difference in here. But I can’t let you see where we come out.”

I sighed. “Just don’t . . . don’t let go.”

“As you wish.”

He pulled me forward, but we had to walk somewhat sideways to stay connected without rubbing against the uneven walls of the tunnel. Dirt and pebbles crumbled over my shoulders. The earth could swallow us whole down here. I doubted even the gods would find our souls in this pit.

I bit my lip and slid my arm through Aiden’s grasp until my hand gripped his.

His steps faltered for a moment before moving faster. But he didn’t let go of me.

“Why did you reveal what you knew?” he asked suddenly. “You could have said you had no idea where we were, where the tunnel might be.”

“Because I have no reason to lie,” I whispered. “I want you to know what sort of person you’re dealing with. Just as I wish to know you.”

“There is no need. We may not live long enough for it to matter, as you said last night.”

“That was in a prison cell. We’re free now. We could get rich and never spend another moment in dark holes as we’ve been in the last day.”

His fingers twitched in mine. “There are darker places than this.”

“Where—”

“We’re here,” he cut me off. “Five steps up.” I followed him.

There was some scuffling and a quick curse from Aiden.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered.

“It’s stuck.” More heaving and grunting.

Something landed on my shoulder and started crawling up my neck. I yelped and batted it away. “What was that? A spider? Holy Four, open the gods-damn door!”

“It’s gone,” Aiden rasped. “You’re fine as long as it’s not a black moss spider.”

My fingers itched to rip off the scarf, Aiden’s secrets bedamned. I crowded up against him, desperate to get out of this spider-infested tunnel. Something crashed, and I was jerked forward. For a moment, I was falling, still clutching Aiden’s hand. I felt him twist, and we landed in a heap, my body splayed over his.

My blindfold came loose.