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“After you, then.” I gestured to the door, and we followed her into the hallway.

Emilia turned left, and despite myself, I glanced right—at my parents’ bedrooms. Both doors were ajar, probably from Emilia rummaging through their things.

“Neve?” Vale asked. While I’d stopped, he and Emilia had kept walking and were now waiting for me. Vale with confusion in his features, Emilia with a sad understanding. “Is something wrong?”

“I . . .” I trailed off, unsure how to answer his question, all the while the doors pulled at me.

The castle—maybe my parents even—had wanted me to find this place, to come back here, and now I was leaving. Running. Hiding. I’d yearned for my family, but I was abandoning what little I had left of them.

“One minute.” I dashed for my mother’s suite.

Vale swore, and his heavy footsteps told me he followed me into the queen’s suite before pausing on the threshold of her bedroom.

I, however, approached the desk and pulled open the drawer. The diary was there. I shoved it in my cloak pocket. Should I never return, it would be my keepsake.

I turned to Vale. “We might need coin too. Do you have any on your person?”

He shook his head. “There might be a coinary, though. Depending on where the gateway goes.”

“I have a better idea.” Though I’d once thought to use it as currency, I hadn’t thought to grab the phoenix opal when the vampires attacked. Thankfully, that would not be an issue. There were many jewels back here.

I left the bedroom and entered Queen Revna’s vast closet, where I pawed through my mother’s jewelry. Knowing that it was hers, that it might have been mine one day, and that each piece was a connection to my past and that I might have to sell it hurt, but I shoved down my emotions. All the while, Vale followed, his movements still a touch clumsy from the ale in his blood, a stunned expression on his face. Once I’d filled my pockets with rings, necklaces, bracelets, and brooches that would fetch hundreds, if not thousands, of gold bears, I was ready.

“Let’s go.”

Vale nodded, and we left the queen’s suite to find Emilia in the hallway, ready and waiting. But I stopped again.

King Harald, my father, had slept across the hall from my mother. Despite his horrible reputation, he was blood. I wanted something from him too.

I entered the old king’s rooms and Vale gave a huff. “Neve! We have to hurry! The longer we take, the better prepared the vampires will be in the city to hunt anyone who looks suspicious.”

“I’ll be fast!” I said, sure of what I wanted as I rushed to the sword case and smashed the glass.

“What in all the nine kingdoms?” Vale hollered, but by the time he raced into the room to learn what I’d done, I’d already wrenched the sword from its case, placed it in the sheath, and slung the sword strap over my shoulder.

“Now, I’m ready.”

Chapter 39

VALE

So many questions bubbled through my mind. Neve already had a sword and stakes. Why had she felt the need to take that particular blade?

None of what I’d seen made sense, and I didn’t think it was because of the ale still pounding through my system in spite of the food and water the human had brought me.

That same human, Emilia, was directing us through the palace, and I had to be ready to protect and fight the moment we exited the castle. So, as much as I wished to question Neve, I needed to focus.

“Up ahead, we’ll have to cross a hallway in the main part of the palace,” Emilia announced as we reached the bottom of a staircase.

Though it was difficult to tell because I’d never been back here, I sensed that we’d made our way to the ground floor and were, perhaps, near the servants’ living quarters.

“Is it a well-traveled part?” Neve asked.

“Not this time of night. And it’s the only instance inwhich you’ll be vulnerable before going outside.” Emilia gave Neve an encouraging smile.

The slave seemed very attached to Neve, which I found odd. As Neve was a princess and my wife, I’d expect servants and slaves to show her respect, if nothing else, but every time the human looked at Neve, she seemed a bit . . . sad?

Something wasn’t adding up. As soon as we were safe, and I was clear-headed once more, I intended to do some digging.