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“Lia said you can’t travel yet. It will be better to give yourself another day of rest before you move too much.”

Fox couldn’t argue with the logic although his furrowed eyebrows told her that he wanted to. They fell back into silence, and Sofia allowed the dancing flames to draw her attention.

His question had made her think about tomorrow and the next day, and such thoughts came with too many questions.

No.

There were no questions. She needed to bring Fox back to the base so Micael and others could finish their negotiations. If Dia was still alive. And then—well, they couldn’t let him go immediately. He knew too much. But they wouldn’t kill him. Micael had always avoided such things as best he could. Unless his hand was forced.

Though, he had killed before to protect the resistance.

She’d always appreciated that about Micael, but for some reason, now the thought made her stomach twist and something unpleasant settled in the pit of her stomach.

But there was no room for doubt or second guesses. She needed to get back to the cenote and prove to Micael she was still useful to the resistance. If her time in the forest had taught her anything it was that she belonged out here—not in the city. She couldn’t go back to begging on the streets. And bringing Fox back to them was the only thing that would ensure she wouldn’t.

SOFIA

AGE 15

The next day, the prince woke and saw the village girl sitting beneath his tree. He attacked her, sweeping down and snapping at her fingers. Even as he drew blood, she didn’t move, voice calm as she told him to take the bread she had brought. She told him that she saw that he was hungry. It was her voice, full of compassion, that finally made the prince surrender.

-The Raven Prince by Emilio Laurn

Sofia was in a horrible mood and she hated herself for it. But she hadn’t seen Gabriel in three days and had heard nothing from him either. She’d eventually given in and asked Jorge about him that morning. The stables head had only grunted at her to get out and leave him be.

Even without answers, she was a few minutes late to work and the chief commander was all too happy to point this out as he threw a stack of papers down for her to work on. He left a few minutes later, stating he had business at the prison, and left her alone to wallow in her misery.

She worked quickly, her handwriting probably messier than it should have been, and a small voice in the back of her mind told her that the chief commander might end up forcing her to rewrite the tables and letters, but she didn’t care. She was too distracted to focus.

She finished the pages shortly after lunch and was all too happy to stack her work on the chief commander’s desk and sidle over to the bookshelf along the wall. As usual, she was careful when she plucked out a book to read. She never touched the books with a clean layer of dust on them, too aware her fingerprints might give her away. The room was only ever open long enough for her to slip in and out as she picked a book. And she only ever grabbed one when she knew the chief commander’s schedule had him out of the manor for the entire day.

Mina didn’t even know about the shelf behind the wall. The stories she told the girl had expanded over time as she learned more, but she never dared tell her where she was getting her ideas from. Not even Gabriel knew the books she was reading came from behind the secret shelf, too afraid of letting him in on a secret even the chief commander was keeping—knowledge that could be a death sentence. The thoughts passed through her mind every day she opened up the small room and stepped inside, but they never stopped her.

She sidestepped the stack of books that was in the middle of floor as she crept into the hidden room, always a mouse waiting for the trap to fall.

“Sofia?”

The book she’d been holding fell from her hands with a resounding thump that had her choking on the air in her throat. She whipped around to see Mina standing at the threshold of the secret room, eyes wide as she peeked past the bookshelf to where Sofia stood, pale and shaking.

“What?” Sofia’s mouth was dry, her voice a soft rasp. She grabbed the book she had dropped and shoved Mina out of the room, eyes flitting around, as if the chief commander might pop out at any moment with a cry of triumph. But the office door was closed and they were alone.

“What is that?” Mina said, ducking around her to look back at the small room.

In turn, Sofia ignored her question and grabbed her arm, pulling her back. She’d grown over the last cycle, but she was still a few inches shorter than Sofia, frame like a bird. Despite her petite size, the girl put up a fight, not quite allowing herself to be removed from the room.

“You’re early!” Sofia hissed.

“I saw the Master leaving with the general earlier. I knew he wasn’t here.”

“That doesn’t matter, I told you to never come before two.” It was cruel to yell at the girl, but it felt better to distract from Sofia’s own blame in being caught. “What are you doing here?”

She pulled at the girl’s thin arm again, and this time Mina turned. Her eyes were still wide and her lip was folded between her teeth. That wasn’t what drew Sofia’s attention, though. It was the cut across her cheek and the swelling already beginning along her eye. Her nearly translucent skin was a deep red along her temple. It would be a nasty bruise by tomorrow.

“What happened?” She felt like Mina’s mother as she tipped the girl’s head forward, inspecting the damage in the light of the office lanterns.

“I got a few hits in.” She said it with such pride Sofia had to bite back her smile.

“Why are you getting into fights?”