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“I know.” He kissed the top of my head.

“Promise me!”

“I promise.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

NYX

“Wake up.” I crouched next to Zaria’s bed, but she didn’t stir.I stroked a lock of her hair off her face. “Zaria.”

She jumped, sitting up to scramble back in her bed until her back hit the wall while her hands came up in front of her.

“It’s me,” I hissed.

Zaria’s gaze focused on me. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to leave.”

“What?” She twisted to look out the window. “What time is it?”

“Sunrise is in three hours,” I told her.

“What’s wrong?” She shifted from bewilderment to concern.

“Everything and nothing,” I confessed. “We can talk about it on the way.”

“On the way where?” she asked, rubbing her eyes as the rush from being jolted out of sleep subsided and her body registered it was not ready to be awake yet.

“Away from here.” It was all that mattered right now.

“Are we in danger?” she whispered.

“No.” It wasn’t a lie, but I couldn’t promise we would be safe indefinitely, either. I was increasingly feeling uneasy. I felt we were being watched too closely for it to be right. The King had never shown such interest in any bonded pair, and the pressure was becoming unbearable.

On the other hand, Octavian was complacent to a fault. For how much pressure we were getting from the King, it should have followed that Octavian would be breathing down my neck to progress, too. But he was happy to wait for the meld to happen in its own time. That worried me more than the King’s obsession.

“I’ll tell you everything. I just want to leave before sun-up, so we don’t have to explain our plans to anyone.”

Zaria nodded and quietly got out of bed.

I helped her gather her things, and while she dressed and used the bathing chamber, I packed them into the two saddle bags I’d brought with me. When she was ready, we took the back stairs and left the palace by a delivery gate.

Zaria didn’t ask any questions while we walked through the quiet streets to one of the less popular inns in the city. I had a stable hand waiting there with two horses loaded for travel. After securing Zaria’s bags to her horse, I paid the hand and helped Zaria into the saddle. I hadn’t asked her if she had ridden a horse before, but she was a dragon ryder; she could handle it. And from the way she mounted, I could tell she was no stranger to the saddle.

I took the reins of my horse and centered myself before mounting. The animal was twitchy, and I needed to give off the calmest energy I could muster—not easy when we were sneaking out of the most heavily guarded city in all the kingdoms.

I mounted, and the horse let out a startled whinny, stamping his feet, and turning in a circle.

Zaria leaned over her mount to catch my reins and help steady the spooked creature.

It was always that way for us. They sensed the beast inside and were reluctant to submit to a monster they knew instinctively to be a predator. Eventually, once they realized they weren’t lunch, they settled.

She smirked when she handed the reins back to me, pleased with herself for being better than me at something.

“Thank you.” They were the first words we’d spoken since we left her room. “Let’s go. I want to clear the city while it’s still dark.”

I turned my horse and led the way, taking quiet streets to the river, then following the river trail out to the city limits. We didn’t encounter anyone, and the route I chose left the guard posts out of view.