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“I’m here.” The whisper in her ear was so welcome, so wonderful, Ava had to look down and clench both hands to stop herself looking for Luc. Reaching for him.

“They plan to kill you when you come for me.” She breathed out the words in quick gasps. “With an arrow.”

The guard was getting to his feet, and his friend was teasing him.

“Wear the tunic as well as your cloak.”

“I already am.” His lips touched her neck. “So when they called you princess at the fortress when we met, they weren’t taunting you, they were addressing you by your title.” There was a laugh in his voice.

He didn’t care, she realized. He truly didn’t care.

She felt lightheaded with relief.

Lucinde had turned and was looking at her. “Did you say something, Princess?”

“Just muttering to myself,” Ava said. “Does my aunt intend to execute me in public or just in front of the court?”

She felt Luc go still behind her.

He was shocked at that, although he had obviously suspected her aunt intended to assassinate him.

Lucinde shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Public’s what I heard,” one of the guards said. “When the Turncoat King comes to get you.”

The guards were standing to attention again, so close to her. Lucinde stood beside them.

They were all looking at her, and she felt a flare of panic that they would somehow be able to sense Luc’s presence.

Ava could feel the heat of Luc’s body behind her, and she moved her hand back, hidden by the skirt of her dress, and touched his thigh.

His hand came around her fingers and squeezed.

“Well, I hope my cousin is there in all his feathered finery to see his plans come to fruition.”

Luc touched her shoulder to let her know he understood what she had just told him, and then she couldn’t feel him anymore.

He was gone.

She felt suddenly bereft.

She knew she would see him all too soon in whatever pageantry her aunt had arranged for both their murders, but she couldn’t help the tear that escaped and ran down her cheek.

“Ah. And here I was thinking you were unnatural in your calm.” Lucinde was watching at her with a sympathetic gaze. “You’re a credit to your father, girlie, and I’m sorry to be leading you to your death.”

Ava was sorry, too, but she was planning not to be the one who died today.

* * *

Princess Ava Valestri.

His lover was a dark one.

Luc slipped through the palace and out into the gardens that covered the clifftop.

The marble walls that lined them plunged into the sea, slippery and impossible to climb.

It didn’t matter. He had managed to get Oscar and Deni into the city with him by twisting the invisibility scarf around all of them.