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I wasn’t leaving alone this time.

I had waited until just after midnight, when the guards rotated positions. This guard in particular, though, had a habit of leaving early to meet with one of the maids in the servants’ kitchen.

Terrible habit, that guard.

Goosebumps rose to my skin as I descended further and further into the underground of the castle.

“Sadie,” I whispered once I reached her cell, grimacing at the way my voice bounced off the solid dungeon walls. “Where are you?”

“Jade?” her voice in the darkness made me jump. “Jade, what are you doing here?”

“Get up. We’re leaving.”

I navigated my way over to her, halting when I saw her huddled in the corner.

I closed the distance between us and dropped to my knees next to her. “Sadie, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No,” she answered, but her voice was barely a whisper. “No, Jade. I’m not hurt.”

I placed my hands on her head. “Saints, Sadie. You’re burning up. You’re sick.”

“I’ve been through worse.”

“We’re getting you out of here, Sadie.Tonight.You’re sick and you can’t stay here.”

I tried to pull her up by her shoulders, but Sadie didn’t budge. “I can’t leave, Jade.”

“Yes you can. The halls are clear, nobody will notice for days. I have a plan. Let’s go.”

Sadie took a few shaking breaths and finally met my eyes in the darkness of the dungeons.

“Okay,” she said. “But I don’t know if I can make it–”

“Put your arm around me,” I demanded. “I’ll help you walk. It’s not far,” I lied.

Her skinny arm found mine, and I pulled it over my shoulders.

Sadie was a tall girl, but she felt light as I picked her up from the ground. Too light.

“Ready?” I asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she whispered.

And then we were stumbling out of her open cell, down the long corridor of stone toward the entrance of the dungeon.

“I figured I’d find you here,” Malachi’s voice boomed off the stone.

I froze, Sadie along with me. “We were just–”

“Escaping?”

Even though Malachi was still several feet away, I felt his eyes piercing into me.

I weighed my options. I could try to lie, but Malachi would know it before it even left my mouth. If I told him the truth, I had a slim chance of him taking my side.

He owed me.

Malachi should have known that I stood with him. I showed him that I would defend this kingdom for him.