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SILIA

Lars and I spend the next thirty minutes in each other’s arms, soaking in the alone time we have left before we arrive at Daqet tomorrow. My head rests on his chest as I lazily draw circles on his bare abdomen, dangerously close to the happy trail that disappears below his underwear. My finger glides up and down the lines of his muscles before I rest my hand flat on his stomach.

“Can we stay here forever?” Lars breaks the silence with this sweet question.

Yes, I want to say, but we both know our time here is limited. The plan we formulated before leaving Eza was that Lars would sneak into the palace while Rein and I searched the grounds, looking for any secret entrances. From what intel my father could gather before the communication with his spies stopped, he’d said that Erebus does not guard the outside of the palace, so it should be free for us to roam. I thought this was peculiar, since the last time Diana and I had visited, they’d had more guards than necessary stationed around every corner.

“Little Flame?” Lars brushes back a strand of hair covering my face and tucks it behind my ear. He lifts his head to look down at me, puzzled. I rise from his chest and wipe my hands down my face.

“Sorry, I was just going over our plans in my head.”

“Everything will be all right, I promise. We will find Diana and bring her safely home.”

Lars rests his hand on my thigh as he strokes his thumb back and forth. The connection never fails to make me blush; I don’t think his affection will ever get old to me. Each day, I seem to become more and more infatuated with him.

I smile to myself and place my hand on top of his. One question still lingers in the back of my mind.

“Remember when you spoke into my mind and said that Diana is safe? How do you know?”

I feel Lars’s hand stiffen for just a moment before it continues its stroking, “Your father said it himself. Erebus isn’t dumb enough to hurt her when he knows it would start a war.”

I furrow my brows, not entirely happy with that answer.

“But he already kidnapped her. Isn’t that cause enough to stir conflict?” I remove my hand from his, reach for my tunic, and dress myself as Lars answers me.

“We have no evidence he actually abducted her. All we have is a letter asking her to visit him. There were no signs of a struggle, nothing to suggest he broke into the palace. There’s not much we can do besides investigate the situation.”

“Hm,” is all the response I offer. I finish pulling my trousers on and lacing up my boots. I grab Lars’s clothes and toss them to him. Without saying another word, he dresses himself and sits back down on the bedroll.

“Silia, everything will be all right. I will see to it myself.” Lars rises to his knees and shuffles over until he is right in front of me. He copies my kneeling stance and pulls me in for a kiss. It doesn’t have the same feeling as our usual kisses; sadness seems to linger in this one. Feelings of guilt and shame waft from him as he deepens the kiss. I match his pace and snake my arms around his neck, my fingers finding their way into his hair.

He gently pulls back and assesses my expression, worry heavy in his eyes. “Do you trust me, Little Flame?”

His question feels…wrong. In my heart, I do trust him. I trust him with my life, but every thought in my brain is screaming at me not to.

“Yes, Lars, I do.”

A small smile appears on his face as he opens the flap to our tent. He gestures to the exit and bows his head.

“Then after you, Your Highness.”

As I exit the tent, I can smell the morning dew still damp on the grass. I give a quick stretch as I hear Lars trail behind me out of the tent. Rein has already packed his tent and is currently stepping out the remaining burning coal from our fire last night.

“Breakfast, anyone?” I ask, as I head to our pile of bags to fetch mine. But before I can even finish turning my head, I see our bags have been ripped to shreds.

“What the Hel?” I rush over to the pile of shreds and begin digging through the fabric. I hear footsteps crunch the ground behind me as I kneel and assess the mess that was once our packs.

“It looks like we were attacked.” Rein joins me on the ground and pokes at the pile with a long stick, presumably the same one Lars was using for the fire last night.

Last night…The journal!

“Please,” I whisper to myself and rummage even further in search of the journal, but it’s not here.

“Lars!” I shout over my shoulder. “The journal is missing!”

As I shuffle my hands around in shredded canvas, picked-over food and various scattered weapons, I realize another object seems to be missing.

The pin I found in the woods is nowhere to be seen.