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forty-two

T he sound of a door shutting woke me up. Rafael was back. He swallowed hard when he saw me tangled up in his black sheets and I sat up quickly, feeling suddenly shy.

“Did you get some sleep?” he asked, shaking hair out of his eyes. The same lock fell right back into place and I smiled.

He looked windblown, like he’d rushed to get here, glistening with sweat, still in his leather gear.

I couldn’t help but wonder if he was dying to bathe and lose those layers.

I was thinking about it so hard, in fact, that I forgot to respond as I stared at him, slack jawed.

He cleared his throat, shifting his feet, as a smirk spread across his face.

“Er, yes, thank you,” I blurted out, blushing. “Your bed is surprisingly comfortable… for being in a brothel. You’d think they wouldn’t bother with the hourly customers.”

He chuckled. “I’m not an hourly customer. And I prefer the finer things when it comes to my sleep. I may live in a brothel most of the time, but I’m still a Prince—or have you forgotten that Galen isn’t the only heir to the throne?”

I froze. I didn’t think of Rafael as an heir, not since he’d told me he had no interest in the throne. Galen was the chosen heir, it was obvious who the prophecy had been about.

“Did you find him?” I was anxious for an update. It had been nearly two weeks since Louis left.

“Yes. It’s worse than we could’ve imagined.” He ran his hands through his dark waves and sat beside me. “It’s… heavy. And you’ve already had a day. Do you want to hear this right now? ”

My stomach flooded with warmth at his thoughtfulness, but I said, “I want to know everything.”

He gave a nod. “We were right—the Elders are behind the kidnappings. Louis staked out a prison with his soldiers. They haven’t been seen, but are going to need my help infiltrating it.

He’s been there for a week now and has witnessed several sets of families brought in—blind-folded and in bad shape.

They’ve also seen bodies being burned outside of the building.

“He thinks they’ve been experimenting on how to retrieve magic from humans in a more…

permanent way. His soldiers found mutilated bodies that were carelessly discarded instead of burned to ash.

I’ll spare you the more gruesome details, but it’s a bad situation.

We need to get the prisoners out as quickly as possible.

The Elder’s retribution will undoubtedly be brutal, so we need to time it right.

“We’re finalizing a plan on how to move them under the cover of darkness, so we can get them to Monrovia…

and then to your portal. Louis and I know of several safe houses we trust between there and here—friends of friends who are human sympathizers—but we don’t know how many people are being held captive and how many are still alive.

It could be a dozen, it could be hundreds.

We’re working on acquiring the resources needed to keep them sheltered and fed as we bring them here. ”

I was going to vomit again. The Elders had been experimenting on humans—mutilating their bodies—to take back magic permanently … What kind of dark magic would that even require? It was well beyond anything I’d learned in my few short months here.

“There’s more.” Rafael took my hand. “There will probably be a lot of wounded people. We’ll need healers to get them well enough to travel.” I hadn’t mastered my healing abilities yet, but perhaps with Meli and Odin’s assistance, I could be of some use. Meli would want to help.

“I’m still at the beginning stages of learning how to mend with my hands, but my blood can be used. Meli and Odin will help too.”

Rafael sighed. “I can’t risk taking you, but we could use Meli and Odin’s help.”

“What do you mean you can’t risk taking me? It’s my decision, is it not?” My fingers coated with frost. If he meant to leave me behind, I’d never forgive him.

“You are a unicorn and our only hope out of this world. If anything happened to you…” He looked ap ologetically at me.

“It’s my decision,” I snapped back.

“It’s your decision,” he agreed begrudgingly. “But let’s worry about the Oracle first… We’ll head out after sunrise tomorrow. I’ll pick you up.” He took a long pause. “Are you ready? Are you sure you want to go back?”

His eyes begged me to stay, but I replied firmly, “Yes, it’s time.”