Page 3

RYN

A bang against the front door shook the house, and Ryn’s heart nearly leapt from her chest. She dropped her apple; it rolled across the kitchen to where Kai stood from the table, his emerald Priesthood robe swishing behind him as he went to the door.

“What was that? Did a bird fly into the house again?” Ryn knelt and searched beneath the table for her apple, rubbing a hand over her heart. She spotted it under Kai’s chair.

She jumped when another bang sounded.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Divinities,” she cursed.

Kai cracked the door open, not far enough for Ryn to see who was outside. A husky voice shouted before Kai could offer a greeting, “We’re here for Lady Estheryn Electus!”

Ryn grabbed the apple, stood, and tossed it into the basket with the rest of the unwashed apples. She wiped her hands on the skirt of her gardening dress, listening to the surprise in Kai’s voice when he asked, “Estheryn? Why? What business does the Folke have with my cousin?”

Ryn’s hands went still against her skirt.

The Folke? The King’s personal guardsmen?

She peeked through the sheer kitchen curtains, counting six large bodies in navy blue and silver standing outside: the King’s colours. One of them had a sword drawn.

The last time she’d seen Folke at her door with their swords drawn…

“If she won’t come willingly, then move aside. We’ll take her ourselves.”

Ryn’s hand came over her mouth, and she held her breath, not daring to make a sound. Her heel scraped over the floor when she moved back, and she froze.

A second passed where Kai said nothing. Neither did the Folke.

Ryn inched her gaze toward the rear of the house. The turns of the hall obstructed her view of the hidden cellar door that led to the woods. It was at least seven strides and a long staircase away.

She could only think of one reason the Folke would come for her. One terrible, crippling reason.

Kai slammed the door in the Folke’s faces.

Ryn gasped as Kai grabbed her arm and turned her toward the hall. “Hide, Ryn!” he whispered, reaching back into the kitchen and grabbing the parring knife off the counter. The metallic sounds of swords being drawn lifted from outside.

“But—”

“ Hide !”

Ryn raced for her bedroom. She yanked the door shut behind her just as a loud crash filled the house, and she dove beneath her bed, dragging herself by her elbows until she was encompassed in shadow.

She went still in the quiet. Her ribs ached from falling against the floor, but she didn’t dare move to get comfortable.

She didn’t even blink, fearing she’d miss something.

She thought of the parring knife Kai had grabbed, wondering what, by the Divinities, he would do with that.

He couldn’t really be planning to fight the Folke… Kai would never…

Noise erupted in the hallway, and Ryn’s heart doubled over as a muffled shout lifted from Kai, followed by a dense thud .

She slapped a hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t scream, wouldn’t charge into the hall with a pathetic fist raised and try to rescue her cousin.

Her bedroom door swung open, and the thumps of heavy boots filled her room—at least four pairs. She bit her lips together.

For a moment, all Ryn knew was the light squeaking of the floorboards as the Folke crept around.

One second passed. Two.

Her ankles were grabbed. Ryn released the scream she’d been holding, digging her nails into the grooves of the floor as she was torn from her hiding place and wrestled to her feet.

“Jump out, Ryn!” Kai shouted from the doorway, clutching his ribs and pointing to the open bedroom window. Ryn thrust her elbow into a guard’s nose and lunged for the window, but the guard caught her around the waist and dragged her back.

“Don’t be so rough with her!” Kai snapped at them.

“I don’t know what you’ve been told,” Ryn pleaded with the Folke, “but I’m a Weylin noble and whoever says otherwise is—”

“Silence! You’ve been summoned by the King,” the guard stated. “Refusal to obey is punishable by death.”

Ryn glanced at Kai. They had no rehearsed answers for a situation that involved the King.

Kai’s brows pulled together, moisture glossing over his eyes as he slid down the doorframe into a heap of swelling and silence on the floor. “I’ll find out what’s going on. I’ll come for you,” he rasped as the Folke shoved Ryn out the door and down the hall.

Ryn looked back at her cousin, at the bead of blood running down his chin. It dawned on her this might be the last time she would see him. The moment the last two members of their family would be torn apart, and the Cahana family would officially be dissolved.

“Don’t,” she called back. “Don’t come for me.”

She tore her gaze from Kai, her knees going weak as the Folke pushed her ahead. Kai’s ribs might have been broken. What if no one came by this house for days? What if he died on the floor outside her bedroom because he wasn’t found in time?

Ryn grabbed a basket of medical supplies as they passed the kitchen counter and threw it toward the hall where Kai was.

The nearest Folke shoved her shoulder, turning her toward the door as fresh, cool air rolled over her heated body.

She was blinded by the sunset burning over the distant mountains when she stepped outside.

A topless glass carriage with large brass wheels awaited, pulled by four black steeds.

The luminescent carriage walls glowed against the fiery sun, turning the roadside into a lake of prismed colours.

It was the most spectacular sight to ever grace Ryn’s street in this part of the Mother City.

The city she and Kai had been hiding in for exactly six years, two months, and five days.

A Folke cleared his throat and unrolled a scroll to read.

“Estheryn Electus, you have hereby been summoned to be a Heartstealer in the upcoming trial period. Should you succeed in your task, you will inherit the second highest throne in the kingdom of Per-Siana and be glorified over all one hundred and twenty-seven provinces. Should you fail, you will be returned home to this location at the end of the period. Your obedience is required.” His gaze flickered up with the last sentence.

Then he rolled up the scroll and folded his arms as if he was waiting for something.

“Do you agree to come willingly?” he asked. “Or shall I take you by force?”

Ryn couldn’t have formed a reply even if she’d wanted to.

A crash filled the road, and Ryn noticed a red-cheeked Matthias, one of Kai’s closest friends, with a spilled basket of figs at his feet.

His shaggy blond hair fell in his eyes as he stared at Ryn and the Folke in horror.

He took a step toward them, his hand falling on a dagger in his belt, but Ryn shouted, “Stop!” She pointed toward the house.

“Kai’s hurt! Please go help him, Matthias! Don’t do anything foolish—”

A black bag was pulled over Ryn’s head, and the vision of Matthias, along with the burning glass carriage, disappeared. Rope was tied around her wrists, and large hands lifted her into the transport she feared would take her to the palace.

The palace. It was the one place Ryn swore on her life she would never go.

The place her mother had warned her about, had cautioned her not to wander too close to or look at too hard.

The place Ryn promised to avoid like it was the very cinder plague that had killed her mother six years, two months, and five days ago.

The kingdom-wide marriage ban had sent waves of astonishment through the cities.

Ryn had laughed when she heard the news.

She’d gone to the market as usual that day and listened to gossip as Per-Siana citizens speculated why the King would do such a thing as banning the marriages of ordinary nobles.

Of course, Ryn knew it was because he was crazy.

Perhaps everyone knew, and no one would come out and say it.

The rumours grew dark after that. Word leaked into the Mother City that King Xerxes had lost his mind and murdered the first Queen, and now he was looking for another.

But why had the Folke arrived at Ryn’s door? Most of Per-Siana didn’t know she existed; even her neighbours knew little about her or Kai.

The carriage ride was bumpy and awkward without sight. After a while, sounds of chatter flooded in along with the smells of burning firewood and strong perfumes. Ryn was lifted off the carriage and guided into a warm space buzzing with murmured conversations.

Her wrists throbbed by the time the black bag was removed from her head.

A strand of dark hair was stuck in her mouth as she looked around with stinging eyes, finding herself on a wide tiled floor before a crowd of nobles who seemed eager to inspect her and three other maidens who stood with her; pretty girls with smiling faces, dressed up in their best starlight garments and standing with packed bags at their sides.

None of them wore a rope around their wrists like Ryn did.

“You’ve reached the Folke security building.

Maidens, please be patient as we assign each of you to one of the King’s royal guards.

He will act as your protection from here on in.

” The husky voice boomed over them at an unnecessary decibel, and Ryn spotted a tall man at the head of the room dressed in blue armour inlaid with silver details.

Rich stitching of a long, serpentine white dragon curled down his sleeve.

In fact, all the Folke were clad in symbols of the King.

She shrieked when a guard appeared beside her with a blade. He cut the rope off her wrists, and her arms fell to her sides. The Folke walked away without a word.

Nearby noblewomen chuckled as they studied her, and Ryn looked down at her gardening dress, her bare feet, her unwashed hands. Soil was wedged beneath her fingernails from her afternoon of vegetable planting and apple picking too.