“Are you serious?” I said incredulously. “And you won’t tell Uncle Gabriel?” I had been so sure he was going to try to convince me to stay and go to Elfi with my granduncle like everybody else.
“He will find out soon enough without my help,” Rafe shrugged. “In fact, I think I am going to help you instead.”
“You are?” My eyes narrowed, skeptical of his sudden change of heart.
“Yes,” he said simply. “Kalen, what was your plan so far?”
“Well.” Kalen looked around the shadowy corridor to make sure no one else was coming our way. “We were supposed to leave through the kitchen, then out of the palace gates, and then I would tell the guards I had an errand for my mother to get some herbs from the apothecary, and Aurora is supposed to be her assistant.”
Rafe’s eyebrows rose. “And you didn’t think someone would recognize the princess of Illiador? How would you have left the city?”
“I hadn’t thought about that yet,” said Kalen, biting his lip.
“You hadn’t?” I turned to Kalen. “But you said you would sort it out.”
“And I will, I just don’t know how yet.”
Rafe rolled his eyes, and I was tempted to do the same. Kalen was so infuriating sometimes.
Rafe turned on his heel. “Follow me.”
We followed the prince through the palace corridors and into a closed room, which happened to be his bedroom. It was neat and cozy but not overly plush or ornate like some of the other bedrooms in the palace. A large, wooden four-poster bed was placed in the center of the room, the carved headboard resting against one wall, which was hung with a worn tapestry. A warm, tan animal-skin rug covered the floor, and a dressing room was situated through a velvet-curtained doorway. A large writing desk and a high-backed chair lay along one side, next to a wooden chest ornately decorated with intricate carvings of magical fae creatures.
Rafe put on his cloak and took out his mask, which he had hidden in the locked wooden chest. He belted his sword around his waist. Various knives were strapped on, and he snatched up a worn-looking satchel.
My brow furrowed in confusion. “What are you doing?”
Kalen’s eyes widened. “Are you coming with us?”
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Rafe. “You said yourself she is going to need help. So I’m helping.”
“You can’t come with us.” I was horrified at the prospect of spending more time with him. At this rate I would never be able to forget about him.
He turned to me. “I can get you to Illiador and help you get the Dagger.”
“Why are you doing this? You don’t have to come with me. I can manage on my own.”
“Aurora,” he said more gently this time. “I understand how you feel. If I were you, I would also be out trying to find my mother, no matter what anyone said.”
Hope blossomed in my chest. Finally, someone who actually understood how I felt.
“I know that we cannot be together,” he continued, taking my hands gently in his. “But I would really like for us to be friends. We are friends, right?”
I didn’t know if being friends would ever be possible, but I was willing to give it a try. I knew that I should say no, that I should go with Kalen and never look back. But of course, my tired conscience was not even trying to wake up and chastise me for my stupidity. Secretly, I was relieved. Rafe knew these lands like the back of his hand. He would get me to the Star Palace in Nerenor, of that I had no doubt.
I nodded weakly, my heart breaking for the thousandth time. “Friends. Yes, absolutely.”
“So friends help each other,” he said as if it were all settled.
I had no choice, and having Rafe come along suddenly made me feel like maybe I could actually succeed in this; perhaps together we really had a shot at finding the Dagger. That was my main focus now. Find the Dagger, and then I would worry about the rest as it came along.
“But what about Leticia?” I still had to ask.
“The wedding can be postponed for a while,” he said, grinning like he had just come up with a brilliant plan.
So that was his game, I mused. He wanted to come with me so he could get away from Leticia and postpone the wedding indefinitely. If that were his reasons, fine, I could live with it. It was foolish to suppose he was coming because he wanted to spend more time with me and really did care about helping me find my mother. But I took what I could get; at least with him accompanying us, I had a real chance of succeeding.
“And what about your father, the king?” I asked. “Won’t he wonder where you are?”
Rafe shrugged. “I will leave a note for him that I had to go away on some urgent errand. He will be angry for a while, but he’ll get over it. After all, it’s not like he’s going to disinherit me and give the crown to the Blackwaters.”
It sounded like he had it all sorted out. Rafe was very resourceful, and I didn’t even know half of what he was capable of.
“So what’s your plan, Rafe?” said Kalen. “Do we still leave the palace through the kitchen?”
“No,” said Rafe, putting on his mask. “I have another way.”
“Which is?” I inquired.
I was happy Rafe was in charge. Kalen was sweet, but his plans were really not properly thought out.
A smile quirked his lips, and his eyes glittered behind the black mask. “How do you think the Black Wolf gets in and out of the palace at night with no one ever noticing?” He pulled on the hood of his cloak.
I grinned back at him. “Secret passage,” I said without hesitation.
He chuckled. “Looks like you know me quite well. I do happen to know of many secret passages in and out of the palace, but only
