She met his eyes. “Why the Forest?” she asked.
“Ravens are all born in darkness. The only reason they are not part of the Noctuans is because they do not share the blood thirst.” He reached down and took one of its feathers between his fingers. “The Sun commissioned them long ago to be the bridge between the light and the dark.”
Aydra frowned. “How do you know this?”
“The Honest Scrolls,” he answered.
She swallowed hard and suddenly realized they were not the only ones in the room. The crows she’d heard earlier were all perched around the Chamber. A hundred of them at least, all sitting quietly as though in mourning of the one slain.
“Take me with you,” she breathed.
Draven sat up slowly, his eyes narrowing at her. “Is that what you want?”
“I cannot stay here. Not after this… He’ll make up something and have me in chains by the end of the month,” she said. “And Nyssa should come as well,” she begged.
“I doubt your sister would agree to that.”
Aydra looked at the ground again and nodded. “Then I must go to her and explain.”
“And Dorian?”
“He will understand.”
CHAPTER SIXTY
“YOU’RE LEAVING, AREN’T you?” Lex asked in her doorway.
Aydra stopped moving, inhaling the tears that had just fallen down her cheek. “I am,” she whispered.
“Will you allow me to come with you?”
Aydra shook her head and turned to face her best friend. “I need to know you’re here protecting my sister. You know what he is capable of. I need someone I trust to look after her.”
Lex nodded as she crossed the space between them. Her hands reached out, and squeezed Aydra’s hands in hers. “I swear it.”
Aydra hugged Lex then, wrapping her arms around her tightly, realizing it would be the first time she would be away from her for longer than two weeks. She wasn’t sure what to say to her.
“I know it will not be the last I will see of you, and as such I will not tell you good-bye,” Lex said into her hair.
“I would let you do no such thing,” Aydra said as she pulled back. “Thank you. For everything.”
Lex leaned in and kissed her then, cupping her cheeks in her hands as a tear stretched down her cheek. “My Queen,” she whispered.
Draven appeared in the door soon after, with Nyssa and Dorian at his side. Nyssa crossed the room and wrapped her arms around Aydra with force.
“Dorian told me everything,” Nyssa whispered in her hair. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know.”
Aydra pulled back and wiped the tear from Nyssa’s face, giving her sister a small smile. “It wasn’t your place to know, to try and protect me. But I cannot stay here. You understand why?”
Nyssa nodded. “I do,” she whispered.
Nyssa hugged her again, and then Dorian’s hand came to a rest on Aydra’s shoulder. She couldn’t hold back the emotion as she wrapped her arms around him.
“You remember what I told you?” she said into his hair. “Keep her safe. Keep yourself safe. Lex will be here with you.” She pulled back and wrapped a hand around his cheek. “Take care of your sister. Let me know of anything that happens. I will be back for the next meeting.”
Dorian’s jaw tightened, but he nodded nonetheless. “Okay.”
She hugged him tightly again, fighting the tears that threatened her insides.
Lex took Nyssa and Dorian away from her not long after. Draven stayed, helping her finish packing her bags. And when she was done, he took her hand and kissed her palm.
“Are you ready?” he asked, hoisting her bag onto his shoulder.
She took one more look around her room, making sure she did not miss anything, and also taking in the home she’d always known.
“I am.”
He held her hand as they walked from her room and down staircases and halls through the castle, not saying anything more as she memorized every stone around her. Her home. Her kingdom.
And she was forced to run from it.
“Fleeing off to the Forest, are you?”
The noise of Rhaif’s voice made her fists curl as they reached the last hallway. Draven snapped around at her side—
The bag on his shoulder fell to the ground. Draven’s fist collided with Rhaif’s face, and the noise of Rhaif’s breaking nose vibrated in Aydra’s ears.
“Ah!” Rhaif grunted and stumbled backwards, hands clenching at his nose. Flames pulsed to life at an instant, but Draven didn’t care. He shoved Rhaif backwards and Rhaif fell onto the floor on his back.
“Little shit of a King—” His fist railed into Rhaif’s face again— “Is this how you rule? Cowering behind your fire like a—”
“Draven!”
Draven grabbed Rhaif up by his shirt and slammed his back into the ground, the wind billowing around them and pushing Rhaif’s flames low. His arm drew back again, but Aydra grabbed Draven’s arm before he could strike into her brother a third time. The noise of armor sounded in her ears, and she pulled Draven to his feet, pushing herself between the pair.
“Not now.”
Draven’s nostrils flared down at her. “You would rather I do nothing after what—”
“I don’t want to see you in chains,” she said through gritted teeth, just as she noticed two Belwarks come around the corner. “Wait for me at the gates,” she pleaded with him.
Draven swallowed hard, the veins in his neck pulsing as he stared at Rhaif over her shoulder.
“Draven, please—”
Breath left him, and he stepped forward again, towering over her. She thought for a moment he would push past her, dive into Rhaif’s face again, but then he took a step back and met her gaze.
“If you’re not with me in five minutes, I’m coming back to slit his throat,” he promised.
Draven turned on his heel.
—Every great double window in the hall burst as the wind broke through their glass, and Draven slammed the door behind him.
The two Belwarks at the other end of the hall stopped in their strides, hands on their swords. Aydra held up a hand to them.
“Go back to
