Page 135 of Dirty Hit

She thought about leaving, but she was so close to achieving a victory on her homeland that she couldn’t abandon that now.

Tallia arrived at her rooms. Tauria had employed her before she’d left for Valgard under the guise of being in charge of hiring staff to run the castle. Mordecai had barely reacted to Tauria’s proposal, allowing her to begin restoring the castle to some sense of structure.

The Fenstead rebel had been less than enthused about her new position, but no one could deny it was a perfect plan to slowly grow allies within the castle walls. Tallia reported thenumber of staff she’d managed to recruit so far as soon as Tauria was back from Valgard. It wasn’t as many as they would need to attack from the inside without being immediately overwhelmed, but they couldn’t bring too many new faces in too soon without arousing suspicion.

Tauria paced her room, growing antsy and impatient. “The full moon is tomorrow,” she said, chewing at her fingernail as she stared up at the glow in the sky. So beautiful yet sinister.

“You really think he plans to use it to change you? Wouldn’t he have detained you by now?”

“He’s been allowing me freedom to roam the castle and recruit staff. I can’t be sure what his motives are.”

“Exactly. Something doesn’t add up.”

Tauria thought so too. She’d barely achieved any rest trying to figure out what Mordecai’s plan was.

She stopped pacing, coming to a conclusion that punched her in the gut.

“What if he’s waiting for Nik to come?” she whispered to herself.

“Who?” Tallia asked.

“Nikalias, the King of High Farrow.”

Tallia slumped down onto the edge of her bed. “Are you sure he’s coming to your rescue?”

“He’s my mate. Nik might already be close. I hoped to have some information, or Dakoda’s ruin if it was still here, and to have been able to escape before he made it this far.”

“Ah, I didn’t realize the mate part. I’m guessing Mordecai knows.”

Tauria nodded. This was like their close call in Olmstone all over again.

“Then we need to get you out. Losing our queen and the King of High Farrow would be detrimental for both kingdoms.”

“It can’t have been for nothing.” Tauria was exasperated, running a hand down her face.

Breaking their bond. Leaving Nik when he was gravely injured. Getting here.

Tauria refused to believe it had all been fornothing.

She raised a hand to her chest, feeling the thump quickening under her palm with growing fear as though it could be stolen come tomorrow night.

Tauria said, “We need to act tonight.”

“Tonight? Are you insane? We don’t even have two dozen of our people in this castle asstaffyet.”

“But they’re assassins, are they not?”

“Fighters. We’ve been training to fight in battle.”

“Then I hope you’ve picked the stealthiest so far.”

“Tauria…what can this possibly achieve? Even if we somehow managed to eliminate the few dozen dark fae in the castle, all we’ll have done is locked ourselves in a grand cage that will not hold when Mordecai summons the armies to take it back. Have you seen our fields? Fenstead has been used as army holding grounds for decades. There are endless tents over the valleys.”

“You will manage to eliminate the dark fae within our walls. Because I’m going to make sure Mordecai is occupied for you to do it. Silent and careful. Then you’ll alert Berron, and the rest of the rebellion will come.”

“Then what?”

Tauria might have lost her mind. Her plan was reckless, uncertain, but she was running out of time.

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