Page 69 of Betraying Korth

“Let me explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain. Stay away from me.”

“I can make it up to you!”

“You can’t.”

“Not even if I tell you where your father is?”

“How could you know?” I asked slowly, feet moving at a decreased pace. “I don’t even know how you got here so quickly. I only just arrived.”

“I left a few days before Odette. Right after we were released, she put me on the ship to Ebora sent to intercept the troops, but they beat us here.”

My stomach plummeted. So Curdy had been here for days already? What had he done?

Curdy caught up to me. “I know where your father and the king are.”

“Why would you tell me?”

“I tried to tell the others, but no one believed me.”

“I wonder why,” I drawled, but was tempted nonetheless. “Give me one reason I should trust you.”

“I feel bad about what I did. I want to make it up to you.”

“How do I know you won’t betray meagain?”

“I said I was sorry.”

“And I claimed I was Princess Odette. Saying something doesn’t make it true.”

“Just let me show you. Don’t you want to find your parents? I’m sure all of this”—he gestured at the night where shouts of pain mingled with the screams of frightened children—“is a little overwhelming to walk into.”

My teeth ground together as I glared daggers at Curdy. I would be a fool to trust him, and yet…I didn’t have any better option to find my parents.

“Dahlia, let’s go,” he urged me, taking a step forward, but I threw a hand up.

“I’m thinking, okay?”

“You need to comenow.”

His urgency only solidified my suspicions. “You could be lying to me.”

Curdy swore quietly under his breath. “Do you have a better option?”

“I’m not going with you unless you at least hand over your dagger.”

“You won’t stab me with it, will you?” A ghost of Curdy’s old flirtatious smile flickered across his face as he unbuckled the knife and passed it over.

“You’d deserve it,” I grumbled. Once his dagger was tightly gripped in my fist, I prodded Curdy’s back. “Go on then. Show me where they are. And stay where I can see you.”

I threw a glance over my shoulder at where Garrik had been fighting moments before. Did I have time to run and get him? His presence would give me the additional measure of security that I craved. But I couldn’t see him.

Curdy twisted through the backroads, his back stiff as he strode down alleyway after alleyway toward the burning palace. Streets soon gave way to shrubs and trees overshadowed by the glowing ash in the air. Curdy dodged the foliage, still urging me on.

“I thought you said it wasn’t far,” I puffed as I kept up with him.

“Not fardoesn’t mean one street over. It had to be secure. That’s it over there.” He pointed. The safehouse didn’t look particularly safe. It was located a half mile outside the palace’s estate borders, nestled in the forest like a large woodsman’s cottage.

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