Page 76 of Decoy

Warmth seeped over me, dispelling much of the surrounding chill. “I’d hate to harm your reputation should anyone learn that the Shadow rescued someone from the dungeons.” But even our usual teasing wasn’t enough to smother my rising anxiety as my remaining time slipped away minute by minute, never to be retrieved.

“There’s little value in a reputation built upon generations of evil deeds I’ve never once wanted any part of.”

I managed a small smile. “You’ve finally admitted the truth about the life you want to live. I hope you live it to its fullest for both of our sakes.”

At least something good would emerge from this dungeon, even if it wouldn’t be me. I cared for him enough that I took as much solace in his happiness as I would my own. If he could live on even after my own life ceased, that would be enough.

He evenly met my gaze so I couldn’t mistake his meaning. “You are my new mission, the only one I’ve chosen for myself. What is my life compared to yours?”

“It’s everything to me. Thus you must leave before someone discovers you.” Fear choked my resolve, forcing my thoughts to face the darkness I didn’t want to dwell on.

“I understand the risks, and none of them matter.”

His words were almost too precious for me to fully comprehend. “But…why? I don’t understand.”

He caressed my cheek with such careful movements it was as if he feared I’d break. “Did you truly fear I wouldn’t come for you?”

I hesitated to bring up the reason I’d believed would keep him away. “It’s my fault your father died. If I’d told you sooner I wasn’t the princess, you wouldn’t have had to—” I couldn’t finish.

He was silent a long moment, but even with the heavy weight brought by my words he still didn’t pull away. “His death wasn’t your fault. In the end, he’s the one who chose to lift his weapon against you, just as I chose to be the shield to protect you. More than that, I fought against the fate I’ve spent a lifetime believing inevitable, and I have no regrets.”

Relief lessened some of the burden I’d been bearing on my aching shoulders. “As regretful as I am, I’m grateful you helped me, even if my circumstances rendered the sacrifice in vain. Now are you going to help me pass the long night with your thrilling exploits in how you broke into a heavily guarded dungeon?”

I welcomed the distraction his story told in his soothing voice would provide from my deepening despair at the inescapable fate looming before me.

“I wish I could claim I came up with an elaborate scheme and executed it with impeccable skill, but in the end it only took a simple strike against the back of the attending guards’ heads along with a bit of aid from the shadows to find you. Unfortunately, I doubt their powers are enough to free you, nor would any bribe be persuasive enough to ensure the guards’ cooperation once they come to.” His hand tightened around mine, either as a form of reassurance or a vain attempt to keep me near.

“Money alone wouldn’t be enough to atone for the crime I was sentenced for.”

Heavy silence settled around us, one my fear caused to feel condemning. But when he next spoke, it was with his usual gentleness. “Please, I must know what happened. I promise it won’t change how I feel about you.”

And because I so badly wanted him to know all of me, including all of my secrets rather than take them with me to the grave as I’d previously been determined, I told him—of my noble background, my family’s fall, of infiltrating the palace, and being caught and sentenced.

I’d never forget the events of the fateful day that had forever changed the course of my life. It’d begun like any other, full of sunshine and promise…before darkness consumed it by the sudden arrival of imperial soldiers. They’d taken my parents away before my eyes, and after their sentencing, the crown also confiscated our family’s land and title. Zeke and I had been foisted off on poor, distant relatives, whereas my parents had suffered the deadly consequence of branded traitors.

The last words they’d spoken to me had been their outrage at the arrest and declarations of innocence in the charges against them, ones I’d held fast to all of these years, finding solace in the lie I wanted to believe in rather than being forced to face the devastating reality. I’d lived by this distorted version of events and allowed them to guide my way forward ever since.

I’d been too young to attend their trial, and though Zeke had never spoken of it, I witnessed firsthand how it affected him. Following their execution, their fate consumed him. Our stripped-away nobility forced him to leave his knighthood training and instead become involved in some form of espionage about which he was always very secretive and which I never questioned, one of his many mysteries I’d never fully understand.

This secrecy had made his sudden arrest and subsequent death a shock from which I felt I’d never fully recovered. Whereas I’d remain forever in the dark about the details surrounding his last years of life, I knew where it’d led him…a path I’d chosen to follow, even if it meant stealing back the magic now under the crown’s protection. I’d clung to my pain as my sole preserver midst this tumultuous storm and relied on the incomplete pieces as sign posts for a purpose I’d never chosen for myself.

Deep down I knew Zeke had kept the dark parts of himself hidden to spare me the course I doubted had brought him any form of happiness, but in my desperation to remain close to him I’d followed it anyway, guided by a vague concept of revenge simply because it was the only path I thought lay before me, with no specific plan for what I’d do once I reached the unknown destination.

Rather than bring me the peace I’d spent years seeking, instead this blind devotion had only led me here. Fate might have spared me for a time, but unless I found a way to escape, I’d soon be joining my doomed family.

“Now you know the truth,” I finally concluded. “Stealing magic is considered an act of treason, and traitors must die. Thus my fate is sealed.”

I ran out of words, leaving nothing to fill the tense silence stretching between us, a distance that felt like a chasm larger than the bars currently separating us. But even as Luke struggled to find words, he didn’t release my hand, giving me reason to hope, a commodity infinitely precious within this dank dungeon.

“Does this change anything?” I wasn’t entirely certain what I was asking considering we hadn’t gotten far enough in our strange, unconventional relationship for confessions.

“You’re asking such a thing of a man with the title of an assassin? It’d be hypocritical for me to judge you for your crimes when I’ve spent a lifetime accumulating my own. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done; I still feel what I do.”

He pressed my hand he still held against his cheek with a look like he handled something infinitely precious. My heartbeat escalated, but for a far different reason than the panic seeping into my skin.

“What do you feel?” My whisper was nearly swallowed by the reverent stillness now filling the surrounding cold and shadows.

“You’re an incredibly brave, spirited, intelligent, and determined woman who possesses not only beauty, but elegance and deep goodness. You infiltrate palaces, pose as princesses, run along rooftops, detect poisons, throw knives, and uncover moles; you unmask assassins by seeing who they truly are, and find light where I’d previously feared there was none. Most importantly of all, you steal hearts, and have thoroughly captured mine. You’re my perfect match.” He pressed a kiss to my icy palm.

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