Page 44 of Brighter Than Gold

“Don’t feed me shit and tell me it’s sunshine, Callan. Could you have been even higher up? Major general, perhaps?” He turned on a heel back to Yates, and he laughed a low chuckle. “Did you know him?” Lazio asked her. “I would be all too excited if you recognized him, Princess. Oh, that would thrill me…”

“Yates left the palace a decade ago,” I said. “She wouldn’t know anyone but the other sovereigns.”

“Look at you, volunteering so much information all of a sudden.”

“Only if it hurts your cause, Lazio.”

I buckled as one of the Rats jabbed a quick punch to my kidney. Gods if only I could speak with Yates. Maybe I could find a way to sneak back down here alone. Was there help nearby, or had the town already been searched and we were on our own now? How? How could I communicate with her?

“You’re pressing me for information Lazio, but have you pressed her? Do we know why the palace is after this girl…” I turned my foot to the left, towards Lazio. Well within Yates’ sight. “Or not?” I rotated my foot to the right.

I waited, nervously hoping Yates understood my veiled question. There was a long pause.Come on Yates, I thought.Yes, or no?

As if she flinched in pain, Yates flicked her left wrist.No. Gods I hoped that wasn’t a coincidence. So the palace still hadn’t released Reyah’s identity. That at least, was some good news.

A sneer laced Lazio’s voice. “Oh, the Princess and I have been chatting for hours. She’s being a little shy on the details.”

I all but ignored him as my mind raced to ask her another question.

“Did she tell you if there are other sentries close by?”

Immediately this time, she ticked her left wrist.

No. Fuck.

“I wouldn’t believe her answer anyways,” Lazio drawled.

“Does the palace know Yates has been kidnapped?”

Yates squeezed her right hand.

Yes.

“No, my men left no one alive but her.”

Interesting discrepancy.

“What are you going to do with her? Send her back to the palace?”

Again, she flicked her left wrist.

No. So the palace still wasn’t safe for Reyah.

“I’m not bringing her fucking anywhere. They’ll be digging up her bones from beneath the floor of this basement, two thousand years from now.” Lazio leaned in closely to me. “Why are you asking so many fucking questions?”

I rolled my head to the side and met his gaze. “I thought you wanted my help. Maybe if I give you an inch, you’ll allow us a little more freedom than being locked up in room six.” Now at least Yates knew we were being held prison here too.

Lazio spat on the floor. “Get out of my sight. All of you. I desire some alone-time with the Princess.”

I slowly turned to leave, the internal struggle of wanting to tear the limbs from Lazio and the Rats and protect Yates was wholly at war with the need to keep quiet and protect Reyah. We would never make it out alive if I did something rash, and my orders were to protect Burke’s wife, not his sister.

As the Rats shuffled us out of the room, I shot a last glance back at Yates. She had raised her head enough to meet my eye, and for a split second she held my stare before letting her head droop slowly back down. It was all the confirmation I needed that I was doing right by her, she trusted me to get Reyah out of here in one piece, regardless of what Lazio had planned for her. I left the room praying for her strength.

Chapter10

Reyah

I’d collapsed into the bed once we were returned to our room. I didn’t budge when a tray of dinner was brought to us. There weren’t words for the abyssal, empty feeling inside of me. There was nothing left to take away, nothing more that could hurt me. It was almost a freeing feeling, to not even care about one’s own self. I felt like a shadow, still there but weightless and untouchable.

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