He grumbled what I thought was “pain in my ass,” and this time, I flicked his head. He just shook it as we got to the top of the staircase, arriving at another hallway. Sconces lined these walls, candles flickering from them. Maybe Penn thought that whatever Gabrielle was lying about connected to this weapon, that if we found the king and queen, we could figure out what was really going on with them. I hadn’t seen Gabrielle’s brothers either, which wasn’t exactly suspicious. They were often gone, going on diplomatic trips to other courts, sailing the seas and having adventures. Gabrielle had always been jealous that they got to gallivant around the continent while she’d been stuck here, learning how to be a queen.
We rounded a corner lined with doors, and Penn slowed to a stop, pulling me against the wall. “Around that next corner are their chambers. Two guards are posted there at all times.”
I nodded. “So how are we going to get inside?”
“We’re not getting inside.” Penn opened a door next to us and led me into the room. All kinds of artifacts filled the space, covered by white sheets and dust.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” I said. “Please tell me we’re not...” I pointed to the window.
“That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
“How high up is this?”
Penn strode to the window and unlatched it. “No idea.”
“So helpful,” I mumbled.
He turned. “You trained with Shadow for this very thing.”
“Yes, trained. As in practiced. I was always safe.”
Penn pushed the window open and climbed outside.
“Penn,” I whisper-shouted. “Penn, get back here! We are not finished discussing?—”
Before I could complete that sentence, Penn reached back inside and yanked me out. I yelped as he pulled me to a ledge. A very narrow edge.
“Don’t look down,” he warned.
Too late. I gulped as a briny gust of wind pushed past us, making me sway as I caught sight of the sharp rocks far below. I glared at him. “You are telling me every detail of every plan in the future so that I can tell you how stupid it is.”
He flashed me a grin that was far too charming for the situation we were in. “Now where’s the fun in that?”
“Fun?” I asked, flattening myself against the outer wall of the castle. “This is your idea of fun?”
He winked, which sent a thrill through me, then turned and made his way across the ledge and toward the window next to the room we’d just been in.
Bright purple wisteria slithered from his fingers, along the ledge and toward the window. I glanced at Penn, a question in my gaze, then back at his magic as it twisted up and clicked open the window.
I held my breath, sure they’d notice the now-open window. But it had been so quiet, so imperceptible, the window only open an inch, if even that.
The wisteria shrank back and disappeared.
Penn motioned for me to follow. I took a deep breath, said a short prayer to Spirit Earth that I didn’t die on this stupid mission, and then inched my way over the ledge, doing my best to not look down to the rocky cliff below.
Penn crouched outside the window, and I crouched next to him, hearing voices float out into the night air.
“Oh, spirits below. I’m so sorry.” It was Gabrielle. She should have been sleeping right now, not visiting her mother in the middle of the night.
“She was here last night too,” Penn whispered. “I have a hunch she comes every night.”
Why on the good green earth would she visit her mother every night?
As if he could read my mind, Penn whispered, “Rumor has it the queen suffers from terrible night terrors, and her daughter is the only one who can soothe them away.”
“This is all my fault.” Gabrielle’s voice wavered. “It’s my fault they’re all gone.”
Penn and I looked at each other, both of us trying to decipher what that meant.
