"Well, good. It will be cold here soon, and I'll get sick. I'd hate to have the sniffles on my wedding night with Prince Torin."
Kael leaned into me and whispered in my ear. "I kind of hope she snots on his dick."
A snort, one I hadn't seen coming, came out, and I slapped my hands over my face.Hysteria.I was hysterical.
Kael and Isla both started laughing again. "That's probably the sound he'd make, too."
"Oh Goddess, please stop," I begged, inhaling a few staggering deep breaths, trying to get myself together. I knew it was no time to laugh, but the trauma reaction was running the show. This was not how I'd typically behave.
A yawn overtook me, and just like that, all the energy I had seemed to evacuate my body as I exhaled. "Goddess, I'm tired."
Several other people yawned and mumbled their agreement with that statement. I felt like I could sleep for a hundred years. The last few days had been nonstop—leaving home for the first time, traveling across the realm and then the sea... meeting so many new people, and attending the ball. And then today... running as though my life depended on it—because it did.
It was all too much.
"You think we're safe here?" I asked Kael, looking back at him. He was sitting on the ground, his back resting against the smooth wall.
He nodded. "As safe as we can be, for now. No dragon can reach us here, and the wolves will be inclined to stay back if there are dragons lurking. Survival of the fittest and all that."
I scanned the cavern we'd made our safe space. Becca was huddled against Ayla, who had her leg propped up. The guards were sharing soft words with serious expressions. We'd lost two on our journey here, but it could've been so much worse.
How many more would we lose?
Chapter eleven
"Doyouthinkdragonshave night vision?" Isla questioned as she plucked a juicy chunk of crab from its broken shell.
"I think it best not to put it to chance," Kael muttered, wiping his hands on his pants, already littered with the stains of trauma.
"We can't stay here forever," I added as I tried to tame my hair. "Aside from the obvious lack of resources like fresh water and food—aside from crab —we aren't visible to anyone. So if there are people looking for us, they'd never find us."
Girane cleared his throat. "So maybe we should try to head back to the Keep? That would be the safest place."
"The only question is: when do we move?" Riv mused.
"Well, we know that we've seen wolves, tigers, and dragons. Wolves and tigers are both nocturnal animals," I explained and cut off the incoming question from Belinda, already knowing what she was going to ask. "And no, I don't know why they were so active during the day. It's definitely not... normal."
Several people shifted uncomfortably, no doubt reliving the events of the day.
"So we have to decide... do we make a run for it tonight, knowing two of the three predators we've encountered are known to be night hunters, or do we stay put and take our chances in the daylight with the dragons thrown into the mix?" Belinda stood up, radiating anger. The way her fists clenched, it wouldn't have been surprising if she'd drawn her own blood. "This is absurd! This is not what I agreed to!"
"Nobody agreed to this," Isla said, tossing the now clean crab shell into the small fire the guards had made.
"Where the bloody hell is our rescue?!" Belinda demanded, pacing now. "It doesn't make any sense."
Tiona leaned back against the wall and threw her hands up, exasperated. "That's what I've been saying all along. Nothing about this adds up."
Everyone was thinking it, yet nobody was willing to actually say the words. It was as though speaking our thoughts amongst each other would give truth to what was, at the moment, a terrible suspicion.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Riv cursed. She held out her giant crab leg and pointed at each of us around the room. "You lotallknow what is going on. Nobody wants to say it?" She shrugged and picked at the shell in frustration. "Fine then. I'll bloody say it.This was a set-up."
It shouldn't have been a shock, which was why only a few gasps were heard. The fire flickered, illuminating the somber expressions of the survivors.
"You think—what? That the royals sent us out here to get massacred by animals!?" Belinda asked, waving her arms around frantically. "Think about that. That makes no sense!"
"Actually, if you think about it, it does make sense," I said calmly. Belinda wheeled around on me, malice in her gaze. "What?" I held up my hands. "It's not like I want to believe it. Because you're right. It shouldn’t make sense. It completely defies sense. But there are things that have happened that can't really be explained..."
Tiro sat down next to Kael and looked me in the eye. "Speaking of such things is treason against the crown."
