Gleam (The Plated Prisoner 3)

“Took you long enough,” Lu admonishes. “But I’ll admit, that was a bit better than the first effort I witnessed.”

I glower at her. “We can’t all be flip masters who just go careening off three-story-high balconies.”

With a grin, she starts to walk, and I follow behind her, noting that the dogs are put away in the kennel house for the night, the pen empty and quiet. “Your arm strength is atrocious. You need to come back and get training with us again.”

The very few training sessions I had with the Wrath were the most challenging and rigorous thing I’d ever done, but it also made me feel good mentally—a way to rid myself of my own vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

“I’d like that,” I admit.

Lu seems pleased, and she sends me an enigmatic look. “I’m glad you came to your senses, Gildy.”

I don’t think she’s talking about the training.

I smile. “Me too.”

“You seem to be controlling your ribbons with greater skill,” she notes, and I can’t help but puff up a little at her compliment.

“I’ve been trying to practice with them when I can.”

“Good,” she says with a sharp nod of her head. “Now I need you to shut up, okay?”

Taken aback, I mutter, “Rude.”

I follow her past the row of greenhouses until we reach the corner of the castle walls. The sky is growing darker with every passing minute, gated shadows enclosing the land into night. She stops and looks around it, holding her hand up for me to wait, and then after a moment, waves me forward again.

I look around nervously as we creep past the stables, and then once again, Lu stops me just at the corner of it, but this time we stay there for a few minutes, and I notice Lu checking a brass pocket watch clipped to her belt.

“You worked out the guards’ rotations?” I whisper, keeping my back pressed against the rough wall of the stable.

“Yes. Now shh,” she snips.

Pretending to button my lip, I let my eyes scan the castle grounds, noting the ice sculptures in the distance. They’re pretty during the day, but at night, they look like creepy spectators, their silhouettes menacing and eerie. I keep darting a look at them, and my heart nearly jumps into my throat when I notice movement. Realizing it’s two guards heading toward us, I stiffen, but Lu just shoots me a look to stay still and quiet.

I’m barely breathing when they come nearer and nearer toward the front of the stable. Yet before they cross right in front of us, one of them mutters something too low for me to hear, and then they both start looking around behind them, momentarily distracted. I have no idea what caught their attention, but it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Lu gives a sharp jerk of her head, and I follow her hurriedly as we dart in the opposite direction. I steal looks behind us, but the guards never glance our way.

She stops us again when we reach the garden gazebo, her eyes intent on the face of the pocket watch like she’s memorized every guard route and is counting down the seconds.

“That was close,” I whisper, my heart still beating fast from the residual adrenaline rush. “Good thing they got distracted.” I rub my hands together, the cold air seeping right through my gloves. “So what’s the plan? How are we going to sneak out?”

“The guards open the castle gates in three minutes for the outer perimeter watch change. We’ll slip out then.”

An incredulous look drops over my features. “What are you talking about? We can’t just...slip out through the front gates of the castle.”

She doesn’t even look up from her watch. “Yes, we can.”

I feel like I’m suddenly talking to a crazy person. “The front gate has to be swarming with guards.”

“Usually has about thirty,” she replies with a shrug.

My mouth drops open. “And yet, you expect us to just walk right out? Are you out of your mind?”

“Gildy Locks, your voice is going a little high-pitched, there. I’m going to need you to loosen your ribbons and take a breath.”

Okay, I might be panicking a bit, but she doesn’t have to sound so damn amused.

“We’ll get caught if we try to go out that way,” I insist. “I thought you had found some secret way out or had bribed a guard or something.”