The Offering (The Pledge 3)

Eden sat up as she considered my pleas. “What about the princess?” she asked of Angelina, the only person other than Xander whom Eden truly loved.

I nodded. Of course I’d considered this. “I’m putting Zafir in charge of her. He’ll protect her as valiantly as you would.”

Eden snorted, scoffing at the notion that someone— anyone—could replace her.

“Fine,” I conceded. “But he’s at least the second best in the queendom. He won’t let anyone near her. You know I’d never let anything happen to my sister.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Not intentionally. But you kept Sabara a secret, didn’t you?”

I stood then, my shoulders erect and my chin high as I scowled down at her shadowed form. “You’re walking a dangerous line, Eden. I came here because I trust you, and because I believe we can help each other, but that doesn’t give you the right to insult me.”

She held my gaze a moment, and then sighed, rubbing her hands through her greasy black hair. “No, you’re right . . . Your Majesty. It was uncalled for.” She eased herself up from her bunk until she was standing upright, and then it was she who looked down upon me as she stood at her full height. “And what if I don’t want to help you? What if I turn you in to Zafir or Max or your parents? Tell them your plan to . . . to do whatever it is you plan to do once you get to Astonia? Then what?”

I’d considered this too. I didn’t have a plan B. Eden was my only option, but I couldn’t let her know that. If I’d thought I could get to Astonia on my own, I would have tried. But I’d never been anywhere on my own before. I wasn’t even sure which direction to travel, or how to keep myself from getting mauled by animals or slaughtered by thieves. I was useless.

Eden, on the other hand, was competent and experienced and could lead me right to Astonia.

And with the right timing, with just a moment alone with Queen Elena, we both might get what we wanted from her.

Keeping my face blank, I shrugged as dispassionately as I could manage. “You could do that, I suppose. But then we’ll never know for certain what happened to Xander.” As I said the words, I wished the knot in my stomach would loosen. “It’s a risk I have to take,” I finished, hoping I didn’t throw up right there in her chamber before she could give me her answer.

Eden paced toward the door, and my stomach acids churned, the back of my throat burning in their wake. I felt suddenly dizzy, and the urge to bolt ahead of her and run away almost overwhelmed me.

Maybe if I got a head start . . . Maybe I stood a chance of escaping into the forest.

Maybe I could somehow reach the border on my own.

And then Eden stopped pacing and turned to face me. Her expression was hard to read, but her mood wasn’t. “I don’t want to be a guard any longer,” she stated with impervious resolve, and I remembered her the way I’d first seen her, when she’d been part of Xander’s underground resistance. When all I had been able to think was that this woman, with her muscular arms and her piercing black eyes, was a weapon in her own right. “I’m done with all that nonsense. All I want is to get Xander back.”

I didn’t know if I could give her that, because I didn’t know if Xander was alive or not. She surely knew as much too.

I nodded, agreeing to every unspoken term being forged between us. “Good,” I told her, my blood hot and my skin starting to glow beneath the heat of our new alliance. “Because I don’t want you to be my guard. I want a partner. And if you help me get to Astonia, I’ll do whatever I can to help you get revenge.”

IV

I lifted my finger to my lips, warning Angelina’s temporary guard not to give me away. I slipped behind a massive tree trunk and watched as Angelina climbed the rope ladder that led into the fortress built high above the ground. The guard, who probably wasn’t thrilled to be taking Eden’s place while she was supposed to be resting, simply nodded while Zafir remained hidden with me.

Despite its less than stable appearance, and its precarious position among the thick, twisting branches, I was certain the tree fort was more than sufficiently secure. I knew no one— Eden specifically—would have allowed Angelina to play up there unless its architecture had been deemed sound.

From my spot below the structure, I listened to Angelina whispering something, and wondered if I’d somehow missed the presence of another child while I’d been observing her. I’d been almost certain she was alone.

Before I could question my sister’s escort, I heard Angelina again, her voice louder now as she answered her own question, and I realized that she was carrying on both sides of her own conversation. Chatting, and then responding in kind.

Something about that hit a little too close to home for me. It was much too close to the way Sabara and I communicated, save that Sabara’s voice remained silent to everyone but me.

I was glad Angelina had her own place of refuge, like I did. But my heart ached for the fact that my little sister was just as isolated out here at the palace as she had been when we’d been in the city, when she’d been unable to speak at all, and I wondered if she longed to play with other children. If she wished for friends her own age so she wouldn’t have to carry on imagined conversations with herself.

I stood indecisively for only a moment before making up my mind to follow her up the steps to the tree house. With mu plan now in place, Eden had given me less than twenty-four hours to make my final preparations before we would vanish.