“You’re right,” I agreed. “Or it can all end right here.”
Belanor looked at me, and I looked at him. His face was disconcerting, but it wasn’t the puckered burn marks on the left side, or how it fit into the unburned side as if Belanor were two people fused into one. It was because of the resemblance to Laurie; I kept catching glimpses of it at certain moments and angles, and every time, it struck me all over again that he was Laurie’s twin. They’d shared a womb. Whatever time had done to their relationship, that bond couldn’t be completely gone.
What would severing it do to my own relationship with Laurie?
I swallowed and forced myself to add, “It is for Laurie’s sake, though, that I will let you live… as long as you let Finn go. What is it going to be?”
There was one more frozen beat, one more breathless pause. Belanor lowered the dagger and stepped back, making a graceful gesture with his other hand that said, Rise.
Finn crossed the room, and it felt like all three of us stopped breathing. We were all tense, prepared for any abrupt movements. I kept the letter opener pressed firmly to the side of my throat and began moving toward the doors.
Belanor remained where he was, watching us with eyes that glittered. “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave,” he said.
Gil, Finn, and I simultaneously stiffened just as Laurie’s voice drawled, “Oh, I really think you can.”
He and Lensa came into the room, both of them carrying swords drenched in blue blood. Belanor must’ve had Guardians posted in the hallway, waiting for his signal, I thought.
The moment our eyes met, Laurie vanished and reappeared at my side. Shock had rendered me silent at first, but now I wanted to shout at him, to shake him as hard as Belanor had shaken Finn. All of Laurie’s efforts to avoid being directly involved in my escape, and here he was, throwing everything away to save me. Again.
I watched Belanor’s features smooth into a calm mask, but he couldn’t quite hide the gleam of calculation in his eyes. He hadn’t counted on losing Finn as leverage, and he’d misjudged the trust between me and Laurie—my tormentor had really thought I’d come alone. Underestimating me had always been the reason Belanor lost these skirmishes of ours.
I watched his eyes go to the letter opener, taking that into his considerations, as well. I hadn’t lowered it, despite Finn’s warmth at my back and Laurie’s arrival. As we waited for his reaction, Belanor’s stare became unfocused. There was a beat of silence, then two. At last he said, his voice like honey, “But of course, brother. This is all an unfortunate misunderstanding. I won’t detain our guests any longer.”
Laurie and Lensa didn’t move. They didn’t trust him, and neither did I. I couldn’t shake the sense that we were all missing something. An obvious, dangerous detail in the events unfolding tonight. Why hadn’t Belanor commanded his guards to take me once I got to the library? There were no witnesses, no risk to his reputation in taking me here.
I was the one to breach the silence. I raised my gaze to Belanor’s and made my voice steel. “If you send the Royal Guard after us, I cut my throat. If you try to stop us from leaving the grounds, I cut my throat. If you hurt anyone else because of me… do I need to finish?”
“I think we understand each other perfectly, Miss Sworn. I hope you enjoyed the party. I’ve heard the chocolate fountain is to die for. Well, what are you just standing there for? Run along. Safe travels back to America!” Belanor made a shooing motion.
His tone grated on my already-frayed nerves. I looked at Laurie and jerked my head in the direction of the doors, saying curtly, “Come on. Let’s go.”
Our small, ragtag group left quickly after that. Gil didn’t take his eyes off Belanor until we’d crossed the threshold and the faerie was no longer in sight. As I reentered the hallway, I expected a scene of carnage. But Laurie and Lensa must’ve hidden the bodies, or someone else had, because there were none in the hallway when we emerged.
I finally lowered the letter opener from my throat, sending a silent apology to my father, in case he could hear me through some lingering connection within the dreamscape. I’d promised him I would stop skirting the line between life and death.
Even after Laurie closed the set of doors, and we’d walked a few steps to put distance between us and the library, none of us spoke. A heaviness had settled upon the air, the knowledge that as long as Belanor was alive in that room behind us, we’d never escape. Laurie and Lensa included. That was why Belanor had confronted me, I realized in a burst. Why he’d allowed me to walk into the library and negotiate for Finn’s life. It was a trap, just as Laurie had predicted. The only part he’d gotten wrong was that Belanor would set it to catch me.
The library had been a trap for him.
And Laurie had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. Because I was his weakness, too.
“I’ll do it,” Finn said suddenly.
He stood to my right, and though he’d spoken quietly, I jumped at the sound of his voice. I looked at him and realized what he was saying. He would murder Belanor, if any of us wanted him to. For the first time, I noticed that he was holding his wrist and that it hung too limply from his fingers. A broken bone was nothing to a werewolf’s healing capabilities, but the fae had probably pumped Finn full of holy water. My anxiety rose another notch.
Laurie and Lensa didn’t respond to his offer, and I shook my head, giving Finn’s other arm a gentle touch. “No. We can’t.”
As usual, the werewolf didn’t ask any questions, though I knew he didn’t fully understand what had happened in the library. He hadn’t sensed Lensa and Laurie’s fear when they were confronted with the reality of murdering their brother. The moment I felt that, I’d realized I couldn’t be the reason Laurie killed his twin.
I was about to suggest we flee for our lives when Finn stiffened. Everyone’s heads turned toward him.
“What do you hear?” Laurie’s voice was uncharacteristically sharp.
“Footsteps,” the werewolf said. His dark eyes stared at the wall and his entire body was still. “A lot of them. Heading in this direction from all sides.”
Feeling Laurie’s eyes on me, I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. “This is usually when you chime in with a dirty comment and then save our lives.”
To my surprise, Laurie didn’t smile. Instead, his full lips pressed together and his gaze shifted to the ever-darkening hallway I’d put my back to. “There are no passages on this side of the palace. That’s probably why Belanor chose it,” he mused, almost to himself. “We should still make for the front doors, but the odds of being intercepted are very, very high.”
He moved his hand in my peripheral vision, and something glinted. I glanced down at the sword Laurie still held. He hadn’t had a chance to clean it, so the silver edges were stained with blood.
My focus lingered on those blue smears, and I felt a heaviness settle in my chest as I accepted our fate. There was no other way out; we were heading into battle. A fight it was very possible none of us walked away from.
“We should even the odds, at least. The werewolf’s scent is the strongest,” Lensa muttered. She’d seen the writing on the wall, too. “Many of the guards will follow that, assuming Lady Sworn won’t allow them to be separated.”