Nett protested, “But she—”

“That’s enough,” Thorn said firmly. Claire glanced at Sophie and saw her sister was already looking at her. They burst into giggles at the same time. It was nice to be with her best friends.

By noon, however, being royal prisoners was decidedly less fun. The bumps on the road added bruises to their bruises, and the laughter came a little less frequently. It had to.

As they drew closer to Hilltop Palace and the night of Starfell, the dirt roads began to fill with people eager to witness the return of Queen Estelle and, as Nett had whispered, experience Starfell the proper way for the first time in hundreds of years: in the complete dark, all sunlight tucked away. With a unicorn to protect them all, the citizens of Arden could watch the stars fall without fear of a wraith attack.

The lines of yellow sunlight that slipped through the wooden planks slowly faded away as the sun began to set. Finally, Claire felt the cart turn off the road. They rattled a few more feet before rolling to a stop. Peering out through a knothole in the cart’s slats, Claire saw they had arrived at the edge of a forest.

“It’s time,” Thorn whispered back to them, and Claire pulled away from the knothole. The next several minutes were ones of bumping elbows and stubbed toes against the cart as the four of them pulled on the leather tunics that would mark them as Forger apprentices. When they were done, Thorn clambered to join them in the back of the cart and pulled out a thick coil of rope. Then he looped it around their ankles, knotting them together. Even though Claire had agreed to this plan, anxiety crept across her like a handful of ants. It was one thing to agree to be carried to your enemy tied up; it was another thing to actually do it.

“Everyone set?” Thorn asked. He’d already changed into what Claire thought of as his “princely” outfit: long, loose-fitting shirt with a tunic of royal blue embroidered with Estelle’s moon crest. He’d placed the thin circlet of gold back on his head, holding it in place with a few well-placed knots in his hair.

“Yes,” Nett answered a touch too loudly, while Claire and Sena nodded. Sophie, however, kept her eyes fixed on her fingernails. Hurt flashed across Thorn’s face, but he gave the group a weak smile and returned to the front of the carriage.

Poor Thorn. Claire had thought it before, but now she was certain: Sophie was purposefully ignoring him. She couldn’t really blame Sophie. Out of all of them, Thorn had been closest to Sophie, which meant his lies must have stung her sister all the worse. And now they had to trust him to bring them to an even greater danger.