Etan was looking at the ground just then, and thank goodness. If I saw those slate-blue eyes with their secret streaks of silver, I might have lost any resolve and several pieces of my heart. He was stealing it, bit by bit, with traces of smiles and quiet glances. And what would happen to me when he’d gotten all my heart, and I had none of his?

“Yes, of course. I’ll come. I just don’t know when. Stay safe,” I said, coming over to kiss her cheek.

“We should go,” Etan said.

I stepped away, a chill running down my back that had nothing to do with the constant Isolten winds.

“Good luck, son,” Uncle Reid said, placing a hand on Etan’s shoulder, passing him some of the more incriminating letters. “We’ll be waiting for you.”

Etan nodded, shaking his father’s hand. We had hope that people would follow, but if Etan failed . . .

We’d have no way of knowing until it was far too late.

Etan embraced his mother and whispered something in her ear. I watched as she squinted, taking in the seriousness of his request. He stepped back and looked into her eyes. There was something deeper than a goodbye happening there, almost as if they were making promises. He took a deep breath, and she slowly nodded.

He then moved to Mother, kissing her cheek. “Keep this lot together,” he instructed teasingly. She smiled as he moved to Scarlet.

“Last chance to be queen. I’d hand it over in a heartbeat. Without question or remorse.”

Scarlet smiled, perfectly composed, and sank into the deepest curtsy.

“Fair enough,” Etan said when she stood. He kissed her forehead and moved over to me.

Face-to-face, knowing the danger in front of us, there were so many things I wanted to say. Even if we hadn’t had an audience, I couldn’t have gotten it all out.

“I will be back,” he whispered. “Please, please . . . stay safe.”

“You, too,” I breathed.

He laced his fingers through the hair at the nape of my neck and kissed my forehead, staying there maybe just a moment too long, then turned to Valentina.

“Come, Your Majesty; we don’t have much time.”

Valentina looked at us all one last time and disappeared quietly into the hallway. Etan didn’t look back, and I hoped that the flash of his riding cape around the edge of the door wasn’t the last I’d ever see of him.

Twenty-Seven

NONE OF US SLEPT THAT night. And we all stayed awake through the following day. I had no idea how long it took to raise an army, but I would not be able to settle until I saw a pair of gray-blue eyes riding back up to the castle.

I doubted any of us would. Uncle Reid was stealthy but speedy in his work. Unwilling to leave anything in writing in case something should fail, he was in and out of the apartments, passing information to other nobles and double-checking the strength of our numbers.