“Never underestimate the power of a plotting mother’s whisper,” Bri warned. “Now, where are we drinking these?”

“I vote somewhere inside,” Carys snorted. “All the nighttime creatures around here seem to want to eat us.”

“Our room it is,” Bri said, hastening back up the steps.

She had another few hours before she could sneak off to Lina’s quarters for the night. Her tired body already looked forward to the familiar comfort of those soft sheets and plush pillows, sleep finally accessible like a key turning in a lock.

Bri turned the corner too quickly, smacking into a person rushing down the hall. She looked up to the wide-eyed fae, who was wearing riding clothes and had a heavy bag slung over his shoulder.

As they collided, the bottle in Bri’s left hand slipped but she caught it before it shattered on the ground. The fae’s bag smacked onto the floor, its contents spilling across the tiles. Stooping, Bri and Carys both moved to help him scramble after his belongings.

“Sorry, about th—”

“No, no, I can do it,” he cut them off, reaching for the object that had tumbled the farthest just as their eyes landed on it.

Bri’s hand froze midair.

There, on the floor, was a golden lion mask.

The second they spotted it, he knew the jig was up, dropping it and dashing down the hall.

“Shit,” Carys cursed, dropping her bottle of wine. It shattered around their feet as she raced after him.

Bri set her bottles on the ground and sprinted after Carys, catching up in three easy strides.

“Just put it down, Car. You don’t have to be so bloody dramatic,” she snapped, more disappointed in the wasted wine than concentrated on the ensuing chase.

“Can we focus, please?” Carys replied as the fleeing fae darted down a hallway to the right.

He tumbled a table behind him, clay shattering across the floor. Carys hurdled over it in one stride, leaping like a gazelle. Bri thundered through the debris, her boots crunching across the shards of clay. The escapee fled to the end of the hall, vaulting up to the open arched window and sliding out the other side. Carys was there in a heartbeat, jumping up to the window after him as Bri darted through the door to the left.

“Round him up,” Bri shouted to her friend as she sped into the darkened servants’ passage.

Mapping out the castles hadn’t been just a mindless practice. There was a reason she knew where every pathway led, and that the arched window led to the training rings, and the only way out of the training rings . . .