I grabbed my bra and shirt, then pulled on Trevor’s large, threadbare sweater, which fell almost to my knees.
Pulling my messy hair into a rough knot behind my neck, I stumbled out of the tent in my bare feet. They were still stained from the night before, and I smiled remembering the young girl’s concentration as she carefully painted the patterns. They were smeared and muddy now.
The camp was mostly quiet. People sat around the smoking embers, sipping coffee from tin mugs. I glanced up at the archers around the perimeter of the camp. At least we weren’t being attacked. A young man was standing a few paces away, looking nervous. His breath was white in the cool morning air.
“What is it?” I asked, pulling the blanket around my shoulders.
“You’ve got a visitor,” one of the men said.
“Says he came just for you.”
My eyes lifted to follow his gaze, and I froze in my tracks. Behind him, near the gates, surrounded by Sam’s men and their jagged weapons, stood Tobias and a figure in a dark suit that stole my breath away.
Damien smiled at first, with relief when he saw me, but I saw the moment his face fell and I knew, from this distance, with his elite vision, he’d have no trouble seeing as Trevor followed me out of the tent we’d shared.
We stood there, staring at each other, and everything else faded for a moment. I could see the tension between the human guards and the two elite. Tobias was still in dark travel gear, but Damien was wearing light armor and cloak that didn’t quite hide the elaborate sword at his waist.
Then I saw a flash of red hair behind him, as a small figure lifted her hood. My eyes widened as I recognized the familiar face. Amber! I hadn’t even noticed her at first. She ran to me and threw her arms around me.
“You bitch,” she said. “You never invited me to your wedding in the citadel, like you promised.”
“Things didn’t exactly work out as I planned.”
“No shit. I watched the trials, then the wedding ceremony, Em was that seriously you? What have you gotten yourself into, and where even are we? We came straight here on some kind of dirt bike, the elite just showed up in Algrave looking for me. It was surreal, like my own private choosing ceremony.”
I hugged her again, interrupting her excited chatter.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” I said, looking over her shoulder. “We’ll talk more, I promise. Right now, I need to talk to Damien.”
“I don’t like this,” Trevor said, coming up behind me. He’d put pants on at least.
“Nice to see you too, dickhead,” Amber said, crossing her arms.
Trevor pulled her into a one-armed squeeze with a smirk.
“Of course we’re happy to see you, Amber. It’s just, it’s dangerous out here.”
“He must have had a reason,” I said, eyeing Damien. He was surrounded by twenty guys with guns and swords, just inside the gates, but looked casually unimpressed, almost bored. His pale skin and blond hair made him stand out almost as much as his dark cloak and the fine embroidery of his shirt. They probably didn’t know he was a prince, or they wouldn’t have let him in at all.
I walked towards him, my bare feet scraping the dark twigs inside the settlement. The jagged patterns stood out against the dark soil. I raised a hand to try and smooth my tangled hair, But it was hopelessly knotted with the tiny skulls and crushed purple flowers.
I had a slight hangover, and a throbbing ache in my shoulders and neck. I rubbed my eyes before realizing I was just smearing the teal and black paint around my face. Whatever. It didn’t matter.
“Why did you bring her here?” I whispered, when I was close enough for Damien to hear me. “It’s not safe.”
“I’d never let anything happen to her,” Damien frowned. This clearly wasn’t the reunion he’d imagined. But I didn’t know what he was expecting from me. We hadn’t spoken since my escape after the trials. I didn’t even know how to talk to him anymore, though I supposed we’d never really managed more than a few stumbling conversations.
Tobias stepped forward to ease the uncomfortable silence. For a moment he was his old self again, though it was hard to forget how he’d tried to kill us not long ago with his slagpaw pets.
“We are here to aid the rebellion,” he called loudly. “To dethrone the tyrant, King