not going to save her from certain death in nine days. After about twenty minutes, a fortress carriage arrived near the front of the hall. Coco walked inside with a satchel on her shoulder, followed by someone wearing a hooded cloak that looked just like the one Kiera was wearing. The woman pushed back her hood to reveal she was Aleena, Kiera’s handmaid.
“Good morning, Kiera.”
“Hello, dear.”
“You do see where I am going with this, right?” Coco asked, removing her cloak and passing it and the satchel to the handmaid.
“I think so. Aleena was me, and now…she’ll be you?”
“Exactly. I will take on my bird form and ride home inside this,” Coco said, smiling as she pointed at the satchel. “Just do not squeeze me too hard.”
“Gosh, I never would have come up with such a smart move, not this early in the morning, anyway.”
“That is because you are innocent, honest and do not have a mischievous, conniving or disobedient bone in your body.” Coco removed the rest of her clothes and took on her form as an osprey again. “Let’s hurry back. I told the guards outside that I forgot something in here during our meeting yesterday with Commander Oslo.”
They wasted no time, and soon, were all safely back in Kiera’s room. No one was the wiser. Kiera wanted to confront Coco about so many things, but it was not a good time to corner her. She would have a quiet talk with her when her mind was clear.
Now, if she could just keep Chancellor Minassus out of her head.
Kiera was in the clear.
For now.
The Chancellor saw her at breakfast, and had only asked her whether she enjoyed her day of meditation. He was satisfied with her simple nod of affirmation.
How strange.
He did not even try to read her thoughts.
After a few hours of laying low in her room, she was ready to potentially get herself into more trouble. She had sent Coco to tell Xander she would still meet him in the afternoon during his inspections. The reality was, in less than twenty-four hours of meeting him, she had come to know more about the shifter transformation ceremony than all this time inside the fortress. Too many people in here had kept her in the dark.
Taking a leaf from Coco’s book, she wore her familiar’s cloak to leave the fortress. Xander was waiting for her, just as they had planned. He stood at the outer wall just beyond the craftsmen’s homes.
“You made it,” he said once she was close enough to hear.
“I did.”
“Minassus must have his head in the sand, if he didn’t notice you were gone.” He stroked his chin, studying her. “Either that or he has grown complacent.”
“I do not plan to question his ambivalence.”
“Do not underestimate him, Kiera.”
“I won’t.” She pointed at the outer wall. “You’re here to do your inspections, correct? Carry on, Commander.”
Shaking his head, he smiled and started to walk the gravel path beside the region’s outer walls. Neither of them spoke for a while, which was fine with Kiera. She would take every minute outside the fortress that she could get while coming to terms with everything she had learned. A flurry of fleeting emotions came and left her in waves. Anger and disappointment, followed by sadness and fear, then regret would get her right back to anger about just how much deception she had lived with for nine years.
“Do you feel safe inside the fortress?” Xander asked after some time, pulling her out of her hopelessly unproductive line of thinking.
“I used to, but not anymore.”
“I am truly sorry to be the one who opened your eyes.”
“Don’t be,” Kiera replied without thinking.
“You are probably questioning everything now.”
“I am, but I am not sorry about that. I’m grateful,” she said, looking up into his face. He gazed back at her with his head tilted to one side, eyebrows furrowed. For a moment, his expression felt like pity. Why did that not sit well with her? “Do you mind if we change the subject?” she asked, looking away.
“Not at all.”
“What exactly are you inspecting on the walls?”
“I’m double-checking the craftsmen’s repairs. This is my second time around the region this month. Every time we fight the destroyers, we figure out new ways to keep them from breaching these walls. It’s rare for them to make it inside the region, but if any get past us, these barriers need to work. If there’s time, I’ll show you something new that we’ve been working on at