wall I’d seen in my life. Galan had been right beside me this whole time. Eating, sleeping, showering, maybe doing… other things.”
My pelvis clenched tight and I immediately shoved that dangerous thought right out of my head.
“Ellis?”
“Yeah?” How thick were the walls anyway? Were they, put a glass to the wall and still not hear anything thick?
“Ellis? Helloooo, Ellis.”
I made myself look away from the wall. “Sorry. What did you say?”
“I said maybe I could ask Sabrina if you could hang out in the common room with us, sometime,” Inara said.
“Common room?” I said.
“It’s just a big room with couches and hologram screens and shit like that,” Inara said. “A bunch of us ladies hang out there in the evenings a lot as a social thing. I’ll ask Sabrina if you can join us. You must be so bored.”
“I am,” I said. “And thank you for the offer, but I’m pretty sure the queen isn’t going to let me go to the common room, even with a Draax guard.”
“You never know,” Inara said. “It won’t hurt to ask. Anyway, I should go. I told Rachel I would meet her in the garden to do some yoga. Candy, you want to join us, babe?”
“Not this time. I want to get started on some of Ellis’s clothes before Roden is finished school for the day.”
The two women stood, and I followed them as they headed toward the door. “Thank you, Candy. This is really nice of you and I appreciate it.”
“It’s no problem,” Candy said.
Inara opened the door and smiled at Adrix. “It was nice to see you again, Adrix.”
“You as well, Inara. Are you headed back to your living quarters now?” Adrix said.
“Actually, the garden,” Inara said.
“I will walk with you,” Adrix said.
Candy glanced back at me and mouthed, “Told you he liked her.”
Adrix shut and locked the door. I waited until their voices had drifted down the hallway before I ran to the kitchenette and pressed one ear against the wall and plugged the other ear with my finger. I couldn’t hear anything and after a few seconds, I muttered a curse and straightened.
“What are you doing, idiot?” I paced back and forth. “One, these walls are made of goddamn stone, you’re not going to hear anything, and two, he’s not even in his apartment. He’s at the sparring room and…”
I chewed at my bottom lip as I stared at my bed. My legs a little unsteady, I crossed over to the bed, opened the leather case, and grabbed my tension wrench and my hook pick.
“Seriously, what are you doing, Ellis?” I knelt in front of the door and inserted the tension wrench. “This is a very bad idea.”
It was the worst fucking idea in the world.
Chapter Nine
Ellis
I opened my door, looked both ways, and stepped out into the empty hallway. I knelt in front of Galan’s door and went to work on the lock. Nerves made sweat slide down my back, but my hands didn’t shake. They never did.
Galan’s lock was just as easy to pick as mine. I was inside his apartment in less than two minutes. I shut the door and leaned against it, holding my breath as I strained to hear any noise.
Galan’s apartment was bigger than mine but not lavishly so. Nothing like the king’s living quarters anyway. Galan’s decorating tastes were minimal with a few pieces of art on the wall and some pictures and other knick-knacks on a large bookshelf. The bookshelf was sandwiched between two doors on the far wall. One was shut but the other was open and I could see part of a dresser and the end of Galan’s bed. I crept across the living room, running my hand along the back of the couch, before opening the door on the left. It was a bathroom and I studied the towel hanging on the rod and the razor and shaving cream sitting on the bathroom vanity before closing the door.
There were framed photos on the second shelf of the bookshelf, and I picked up the closest one. It was a picture of Galan, the blue-eyed Draax, and the king as teenagers. They were standing in front of a vast violet coloured ocean wearing swim trunks. Their hair was wet and slicked back and they had their arms slung around each other’s shoulders as they laughed into the camera.
I traced Galan’s face before putting the picture back and picking up the next one. Galan was a teen in this one too,