Page 80 of The Prince's Fealty

Lady Nawila grinned, white teeth flashing in contrast to her darker skin. “I like her.”

Tor smiled faintly at that, but it didn’t completely mask his worry. Pel’s heart ached a little at the knowledge that Tor felt responsible for all of them. They were making their own decision to proceed, but he knew Tor wouldn’t feel that way if anything happened to any of them.

“He might be your brother, but he’s also the High King,” Pel pointed out quietly from his place at Tor’s side.

Tor sighed. “I know.”

Pel squeezed his arm. “You decided to do the right thing. So did we. Let us have this, Tor.”

Tor’s expression turned rueful, and his shoulders relaxed a little. “Oh, am I trying to be the center of attention?”

Pel nudged him. “Yeah, always trying to be the hero.”

Sir Rinil piped up from a few feet away. “It’s the dashing prince thing. I don’t think he can help it.”

Princess Terila pointed out, “You’re a prince now, too, remember.”

Right.PrinceRinil made a slightly horrified face that made Tor snort with amusement.

It was so strange seeing Princess Terila again. It was clear that she’d done some soul-searching recently, but Pel was also beginning to suspect that he’d turned her into the villain of his story. She’d been unquestionably rude to him, but Pel had let it have way more power over him than he should have.

He liked the idea of moving on, and though he was a little surprised by the realization, he was pretty sure that they could actually become… if not friends, at least on friendly terms, which he assumed would be a good thing given how close Prince Rinil and Tor were.

Pel had a lot of questions, actually, but he knew that now wasn’t the time for any of them. They had to concentrate on infiltrating the castle of someone who’d been planning a coup for years—possibly decades.

It was a sobering thought. But at the same time, they’d foiled the plans against Tor (even if it had been a near-run thing). They had Stronex with them, and while it might be better to have Bav and Gornexi, too, Stronex probably had more actual battle experience than the rest of them combined.

Princess Terila and Pamuna had the least practical experience, but the rest of them had lots of training. They had several Illustrious with them—and Pamuna was leading them because she knew a secret entrance into the castle.

He reminded himself that she’d saved baby Cala, and when the High King had fled here, she’d immediately gone to warn Tor’s friends about what was going on. Just becauseshe came from Fila and clearly knew more than she was saying didn’t mean that she was in league with King Nostex.

It was hard to know who to trust, but Tor clearly trusted Prince Rinil and Lady Nawila. Pel had basically put his and Tor’s lives in Beluna, Cavun, and Denil’s hands. And Stronex had clearly picked soldiers he trusted and was on a mission to save Princess Adexa.

They’d wound up practically in pairs on their way to the secret entrance. Princess Terila was sticking by Prince Rinil’s side, just like Pamuna was doing with Nawila. Tor was sticking to Pel like Pel couldn’t take care of himself. (At this point, Pel just rolled his eyes and acknowledged that Tor was hugely overprotective.) Beluna and Cavun had fallen in together, and that left King Stronex and his guards.

They moved as quietly as they could, creeping through the forest with only small lights cast by the Extraordinary amongst them, since these could be instantly extinguished and caused no heat or smoke. All the pale-skinned folks like him and Tor had their hoods up to try to shadow their faces and make them stand out a little less in the woods.

An uneasy feeling was creeping up Pel’s spine as they moved. There was so much at stake, and if they got any of this wrong, Tor might lose his family—if he hadn’t already. They might all be heading to their deaths, and if that was the case, Pel was bringing their unborn child to their doom as well.

But he knew he couldn’t stand aside, for so many reasons, but also because even if he did, if something happened to Tor, it might kill them all anyway. He wasn’t totally sure how anyone dealt with that responsibility on a daily basis—or maybe most people didn’t wind up in situations quite as dire as this.

He definitely had newfound respect for the exiles. If this was the kind of fear they’d been putting up with during the war, and they’d taken a stand and removed themselves from the situation? He could definitely understand that.

Unfortunately, he and Tor were so deeply embroiled that there was no getting out of it unless they solved it themselves, and that was why they were sneaking to the secret entrance of a castle in the middle of the night.

(Honestly, if they survived this, he was going to suggest to Bav that they get their own secret entrance of some sort. Why was Tond left out?)

This entrance was nothing like the ones at Tor’s castle in Nexa. It was set well within the forest, and Pel could only imagine what Nostex used it for. The trap door was concealed amidst a thicket of bushes with debris covering it. Pamuna showed them howthe handle had been hidden, and two of the guards hauled the door up while King Stronex and Tor covered the entrance with shields.

It betrayed that they were Extraordinary, but it meant they were all protected from any surprises.

But there were none—no shouts of alarm, no thud of weapons.

It was altogether anticlimactic, but Pel sagged with relief and reminded himself that was a good thing. He tried to slow his breathing.

The two Extraordinary released their shields, and still no one leaped out to attack them.

Looking pale but determined, Pamuna told them, “There’s a trap at either end of the tunnel. If you trigger it, you’ll cause a cave in.”