*Genevieve*This was uncomfortable. Aurora's eyes darted between the two of us, her brow furrowed. I could tell that she was suspicious."Hey, Aurora," Rowan greeted, sounding much more casual than I felt."What's up, guys?" Aurora pasted a smile on her face, but I knew her well enough to know it was a fake smile."Just getting Genevieve's arm patched back up. Would you like to help?" Rowan offered."I'll come watch." Aurora shrugged.We all entered the room. I felt like the hair on the back of my neck was standing on end, but I just breathed in deeply through my nose. Something was definitely off, but I couldn't decide what."Here, have a seat," Rowan instructed, gesturing to the edge of his bathtub. I went into the bathroom and sat down as instructed, watching Aurora and Rowan in the room. Rowan handed first aid supplies to Aurora and then the two of them joined me in the bathroom.Rowan turned on the water, letting it get hot. He pulled the showerhead off the wall an

*Rowan*There were two guards posted outside of my room. Luckily, they allowed Budge to be the guard inside my room, but we were effectively prisoners."You know, it seems a little stupid to have a fireplace in a bedroom," Budge pointed out, kicking at the ash in the fireplace. It made a little gray puff in the air."I mean, if we lived somewhere cold, it would be nice," I excused."We live on an island. It's stupid," Budge insisted."I won't disagree with that."I was on my laptop, scrolling through articles online trying to see what I could do about all of this. The problem was that there wasn't a whole lot of information online about Boldovan law."We'll get her out," Budge assured me, coming to rest a massive hand on my shoulder."I know we will. I won't survive if we don't."I wouldn't survive without her. Not just in the way that she seemed to be the only one keeping me alive, but I didn't think I could live without her by my side.It was like I had gone all m

For fuck's sake.We just couldn't catch a break tonight. They were ahead of us at every turn. I expected my heart to race, my knees to go weak, for some sign of the distress I knew I should be feeling to make itself known, but there was nothing.I was numb. I felt defeated. I let the ice-cold anguish wash through me and back out to the ocean. Maybe it traveled down those same damned drainage pipes we crawled through. Wherever the feelings went, I found some well of strength deep inside and pulled from it to stay standing.The king smiled, his yellowed teeth showing from underneath his salt-and-pepper mustache. "Am I interrupting something?""What do you want, Dad?" Rowan demanded."I don't want you to take this personally," the king began. "It's just that the blonde ruined things this afternoon, so I've had to expedite my plans.""Do we have to do the monologuing?" I sighed.I was soaking wet. I'd been falsely accused of attempted murder, imprisoned, and had to scramble f

I awoke the next morning in Genevieve's bed. She was curled around me in a warm embrace. I debated over whether or not to just close my eyes and go back to sleep. If I could just stay in this moment, wrapped in her arms and not having to concern myself with what I knew was waiting outside the door.Aurora's room was next door. Jonah's room wasn't far either. Those rooms would be empty today, no longer inhabited by traitors. I wondered what my mother was doing. What did she think? How was she feeling?It was thoughts of her that drug me from bed. Genevieve barely stirred. I knew she must be exhausted from the events of yesterday. I scrawled out a quick note to her and set it on the pillow next to her.Slipping out of her room, I hurried to mine. I needed to find some clean clothes. After hurrying to put on my clothes from last night as quickly and quietly as I could, I was disgusted by how wet and cold they were. The ocean water didn't smell very nice either.I took a quick show

Rowan wanted to watch this movie. I wanted to be a good wife and watch it. I wanted to show that I was interested in his interests. But war movies were just so boring, and I could think of something much better to do with my time.In the few days between his proposal and our wedding, I'd had time to do a little shopping in town. I hadn't exactly needed lingerie our first few days here because we'd been too ravenous for each other, but now, I thought it would be a nice touch. And useful in convincing him to ignore this awful movie.Crawling into the bed, I pulled the covers up over my lap and settled in next to him. He turned to me and gave me a little smile before returning to watching the movie. Someone on screen threw a gun at someone else.I stroked his arm, trying to put on a convincing show that I was watching the gray planes on the screen drop bombs on the towns below. He absentmindedly scooted closer to me. Rowan's hand found my thigh, and he ran his finger along the skin,