Page 17 of Hollow Court

“Hardly,” I answered her. “They’ll want you just because they think you belong to me.”

Not that she ever had, or ever would. Not that I even wanted that anymore.

I watched the gears turning in her mind as she weighed the situation in her familiar, inscrutable fashion.

“All right,” she agreed after only a handful of minutes. “I agree.”

Was she really so desperate to leave? Why?

Though her explanation hadn’t exactly felt like a lie, I had never known Galina to want any life other than the one she was raised into. And if she had, she sure as hell didn’t admit it, let alone act on it.

Yet here she was, barely blinking at a suggestion she would have turned down flat a year ago.

I didn’t ask her why she was willing to leave her betrothed. Overbearing arseling that he was, perhaps she didn’t feel she owed him an explanation.

Or perhaps it was just as easy for her to walk away from everyone else in her life as it had been for her to walk away from me.

I took another swig from my glass, watching as she did the same.

“All right, then,” I eventually echoed. “But I need you to understand that we have to make this look real.”

Galina’s lips twisted bitterly. “I’m sure that won’t be a problem for either of us.”

At least one of us was sure about that. It already sounded like a nightmare to me.

SEVEN

Galina

Davinand I stayed up the entire night ensuring there were as few holes in our plan as possible. Eventually, we traded our wine glasses for tea.

Somehow, the sight of Davin brewing a pot of tea over the hearth felt almost as surreal as the entire insane idea we had cooked up.

Then again, we both had our reasons for needing this to work.

I clung to that comfort, to the reminder that he wouldn’t back out, as I sat outside in the dark, freezing carriage, tensing at every set of footsteps that passed by and hoping with everything I had that they didn’t belong to Alexei.

White clouds billowed out in front of me in the frosty morning air, fading in and out with each stilted breath. Silently, I counted down the seconds until we would be on our way.

Davin had escorted me to the carriage as soon as it pulled up to the front door, passing me off as a shy lady friend. Between his rank and his reputation, no one argued with that explanation.

I was fine until he went back to say goodbye to the king and queen. Then I took advantage of my solitude to imagine every possible thing that could go wrong.

My trunks were nondescript enough, easily hiding among the others, but someone who examined their contents might recognize them as mine.

What if Alexei insisted on going after “me” and discovered the carriage my father had sent out this morning was, in fact, empty?

What if someone had seen me under this hood?

My fingers absently traced the cut that the wolf charm had left imprinted in my skin as I considered scenario after scenario where everything could unravel.

The door wrenched open, and my lungs seized in my chest, my heart racing faster than I thought possible. But it was only Davin, followed by the red-headed twins.

He climbed in first, blocking me from view with his broad form long enough for them to sit across from us on the bench. The duke noticed me first. He froze.

“Lady–”

“Nope,” Davin cut in smoothly, closing the velvet curtains just as soon as the door locked into place.