Long black hair tumbled out and fluttered in the breeze as Audrey poked her head out through the window. Craning my neck, I looked up at her from where I stood on the grass in the gardens outside.
“You got him?” I asked in the lowest voice I could use while still making it carry all the way up to the window.
“Yes.” Audrey yanked off her swirling golden mask and threw it into a bush outside. “Get ready.”
She ducked back inside. Keeping my gaze on the now empty window, I moved into position right underneath it while also tossing my own silver mask into the same bush where hers had disappeared.
It had been beyond easy to get here. All I’d had to do was walk out of the front doors while saying that I needed some air. The doormen had said nothing, and no one was watching the garden, so I had been able to sneak around the building without anyone noticing. The fact that the windows in the Rose Hall were made of stained glass also helped with privacy, of course.
Getting here had been easy. Now, came the tricky part.
A head of golden blond hair appeared in the window. Then a pair of arms that fell off the windowsill and swung limply in the air. Audrey became visible above Lance Carmichael’s back as she tried to haul his unconscious body up onto the windowsill and then out. Gritting her teeth, she looked to have her arms locked around his waist as she tried to lift him.
Impatience and a flash of worry shot through me.
“Hurry,” I snapped at her.
If anyone walked into that library right now, Audrey was dead. There was no reasonable explanation for why she would be throwing Lance Carmichael’s unmoving body out the window. And while I might be able to just sprint away through the garden if we were discovered, Audrey was stuck in a room with only one door, a window that was too high up to jump from, and the entire parliament of Eldar ready to charge in at a moment’s notice.
“I am hurrying,” she hissed back at me. “But he’s fucking heavy.”
With only a few months left to his twentieth birthday, Lance had the physique of a grown man. Tall and broad-shouldered and muscular. Audrey had said that she would be able to handle it, but based on the strained expression on her face, she was struggling.
Suddenly, Lance’s chest slid over the windowsill.
Alarm flashed across Audrey’s face. “Get him!”
The weight of Lance’s upper body dangling over the edge was too great, making it impossible for Audrey to keep a hold of him. His legs slid through Audrey’s arms quickly when she lost her grip.
I took a small step sideways while I tracked Lance’s trajectory as he free-fell out the window. Bending my knees slightly, I held out my arms and then braced for the impact.
My body jolted as Lance’s unconscious form landed in my arms. I let out a soft huff. Damn. He really was heavy. Now that I knew just how much he really weighed, I couldn’t help but be a little impressed that Audrey had managed to lift him off the floor and push him out the window on her own.
After setting the Binder down on the grass, I looked up at the window to meet Audrey’s gaze.
It was empty.
Panic burned through my chest.
“Audrey,” I hissed.
No answer.
“Audrey!”
The window remained empty.
Fear and panic ran wild in my chest as I stared up at the building. Had someone walked in and seen her? Was she busy trying to explain her presence there or had they already captured her? The image of Chancellor Quill dragging Audrey away in handcuffs flashed through my mind.
I had already taken two quick steps back towards the front door before I stopped myself. Looking over my shoulder, I cast a glance at Lance’s body. I couldn’t just leave him lying out here in the garden for anyone to blunder into. But if they had caught Audrey, I had to do something. Fast.
My heart thumped in my chest and indecision raced through me. What if I hid him and then went back into the party? That way, I could—
“Heads up.”
Whirling back around, I snapped my gaze towards the window just in time to see another blond head appear above the windowsill. Narrow shoulders and a skinny body slid over it a second later.
Confusion swirled through me as I watched the body fall through the air and land back first on the grass below. It was replaced by relief as I looked up to see Audrey’s stunning face in the window once more.
“What are you doing over there?” she asked while climbing up on the windowsill. “Hurry up and get over here.”
I quickly moved back to the spot below the window and held out my arms.
For a single second, uncertainty blew across Audrey’s face as she looked down at me. It wasn’t lost on me that this particular move required quite a bit of trust. If I didn’t catch her, she would break her legs and be left crippled and unable to escape from the scene of a crime that was sure to go down in the history books as one of the most heinous ever committed against the city of Eldar. And all she could do was hope that I would catch her and not leave her to such a fate.
Then she jumped.
Her green and golden dress fluttered in the air as she plummeted towards the ground. I shifted my position slightly.
Relief flooded her face as she landed in my arms. I set her down gently on the grass, allowing her to smoothen down her skirt and hair before my hand shot out and took her jaw in a firm grip.
“What are—” she began but I cut her off.
“When I call your name, you answer,” I informed her in a voice pulsing with authority. “Is that clear?”
She tried to slap my hand away. I stared her down for another second before releasing her. While glaring up at me, she stabbed a hand towards the skinny corpse next to us.
“Since I couldn’t very well leave a dead body in the library for anyone to find, getting him out was more important than answering your incessant yelling.” Before I could reply, she stalked over to the body. “Now, help me roll him under that bush.”
After casting a quick look at the still unconscious Lance, I strode over to help her. Placing my palms against the dead waiter’s side, I rolled him towards the nearest bush. A small flicker of approval danced inside me. I had forgotten to tell Audrey that she needed to kill him too. We couldn’t leave any witnesses who knew that we were the ones who had taken Lance. But apparently, she had figured that out on her own.
“He said that you had promised to spare his life,” she said conversationally while we shoved the corpse under the leaf-clad branches.
“Well, he should have known better than to trust a pair of ruthless villains.”
She chuckled. Straightening, she wiped her hands before starting back towards Lance Carmichael. “Come on. Let’s get him out of here before people start looking for him.”
Warm winds smelling of flowers and damp earth swept through the gardens as I hoisted Lance’s body up and draped his arm over my shoulder. Wrapping my other arm around his waist, I moved us forward while Audrey fell in beside us. From a distance, it would look like I was only supporting a friend who might have consumed too much alcohol. As long as we stayed away from the brightly burning street lamps and any crowded areas, we should be fine.
Tense silence fell as we snuck through the darkened gardens outside the parliament building. I wasn’t usually nervous, but there was so much riding on this mission, which made my heart pulse hard against my ribs as I walked. If we were discovered, we would have to fight our way out. And that would be difficult while also carrying Lance’s body.
Leaves rustled in the dark trees as another warm night wind whirled across the grass. We had almost made it to the edge of the gardens. If I squinted, I could see one of the small staircases made of white stone that led down the side of the hill. Taking the main steps was out of the question. But no one should be sneaking around the side steps leading to and from the garden. At least not at this time of night.
My muscles groaned at Lance’s weight. Pausing briefly, I hoisted him a bit farther up and readjusted my grip.
Audrey’s eyes slid to me. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I just need to—”
“Lance is missing!”
We whipped around and stared in the direction of the shouting voice.
“Lance Carmichael is missing!” the man bellowed again. “He was last seen leaving with a waiter to talk to some unknown woman, but now we can’t find any of them anywhere.”
“Maybe he just—” someone called back from farther down the main steps.
“No! We’re not taking any chances tonight. Sound the alarm!”
One second of silence followed. Then the guard on the main steps started banging on the wide metal gong that I knew hung halfway between the parliament building and the city below. Deep metallic ringing split the night and echoed out across the whole of Eldar.
Audrey and I whipped our heads back around and faced each other.
Panic flashed across both our faces.
Shit.
