A few days had passed since we made plans to retrieve the Idaphite shard for Mace and the tension between us still hadn't dissipated in the slightest.

I knew what I had done was wrong and I would endlessly apologise to my friends if I needed to, but I hadn't expected Kayne to have the knowledge that he did. He knew that Mace was after me. If he had told us then nobody would have had to get hurt at the ball.

I ran my fingers through Cirrus' mane, trying to get her to remain quiet to not alert the guards on the outside of the castle's wall. Today was the day we left for the address on the trading log, which also happened to be on the new piece of paper one of the Icrodeians had slipped through my window.

The sun was only just beginning to peer over the horizon to wake everyone from their slumber — the perfect time to sneak out without anyone catching onto our plans.

There had been a debate about notifying or bringing a guard with us, but we decided against it. We were only going to be a few days as the Sephirans' home was only a two-day journey from the castle, so there wasn't any reason to pull them away from the valuable work they were doing. Besides, all three of us were amply skilled in using a weapon. Auron and I wouldn't be good at our jobs if we didn't know how to wield the weapons we made, and Kayne had been trained by his father since he was young how to use a sword.

I saddled up Cirrus and placed the supplies I would need inside of the attached satchels. It was a spare change of clothes, an extra blade or two, and enough food to last me the whole journey.

Peering around the corner of the stables and squinting in the darkness to see if anyone was around, I deemed it was safe to leave. I held Cirrus' reins and led her to the meeting point we had decided, praying she would remain quiet. When I arrived, I realised I was the last one to make it there.

"Has everyone got everything?" Auron whispered, keeping his hand resting on his steed's head to help keep it silent.

Kayne and I nodded in return. We had all met up briefly the day after we had discovered the Idaphite stone to discuss how exactly we were going to get out of the castle successfully. The castle wall was surrounded by guards, even more now that there had been an attack at the ball. We didn't have to necessarily leave unnoticed, we just had to get far enough in a short period of time so nobody would come after us. I could only hope this plan would work.

As we mounted our horses, preparing to charge through the castle gates, a voice called out from behind us. "Wait!"

My heart dropped in my chest. Had we been caught already? We hadn't even set one foot out of the grounds yet.

Another horse trotted over with a rider of Lady Lorella. She wore a burgundy gown designed specifically for horse riding and a similarly shaded cloak fastened around her shoulders with a silver brooch. Her hair was braided neatly into a plait, not one hair out of place.

"I'm coming with you," the lady declared. How did she even know we were about to leave?

"No, you're not," Kayne replied without thought. "We need you here in the castle where you're safe."

"As your fiancé, I would like to help."

"Fiancé?" Lorella's words dug a blade into my chest. "It's official already?" I didn't know why I was surprised. It was a fake engagement and I knew it wouldn't last forever, but I still had expected it to last longer than a week. I had been looking forward to spending more time with him. Well, before I found out he had been keeping major information from me. Though, I supposed I had been doing the same thing.

"Sabre... I-" The prince was cut off by Auron.

"I think it's alright to let her join. If things turn out terribly and her father notices she's missing, he'll send soldiers to find and help us."

Lorella scoffed. "So, I'm your insurance? Wouldn't you get the same outcome with Prince Kayne?"

He ran a hand through his hair, dropping the earlier topic of their engagement. "My mother would likely leave me to suffer for a few days as a form of punishment for sneaking out without her approval, but I'm sure she wouldn't let me die. She would send people to come and get me eventually."

"Can you defend yourself?" I questioned. We didn't need her being an extra weight to our group if something happened. "Do we even have enough supplies to let her tag along?"

The lady pulled a jewel-encrusted knife with a curved blade from her saddlebag. There was no scratch or tarnish on it in sight, meaning it had likely never been used. I had to admit, it was made by a weaponsmith with great skill. "I can defend myself decently with this if I need to. There's also five days' worth of food for myself on my horse. Would that be enough?" It certainly would be.

"Do you even know what we're doing? Or where we're headed to?" I watched as Kayne's grip tightened on his horse's reins.

"You're stopping a war from breaking out by going to Icrodeia and talking to them, right?"

I shook my head. "Not even close." Why did she think we would go all the way to Icrodeia? If we were, we definitely wouldn't be trying to sneak out without guards.

"Then why are you leaving in the middle of the night acting very suspicious?" She crossed her arms, her horse grunting underneath her as if it was in agreement.

Auron and I looked at each other and then at Kayne. Could we trust her? How much did she know about what was going on?

"We're going to get something that could help us with the war. You don't need to come with us as it's only a few days away. It's nothing too important." I was surprised at Kayne's lie. He must have really not wanted her to join us.

The lady took a moment to think, running through her mind what exactly we could be retrieving. "It sure does look important and secretive if you're leaving without guards."

"Please." Kayne sighed through his nose. "We can't risk you getting unnecessarily hurt."

"If you don't let me join you, I'll just trail behind you." She wasn't going to stop persisting, I could sense it. This was wasting our precious time to leave without being stopped.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. As long as you know how risky it is for you to come with us and you won't hold us responsible if something does happen to you."

Lorella placed a hand over her heart and beamed. "I promise." She looked to Kayne for his approval too.

The prince sighed. "Okay, just don't slow us down."

"We should get moving before we're discovered," Auron pointed out, steering his horse towards the gate.

"Right." I leaned down low on Cirrus. "You better be able to keep up," I warned Lorella as the three of us pushed our steeds into motion.

We urged them to gallop as quickly as they could through the gate and past the guards stationed outside of it. Thankfully, they hadn't realised we were preparing to leave on the inside of the walls. All they could do was yell in confusion as we left dust in our wake. Now, we had to get as far as we could into the forest and towards our destination before some were sent after us to bring us back.

I was worried Lorella hadn't been able to keep up. While I was hunched down low on Cirrus so she could move as fast as possible, I had looked back to search for her and her steed to not see her there. If she was caught by the guards, would she expose our plan? However, mere moments later, she passed me and the rest of the group, taking the lead.

When we were far enough along the main path, we slowed our horses to a steady walking pace to allow them to catch their breath.

Lorella laughed, a little out of breath herself. "That was amazing! We should do something like that again."

"Do you mean riding a horse? Or sneaking out of a castle without any guards to protect us?" Auron asked, a hint of bewilderment in his voice.

She shrugged. "I'm fine with either." Once she had caught her breath, she continued her questioning. "So, what exactly are you retrieving?"

Kayne took a moment to collect his thoughts and then explained everything about the Idaphite stone to her. He didn't mention anything about the power they held or why Mace wanted them, just that he did. The other details about the war she apparently already knew.

There was still a lingering doubt in my chest that told me we couldn't trust her. Even if she was Kayne's fiancé, she seemed too eager to join us. Though the prince had no problem filling her in on the details she didn't know. Had Kayne changed his mind about the suitors and Lorella? Did he truly like her enough to marry her? Despite our own engagement being fake, it had slightly felt like it was real.

"So this journey is important after all?" She raised a brow in suspicion. It hadn't helped that we had told her otherwise before we left.

"You could say that," Kayne replied.

"Why were you so desperate to come with us?" Auron nudged his steed forwards so it kept the same pace as Lorella's.

I watched as her fingers fiddled with a loose thread coming from a seam in her cloak. "I don't want to be in the castle with my father constantly around. It wasn't as bad back at the manor as he usually spent his time anywhere but around me. I just want this war to end so I can go back to my old life, my old hobbies."

It was a good enough reason, and her emotions as she spoke — the wobble in her voice and the nervousness I sensed from her — felt genuine.

"What are your old hobbies?" I asked. If we were going to be spending four whole days with her, then we might as well get to know her.

A soft smile fell on her lips. "That's a long story."