Page 59 of In Rising Tides

“They were questioned by the High King and the court. He released them earlier today.”

Wilder cocked his head to the side. “And Otto?”

It physically pained him to say his name.

“Has fled,” she snapped, dashing the remainder of her tears aside. “I shouldn’t have …”

Wilder pursed his lips and focused on his mother. “What?”

“I have spies in the court,” she whispered. “It appears that Otto acted alone. Ridge and Maelys had no idea of your plans or his, and that’s why they were set free.”

“Are they safe?” Wilder asked, finding a sliver of good in this whole, horrible mess.

“For now,” she whispered.

From far down the hall they could hear the slot of a key in a lock.

“I must go,” she whispered, and squeezed his hand. “I’ll do everything in my power to see you released from these charges.”

“What are the charges?”

“Conspiracy to assassinate the King,” Queen Aine muttered, a single tear streaming down her face. “The punishment is death.”

Her last words rattled around in his mind long after she had left.

It looped around and around again as he fished through his pockets for anything of value, but came up empty-handed.

His eyes burned when he felt his chest and realized they had taken Lyra’s necklace, the last of her now gone.

Wilder didn’t think it would ever be returned to him. Even if he left this cell, his father would keep it out of sheer spite.

He was miles away from the sea, of any semblance of her, and that had been the only thing anchoring him.

Now he felt untethered.

No plans, no means of escape, and nothing of hers to hold.

The punishment was death.

How ironic life without her felt much the same. But this could not be the end.

He would not give up hope, not yet.

There had to be a way out.

Lyra curled into a ball on her bed. She was stunned to have made it out of the council room with her head still on her shoulders.

But she still didn’t know where to go from here.

Seeds of doubt struggled to take root, burrowing under her skin and into her chest.

Had he truly abandoned her?

Lyra ripped the roots out with each slow breath.

Wilder, Maelys, Ridge, and Otto had not used her.

Lyra’s feelings towards them and theirs towards her had been real. They were her friends and understood her in a way no one had before.