What is Hidden (30 page)

“I have to,” I repeated, pleading now. “He killed my father, stole my life, and
betrayed
me. I can’t just watch him run away.”

Even as the battle swirled around us, he said, “I need to tell you something.”

“Is now really the time?”

“I don’t care! It needs to be said!”

“I already heard your apology, even if it was to the wrong person.” I could see him cringe even as he used his stolen rapier to block and disarm an attacker.

“I meant it, though. Every word. And I understand if you never want to speak to me again. But,” he hesitated
before finding his way directly in front of me, “there is one more thing I have to do, in case I don’t see you after this.”

“Of course you’ll see me—“

His hand roughly cupped my chin, cutting my words off as his lips pressed against mine in a hurried, desperate breath of a kiss.

I didn’t have time to react before he pulled back, looking as sheepish as he could while incapacitating a man who dared to interrupt.

“I just needed to do that once.”

I stumbled back out of the reach of a particularly long-limbed guard, my eyes wide, cheeks burning, and lips tingling. Aiden’s eyes wouldn’t meet mine, but that could have been because they were needed elsewhere. He pressed his lips together as he swung at another oncoming guard with a grunt.

“Q-quit being so dramatic, Aiden,” I stammered. “We’ll talk once we get you home, all right?”

Either that offer was good enough for him, or he had no more breath to spare on arguing. He was swept back up into the madness of battle while I slipped away, though not without being hit a few times.

Once out of the ballroom, I headed in the direction Joch had gone, trying to think a step ahead of him. Obviously he’d be looking for a way out—it was much too dangerous for him to hide here. I turned my path to the short pier we’d docked by, and sure enough he was there, out of breath and preparing a gondola by lamplight, favoring the shoulder Aiden hit.

I could hardly make him out, but I was burning with the need to fight, and I drew my knife.

The sound of steel on leather caught his attention, and he whirled to face me, the white of his wide eyes bright in the lamplight. He stopped untying the knots of the rope that secured the gondola and faced me, legs wide and braced for an attack.

He surprised me by chuckling first, though. “So. You’re going to fight me? Is this how it’s going to end? Cut down by one woman while in search of another.”

“Don’t you dare act the victim,” I said, my voice low. “You deserve whatever I do to you.”

“You were a casualty of war. You cannot blame the soldier for following orders.”

“Can’t I?” I narrowed my eyes. “Tell me, Joch, was she worth it? Was she worth killing innocent people?”

“I would do anything to get her back. I have nothing else to give and nothing else for anyone to take.”

“You had human decency.”

He let out a hard laugh. “What use is decency when you’re alone in the world? I don’t regret anything I did for her.”

“Your note . . . you said love could bring the prince back. Was that just another lie?”

“Of course. For a country that hides behind masks, your people are far too trusting. I simply needed you here in case anything went wrong. Your prince is rather unpredictable.” He smirked.

I saw red. Every single one of Aiden’s lessons fled from my mind, and I relied on pure reflex and muscle memory to attack. I jumped forward, swinging the knife and barely catching his jaw on the side opposite his Mark. I cut enough to make it bleed, but not enough to really hurt him. It shocked me to land a hit, to draw blood with so little force.

He took me seriously then. He frowned, wiping away the thin droplets of blood. “You’re not a target, you know,” he said so quietly that I could barely hear him over the water lapping at the shore. “I don’t need to fight you.”

“Well, I need to fight you,” I retorted, adrenaline pumping through me, amplifying every move he made. I sprang forward again, slashing at him and pushing him back toward the edge of the pier.

He didn’t try to fight back, and that made me angrier. “Fight!” I shouted at him as he continued to dodge me until he had no room left to retreat.

He looked at me one last time while I caught my breath and steeled myself for another attack. Pity that I didn’t understand appeared in his eyes.

And then, before I could do anything more, he jumped off the pier and disappeared into the inky darkness.

“No!” I shouted after him, almost throwing my knife into the water in frustration. I knew that by the time I got a boat ready, he’d be long gone, and I had no chance of catching him by swimming after him. “No,” I whispered again, sinking into a crouch and staring into the darkness. His abandoned lantern still flickered behind me, taunting me. I’d been so close, and he’d slipped away.

I’d find him again. I had Aiden by my side, and he could find anyone and anything.

At the thought of Aiden, my heart stuttered and my cheeks warmed, until I remembered the chaos I’d left behind me.

When I returned to the hall, the fighting was over. I drifted over to one of the alcoves where I could rest and attempt to recover, which is where Arianna found me.

I smiled at her, my gratitude outweighing my weariness. “Tell me how you knew the exact moment we needed you.”

She laughed. “A Lacie never reveals her secrets. But I will tell you that the king sent me ahead of you to help keep you safe. He thought that if you didn’t know about us, it was less likely for the Chameleon to discover us. And he knew that a Lacie is as well-trained in defense as in any other art, and that we’d work more quickly. As soon as we heard of your arrival, we came as swiftly as we could. This place is like a maze, or we would have been here sooner.”

“I’m just glad you came at all,” I said, my shoulders sagging.

“Let’s get you back to the palace and cleaned up. I’m sure your prince will be demanding your attention all too soon.”

I grimaced, unsure of how I was even going to handle that. “Let’s take this one step at a time. I’ll worry about what to say to Aiden when neither of us is bleeding.”

I
didn’t see Aiden for a
week. He was confined to his rooms as the royal physician fawned over him, and while I could have sought him out, I was too sore and exhausted both emotionally and physically.

Iniga came to me immediately, emotional and full of apologies. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you,” she sobbed as she sat next to my bed, helping me with my breakfast.

“It’s not your fault,” I reassured her. “That was the point, not to be recognized.”

“But still,” she protested. “I should have known. And
Joch
,” she moaned theatrically. Despite the guilt I felt at letting him escape, I had to fight not to smile. “You should have told me something.”

“Iniga,” I said firmly. “It wasn’t your fault. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to get you in trouble. You and I both know how hard it is for you to keep a secret. And you didn’t talk to Joch if you could help it.
He
didn’t talk if he could help it. I forbid you to feel bad.”

She sniffed and gave me a dirty look, though I could see she was fighting a smile too. “That’s cheating.”

I shrugged and grinned. “Nothing more can be done. There’s no point in moaning over the past when the present is still so messy.”

She sobered. “I still can’t believe Aiden was the prince. Is there anyone out there who is actually who they say they are anymore?”

Rumors flew around the palace after everything was said and done, and it became widely known that the prince had his own secret identity, though it wasn’t really known what that identity was. I’d confided in Iniga when she first came to see me, with permission from the royal family. I was worried that she might be in danger if she didn’t know, and it’d been nice to tell someone the whole story. However, it also made everything feel much more real. Before I’d put it all into words, it sounded like a fairy tale, a mad adventure of storybooks.

“It does explain a few things, though,” she said thoughtfully. “Like why I never saw his parents at court. Or why I
thought
I never did. The king and queen—I still can’t believe it. And did you know they made the announcement of his safe return
themselves
? They said it was time to let the old tradition die. Everyone in court is talking about how they actually spoke with the prince without realizing it.” She shook her head in amazement, then chattered on for a moment more, piecing many of Aiden’s mysteries together, and I let my mind wander.

Truth be told, I was terrified of seeing Aiden again.

But I couldn’t hide forever, and in the end, Aiden came to me.

Thanks to a bruised skull and some minor scrapes still in the process of healing, I was under orders to rest in my room, but I was restless and without supervision, so I often got up and went for long walks on the palace grounds on the pretense of having to walk Hachi. He would have been perfectly content to stay at the foot of my bed after being separated for so long, but I could barely sit still. I was still excused from my duties, or else I would go to the workroom and try to be productive. That didn’t stop me from trying, but Milo sent me away immediately.

“Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you’re invincible. Go back to bed and heal properly. I don’t want to hear you in here unless there’s a healer at your side giving you leave.”

I was even so restless as to try to find something to do in the kitchens. I knew Vera would put me to work no matter how bad off I was, but the gossip was too much to handle.

“I heard the prince proposed marriage to someone and was
rejected
.”

“No, the girl was a spy from the Northern Islands!”

“My cousin said he hasn’t made any public appearances because he’s so heartbroken over it.”

“Did you hear how he was living a double life? My ma said they do that every generation, but people are forbidden to speak of it. There’s no way that can be true, right?”

And so on. I slipped back out into the hallway and refused to go back to the kitchens until some new scandal became the popular gossip. Unfortunately, it seemed that was not going to happen anytime soon.

Instead, I found myself wandering the quiet garden paths in the brisk autumn afternoons. In my defense, I thought the fresh air would do me some good.

Apparently, someone felt the same for Aiden.

I saw him sitting alone—unusual—under an ivy-covered trellis. Frozen and caught unawares, I ordered myself to turn around, but I couldn’t walk away from him. Then he looked up and I knew I had no excuse.

His lips quirked up in a small smile, but it was plain to see how uncertain he was around me. “Evie.”

“Aiden,” I greeted him hesitantly. “You’re alone out here?”

“It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?” he said wryly. “I haven’t had a moment to myself since we’ve returned to the palace or I would have found you sooner.”

It dawned on me. “You’re waiting out here for me?”

“You’re never in your room, and the gardeners mentioned they’d had a visitor the past few days. I put two and two together. Please, come sit by me.”

I cautiously stepped forward, my blood pounding in my ears. Surrounded by ivy, it felt like we were completely isolated from the outside world.

“I know you’ve been avoiding me,” he said abruptly. “I can’t say I blame you. I still can’t believe I said those awful things to you. And you came after me despite it all.”

“
I
meant what I said,” I replied, then winced at the implications in my voice.

He was quiet for a moment. “I deserved that. I should probably clarify something, though, Evie. I meant what I said, too, when I said I wanted to marry you. I probably shouldn’t be saying this now, but I want to marry you now more than ever before. I regretted
what I accused you of almost as soon as I left, but the Chameleon attacked and drugged me before I could fix my mistake.”

My heart was drumming, my breath coming too quickly.

“I don’t dare ask for your hand now. But I’m not giving up on you. I’ve been granted another year to find a bride before one is chosen for me. Another outdated tradition we’re throwing out to sea.”

I laughed softly. “I spoke to your parents, you know. When you were taken. They care about you a lot.”

“They speak highly of you as well.” His eyes searched mine. “Please tell me I’ll have a chance to ask you again before that year is up.”

My thoughts raced, and while I still felt the sting of his accusations, I also could not forget the way my heart had shattered when I thought he would die and leave me for good. Nor could I forget the warmth that filled me after his brief kiss in the hall. Did his one mistake—granted, a
huge
mistake—undo everything else about us?

“I can’t give you a definite answer,” I said finally. “But I won’t tell you that I’ll refuse if you ask me again in a year’s time.”

He scooped me up in his arms, burying his face against my neck, and I relaxed into his embrace. “That is more than I hoped for, my lady,” he whispered.