Three days.
Three days of lying in bed while healers poked and prodded and declared my progress "remarkable." Three days of my siblings visiting in careful rotations; Aldric grave and concerned, Caelum studying me like I was a puzzle he couldn't solve, Celeste bringing books she thought I might like and never quite meeting my eyes. Three days of Iris crawling onto my bed despite the servants' protests, pressing her small face against my arm and asking when I'd play with her again.
Three days of rehearsing what I would say.
The bruises had faded from purple to yellow. My ribs still ached when I breathed too deep, but I could walk without wincing now. The healers had done their work well. By tomorrow, they said, I'd be cleared for light activity. By next week, I'd be back to my lessons.
None of that mattered.
What mattered was the message I'd managed to slip out through a kitchen boy whose cousin knew a girl whose brother ran errands in the merchant district. What mattered was the time and place I'd specified. What mattered was tonight.
You don't have to do this, Azurene said.
Yes I do.
There might be another way. We could...
There isn't.
I felt her grief through the bond. She knew I was right. We'd spent three days searching for alternatives, playing out scenarios, looking for some path that didn't end with Cassandra dead or me watching her die. There wasn't one. My father didn't make idle threats. His word was law, and his laws didn't bend.
The window of my chambers faced east, toward the city. Somewhere out there, in streets I'd walked a hundred times, Cassandra was waiting for me. She'd been trying to reach the palace; I'd heard the servants gossiping about the "street orphan" who kept appearing at the gates, demanding to see the princes, getting dragged away by guards. She didn't know which prince. She only knew her friend had been taken.
She thought I might be dead.
In a few hours, she'd wish I was.
Dusk painted the city in shades of rust and amber as I climbed the familiar path to our rooftop.
My body remembered the route even though everything felt different now. The handholds on the old warehouse wall. The loose board in the fence behind the tannery. The narrow gap between buildings where Cas had first led me, laughing at my clumsy attempts to keep up. Each step was a knife twisting somewhere beneath my ribs.
Azurene moved beside me in silence. She'd barely spoken since we left the palace, her usual warmth through the bond replaced by something muted and heavy. She knew what was coming. She didn't approve, couldn't approve, but she understood.
I love you, she said as we approached the final ladder.
I know.
No matter what happens. No matter who you have to become. I love you.
I put my hand on her neck, feeling the smooth warmth of her scales. My soul. My partner. The only one who would ever know the truth of tonight.
I love you too.
Then I climbed.