My voice caught in my throat as I realized what had just happened. Kasper had become my friend in his own right. He was good and capable, and he was dead. Not to mention what this loss would mean to Tilda. My best friend’s husband of less than twenty-four hours and the father of her unborn baby had been killed.

But I couldn’t let the full gravity of it hit me, because if I did I would just crumple up and sob.

“And the treason charge is bullshit. I would never do anything to damage this kingdom. I was trying to protect it. It was Kennet. He’d been supporting Konstantin, and I wanted to keep the King safe. And then everything happened so fast, and I got out of there as quick as I could. I took the dumbwaiter to the basement, and then I climbed up a garbage chute to the outside, and I had to sneak around town to get here as fast as I could. But I didn’t do those things they say I did. I didn’t.”

“I know.” Ridley put his hand on my face to calm me, since my voice had taken on a frantic pitch, and he looked me in the eyes. “I know you didn’t do anything wrong. And you can explain it all to me later, but right now, we need to get you out of here before the Högdragen find you, because they won’t believe you.”

I nodded, because now everything was too far gone. I’d only been trying to make things right, but I didn’t know how I could ever come back from this.

“Stay here,” Ridley instructed me. “Lock the door behind me, and don’t let anyone in.” He started walking toward the door. “And hide, just to be safe.”

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” he said, like that explained anything, and then he left.

I did as I was told. I locked the doors and then went into his bedroom to hide. The shades were drawn, leaving it nearly dark even though it was still daylight. The afternoon sun was hidden behind an overcast sky, but the extra level of darkness was still comforting.

I leaned against the wall and slowly lowered myself to the floor. And I couldn’t think. I tried to figure out my next course of action, but I couldn’t. My mind felt numb and blank, and I couldn’t process anything that had happened today. It felt like I’d slipped into a big white void that had swallowed me whole, and nothing was real anymore.

“Bryn?” Ridley’s panicked voice was in the house, and I hadn’t even heard him open the doors. Time no longer seemed to move in any coherent way, and I had no idea if he’d been gone for ten minutes or two hours.

“Bryn?” Ridley repeated, sounding more panicked this time, and he came into the bedroom. “What are you doing? Why didn’t you answer me?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

He crouched next to me. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” I said again. “But I will be.”

His eyes searched me in the dark. I didn’t know if he believed me or not, but we didn’t have time to figure things out right now. “We have to get out of here,” he said.

I got up and hurried after him, and that seemed to help. Moving reminded me that I was alive, and there were urgent things I needed to take care of if I wanted to stay that way.

Ridley had gotten an SUV from the King’s fleet and parked it in the constricted alley behind his house. I pulled up my hood over my head, and he snuck me out the back door and loaded me into the back of the Land Rover. He covered me in a thick black blanket kept in the back for emergencies, and then he hopped in the driver’s seat.

As he drove through town, he said nothing. Underneath the blanket, I couldn’t see anything. I just listened to the sound of the car.

It didn’t take long before I heard the SUV come to a stop and the window roll down.

“Where are you going?” a man barked, and by the tone of his question, I surmised it was one of the Högdragen guarding the gate.

“I have orders from the King,” Ridley replied, sounding just as stern.

“That doesn’t tell me where you’re going,” the Högdragen shot back.

“I am the Överste, Ridley Dresden.”

By the sound of the rustling, I guessed that Ridley was pulling out his credentials to show the guard. It was a cross between a passport and an FBI badge, with all the specific information to prove exactly who he was.

“This still doesn’t tell me what you’re doing, sir,” the Högdragen said, but with a bit more respect in his voice now. “Doldastam is on lockdown now.”

“I know that,” Ridley snapped. “But the King has sent me on a mission to follow up on a lead on Viktor Dålig. Do you want to stop the commander of the army from going after the man who tried to kill the King?”

“No, sir,” the Högdragen replied. I heard the muffled sounds of him conversing with another guard but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Then, rather reluctantly, he said, “All right. Go on through.”

The gates creaked open loudly, and the SUV started to move. At first, Ridley drove at a reasonable speed, but as soon as we were a safe enough distance away, he sped up, causing the vehicle to bounce around on the worn road.

I pushed the blanket off my head and sat up, looking around at the familiar trees that surrounded us. I wondered dimly if I’d ever see them again, but I had far more important things to worry about.

I climbed up over the seat into the front and sat down next to Ridley.

“How are you doing?” he asked.