ADRIAN

The plan is insane. We both know it.

But we’re doing it anyway, abd tonight is the night.

The hallway outside Darian’s room is too quiet. The kind of quiet that makes your skin crawl. Like the palace itself is holding its breath.

Kelvin’s beside me, hood pulled low, shoulders tense as he stares at the glyph-etched hinges of Darian’s door. His satchel rests against the wall. Inside are tools he swore he hadn’t touched since we were thirteen and sneaking into the treasury to steal sugared figs.

He didn’t laugh when he said it this time.

I glance down the corridor. The bell tower stunt worked, most of...