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"Don’t blame hi about all of this"

"Didn’t he?" she says "He knehere to find you I followed him all the way to the flower shop"

I don’t kno Thoo to the flower shop, unless he’d so it with Judas, or had been nearby when Pen and I had been kidnapped

"I wasn’t planning to hurt him," she says "I just needed some kind of backup plan in case you tried to tossthis way"

"How did you sneak into the bird without anyone catching you?" I say

"I had to hide in the dark for a long ti, everyone stepped out into the dirt to"--she clears her throat--"use the water roo I presume there isn’t one on board" She smirks, clearly impressed with herself "Anyway, the door was left open My brother and I have been sneaking out of the tower since ere toddlers, practically"

"I suppose you can’t be the child of the king without being brilliant," I say, trying to keep the conversation going It see rash

"No, my brother is stupid quite most of the time," she says, not without fondness

"‘Is’?" I ask Not "was"

She looks at the darkness beyond the lantern, crestfallen "He’s breathing, if that’s what you’re asking"

"Will he live?" I ask

"Never mind that," she says, and attempts to pat down her frizzed hair "He isn’t here, and we are, aren’t we? And I need your help Call me daft, but I like you You were at least honest with "

I wonder if she remembers that she kidnapped er have our parents They should be on this bird, not her

I s er For Thomas For Pen For sanity’s sake

"As you can understand, I don’t feel very safe here," the princess says "Especially with that Hensley boy If he’d ine what he’d do to me"

Judas did notthe accusation that I could screa for Princess Celeste to fear him

"And you want me to protect you," I say

"I don’t require your protection," she says "I require your sensibility When your beastly friend raised that stone to my brother, you tried to stop her You saw that it was a bad idea You don’t act irrationally even if you’re angry, do you?"

It was ot me kidnapped in the first place, but I don’t say that "I have been called a diplohter doesn’t er on Internment," she says "But I will kill this boy if anyone tries to harm me He’ll wake up soon, but that won’t stop round, either I’m to return safely to the sky, or, believe me, my father will make you wish you hadn’t returned I’ve left hione"

She doesn’t know that this is a one-way trip Not even the king will be able to retrieve her It would give me too much pleasure to tell her But this would be unwise; she’s scared, scorned, likely hasn’t slept, and she’s holding a knife And the fact that she snuck onto this bird tellsworth risking asherself with people who ht cause her harm

"I know Pen, and she won’t care how sensible I ae You have to let Thoo If you do that, I’ you"

"And the Hensley boy?"

"I’d just avoid him if I were you," I say "He’s not a fan of your family’s"

The princess stares at me for a few seconds "And you?" she says

"I’m not a fan of your family’s, either," I say "All you know about me, for sure, is that when Pen attacked your brother, I tried to stop her It o by, but there it is"

She considers this

Then, without saying anything, she grabs Thoht of hi She nods

I kick at the door, and I hear the sound of listening ears backing away "You can let us out now," I say

Pen dabs at Thomas’s face with a wet cloth She presses it to either side of his neck, under his chin

It’s just the three of us in the bunk roo towatch over Princess Celeste away froe, she allowed herself to be searched She allowed me to remove my knife from her hand, and the tranquilizer darts fros, while Judas and Basil aardly averted their eyes

"He seems unharmed," I offer noay of comfort

Pen undoes the top buttons of his shirt, and she peels back the collar until she can see the bruise on the side of his neck "It’s one of her stupid tranquilizers He can probably hear everything we’re saying right now," Pen says "Thomas, you idiot" She kisses his parted lips "Why did you follow me?"

I can’t rid the smile from my face before she notices