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"Yes" "Then I ht as well escort you," he said

Before I could even object, he’d stepped out onto the porch with estured toward the street

"Shall we?" I followed hiether down the road

I looked sideways to see Coen stealing a glance at htly as our eyes met and he cleared his throat

Coen Brymer was cute

Thatthe peaceful streets back toward the palace, I couldn’t help but wonder if he ht turn out to be the distraction I needed to take my mind off Kiev

Like I’d been the distraction Kiev had needed to take hisstill had never been soood at

I’d lost track of howfor soate it away, but now all I kneas that I’d had enough

Since the silence and boredo seeather just enough patience to wait until night fell beyond the boundary of the island before I adoptedfrom the deck, I landed on the frozen jetty

I threwall my senses, I tried to detect if anyone ithin two h the forest, sticking to the undergrowth and trying tonoises as possible

I hurried toward the castle perched a thethe borders of the forest, I stopped

Once again, I utilizedcloser to the castle

There were certainly a nu about within the castle, but I couldn’t detect anyone outside of it at this late hour

However, I had to be careful not to be seen

My dark coat stuck out like a sore thumb amidst this white snow

For that reason, I couldn’t take to the stairs

Instead, I left the shelter of the trees and bounded right toward the steep rocky slope leading up to the right half of the building

As I began to cliet so of when the next batch of inhabitants would be leaving in one of the vessels

If I knew, there ht be some way I could latch on to the vessel until it passed outside the boundary and then quietly slide off into the sea… Granted, I didn’t knohat I’d do once stranded in the sea, but even that was a more hopeful situation than the one I was currently in

Fortunately, my body as a as uniquely equipped for this terrain and the cold didn’t bother es, and it wasn’t long before I reached the base of the castle

I pulled myself up onto the narrow pathway that ran around the circu

I paused and looked around, strainingon within the castle that ht lead to a clue about when so from this place