The Rivaled Crown (The Veiled Kingdom, #3)

by Holly Renee

“Wren, Kai, and I will go forward from here.” I took a small step closer to the tunnel. “I don’t trust any of you to go with us. I don’t trust you with my mate.” “I made promises too, you know?” Her gaze shuddered, and absently I wondered if she was talking about the promises they made to me in the council chambers or the promises she had once made to my mother. “And I expect you to keep them.” I nodded to Wren, and she moved to my side, farther away from them and closer to the tunnel. “Once we have Verena, we plan to escape back through this tunnel. We plan to come back to the hidden city because we have nowhere else to go, nowhere else where I can protect her.” Kai moved then, grabbing a torch from one of Torrin’s men, his grip unbothered by their protests. “We need this more than you.” I smirked at my friend despite the tightness in my chest, but then I returned my gaze to Liya. “Verena is not to be harmed.” She nodded once, and I tried to allow trust to bloom in my chest, but it wouldn’t come. “We’re not staying here,” Torrin spat as Kai passed him. “We’re not waiting in hopes that you all make it out alive. We’ll return to the hidden city, update our people.” Kai snorted. “You mean report back to his father?”