Aimee Carter - Pawn

“Wait.” Benjy pulled me back as we were about to turn a corner, and we flattened ourselves against the wall. I heard the shuffle of footsteps approaching and held my breath. Beside me, Benjy tensed.

Another servant with a load of laundry. I exhaled. It wasn’t them I was worried about.

We reached the stairwell without any trouble. Once again it was abandoned, and a sense of unease overtook me. This was almost too easy. Together we dashed up the stairs, and when we reached the fourth floor, I glanced around the corner. Benjy was too big to fit in the air vent, but it didn’t matter. The hallway was empty. Seizing the opportunity, I led him down the corridor toward Knox’s suite, listening for any sign we were being followed. All I heard was our own footsteps.

“Get in,” I whispered, shoving Benjy through the doorway. Just as I was about to step inside, a shout echoed down the hallway, and I stopped cold.

Bang.

A pair of hands pulled me inside the room, and another covered my mouth, muffling my protest. The door closed, and I fought against them until they dropped away.

“What the—” I stopped. Knox and Greyson stood in front of me, both pale and shaken. Benjy stood off to the side, and I looked around the suite nervously. We were alone.

“Did you hear that?” I said. “Where are Celia and Lila?”

“They haven’t come back yet,” said Knox as he paced across the room.

“But her suite’s right next door,” I said. “She should’ve been back first.”

“There’s a chance Lila wasn’t in there,” he said. “If Celia had to go looking for her, or if there were guards—”

I didn’t need to hear more. I scrambled onto his desk, knocked the grate out of place, and tried to climb into the air vent. After all the crawling I’d done earlier, however, my arms shook too badly for me to pull myself up. “Someone give me a boost.”

Greyson stared at me as if I had two heads, but at least Knox and Benjy seemed to understand. Benjy reached me first, and I tried to step on his shoulder, but he locked his arms around my legs. I couldn’t move.

“Benjy—” I began, and he lifted me off the desk. “Let me go. ”

“No.” He set me down on the floor and grabbed my wrists so I couldn’t climb back on the desk. “There’s no reason to go after either of them. You’ve put yourself in enough danger.”

“We can’t leave them to die,” I said, turning to Knox and Greyson for support, but neither of them looked at me. Greyson dabbed the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, and Knox just stared at the door. “Come on—Greyson, Lila’s your best friend. Knox, she’s your fiancée.”

“She’s not going to die,” said Knox. “Augusta will make sure of it now that she’s the only one left. If we try to help, we’ll put all our lives at risk, including hers. None of this is your fault, but Lila—”

“You love her,” I said furiously. “Don’t tell me it’s all for show. You’re just going to leave her here?”

“This isn’t easy, all right?” he burst out. “If they’re able to make it out of here, they both know how. We’re no good to them dead, so let’s go.”

I stood my ground and turned toward Greyson instead. “Lila came back for you. She did this to help rescue you. And she did this because you, Knox, promised to help her escape again.”

“I promised Lila a lot of things,” said Knox. “Sometimes you make promises you can’t keep. I also promised you I’d watch your back and protect Benjy. That I can do. If we don’t leave now—”

“So leave,” I said. “Get out of here. Especially you, Benjy. But you can’t make me go with you.”

“I’m not going to let you march to your death again,” said Benjy fiercely, tightening his grip on me. “I won’t do it.”

“You have to.” I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss. He refused to return it, but when I pulled away, I noticed some of the anger in his eyes had melted. “Knox, you said so yourself—Augusta won’t risk killing Lila, and she can’t tell the difference between us on sight.”

All three of them were silent. Frustrated, I wrenched my wrists away from Benjy. Caught off guard, he let go, and I raced toward the desk once more.

“Kitty!” protested Benjy, but I was already too far for him to catch me. My fingertips caught the edge of the opening, and using every ounce of strength I had left, I finally managed to lift myself into the vent. Benjy jumped on the desk and snatched my ankle, but I shook him off and crawled far enough inside that he couldn’t reach me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “If we leave without her, I’ll never forgive myself, and neither will any of you.”

“Please don’t do this,” said Benjy desperately, groping inside the vent. I stayed out of his reach. “Give us some time, and we’ll figure something out.”

“We don’t have any more time. I’ll be back soon. And in case something happens...” I hesitated. I didn’t want to tell him, but I needed something to distract Benjy, even if it was only for a moment. “Knox kissed me. Twice.”

Benjy’s hand froze. “You kissed my girlfriend?”

I heard Knox clear his throat. “This isn’t the time to discuss it, Benjy—”

“Technically they’re engaged,” said Greyson timidly, and Benjy growled.

Satisfied they would all have something to focus on other than following me, I started the agonizing crawl through the vent, and this time I didn’t bother setting the grate back into place. Either I’d return or I wouldn’t, and the secret of how I traveled around Somerset undetected wouldn’t matter anymore.

Lila sat alone in her suite, her arms crossed and expression sour, and she didn’t look the least bit surprised to see me as I dropped from the vent.

“It’s about time. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?” she said as she stood.

I blinked. “Uh, I’m sorry?”

“Whatever. What was that shot about?”

“You mean you don’t know?” I said. “It sounded like it was coming from your room.”

“Right outside,” she said, gesturing to the door. “It’s locked, so I can’t check and see.”

“We don’t need the door.” I pointed to the ceiling. “We can get out that way.”

Lila looked up at the open grate and made a face. “You’re joking, right? I’m not crawling through that. It’s tiny. I’ll get stuck.”

“Doesn’t me being Masked mean we have the same body now?” I said impatiently. “If I can do it, so can you. Unless you’d rather go out through the locked door and face whoever’s out there.”

Lila sighed dramatically. “So I’m just as stuck as I was before you got here. Great.”

“You’re not stuck. I told you, we’re the same size—”

Without warning, the door opened, and I jumped.

Augusta.

She stared at the pair of us, standing side by side and as identical as ever. Shutting the door calmly, she said, “I see you survived. Pity. It does explain why I am hearing reports of Celia running through the manor, though.”

She glanced between us, and I saw the confusion in her eyes. She didn’t know which of us was which.

“If you’re going to kill me,” said Lila, “you’re going to have to do a better job of it.”

My brow furrowed a fraction of an inch before I could control myself, but it didn’t matter. Augusta wasn’t looking at me anymore. She focused on Lila, who glared back defiantly.

“Is that so?” said Augusta, stepping toward her. She reached out, but Lila slapped her hand away.

“Don’t touch me,” snapped Lila in the same accent I spoke with when I wasn’t imitating her. “You had your chance, and you failed.”