Like I had anywhere to go inside this tin can.
The plane heaved as we took a turn, mocking me as the motion sent Auric’s intoxicating wintergreen scent rolling over me. I inhaled, finding a sliver of comfort in what his presence used to mean to me. If I didn’t look at his stoic, perfect face, I could pretend he still respected me. I could imagine we were back home in the castle, talking and laughing like we used to.
This was all a dream. A nightmare.
A guard shoved his way to the cockpit, conversing through the plume of white feathers with the pilots, then straightened. His gaze landed on me as he ambled up the aisle, stopping right next to Auric.
“Yeah?” Auric sounded bored, his eyes having fallen closed at some point in the last few minutes. Maybe he didn’t want to look at me either.
“Ten minutes ’til we reach the reformatory,” the guard said gruffly. His gray gaze slid to me. “We’re a thousand miles from the nearest landmass. I’d suggest you follow orders once we remove your bindings, Princess Layla.”
I glowered, then fought off a shiver as his eyes drifted down to my cleavage. Because yeah, I wasn’t dressed in prisoner garb like the others. Instead, I wore an outfit meant for the court—a gauzy white top, gold shorts, and high-heeled sandals with bands that laced all the way up my calves. I’d selected that outfit before realizing today’s itinerary included a plane full of male Nora Guards.
Including the one in front of me, who still hadn’t removed his gaze from my breasts.
Great. Just flippin’ great.
“Message received and understood.” Auric didn’t open his eyes, but he slid his dagger half an inch from its sheath, causing the steel to glint in the low light beaming down from overhead. “Now move it along, Hawk. Don’t make me draw blood before we even land.”
I envied his ability to be so in command like that. All muscular grace with not a hint that he felt threatened or incapable, even while seated with his feathers up against a wall.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to close my eyes again.
The guard grunted and stalked off with a sour look on his face, presumably to bark orders at the rest of the cabin to overcompensate for his insignificant status. No matter the color of my wings, I still outranked his sorry ass.
I wrapped my arms around my middle and slouched in my seat. “You’d think they’d never seen a woman before.”
“Many of them haven’t,” Auric replied, though he still didn’t open his eyes. “At least not for a very long time. It’s incredibly rare for one of the female Nora to Fall.” He uttered that last part with a sneer, making me flinch.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” I said, my voice strained. “I didn’t do anything wrong, Auric. I swear. There’s been some sort of mistake.”
He snorted and said nothing else.
A tear threatened my eye, but I forced it away with a blink.
Feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to fix this. And obviously, talking to Auric wouldn’t either.
Because no one believed me, not even my childhood friend.
After years of being the perfect princess, of doing everything I was told, learning all my royal duties, and spending endless time indulging the suitors my father had chosen for me, my parents tossed me away like trash. They hadn’t even given me the courtesy of a goodbye. No, they’d sent my former guard to my quarters to whisk me away like some dismissed servant.
Huffing a breath, I glanced out the window and frowned as we began our descent at a rather sharp angle. “Um, Auric? Are we supposed to—”
The plane shuddered, cutting me off. Then our world began to turn… turn… turn...
I grabbed the armrests on either side of me, tensing at the wrongness of being trapped inside a flying tin can with my wings handicapped behind me.
“It’s called turbulence,” Auric remarked dryly. “Chill.”
“Easy for you to say,” I managed to reply through gritted teeth. My knuckles turned white from my death grip on the armrests.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
After a few more minor shudders, the plane steadied at its new, lower altitude, but the uneasy sensation in my stomach remained. I preferred control, especially when in flight. I had wings for a reason. And this metal death trap didn’t even have feathers.
“Inmates!”
I jerked at the sudden shout, and my palm slipped off the armrest onto Auric’s thigh. Heat caressed my cheeks as I yanked my hand back to my lap, then shifted my attention to the guards at the front of the plane.
A red-haired Nora Guard with piercing green eyes and shining white wings surveyed the cabin. He gripped a rifle to his chest, his finger resting dangerously close to the trigger.
“On your feet,” the guard barked. His tone indicated that if anyone failed to comply, he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them.
Lovely.
Auric clicked the buckle on my seat belt, granting me partial freedom. Then he slid smoothly from his seat to stand in the aisle and stared back at me without offering any additional assistance. With my wings so tightly bound at my back, my center of balance had vanished. I placed my hands on the armrests and shoved against them to leverage my body upright.
Just as the plane pitched forward again.
My knees buckled, and I fell forward, stumbling into Auric’s chest. He caught me by my elbows, but not fast enough to keep my chin from slamming into his collarbone. He grunted and shoved me upright, barely giving me a second to stabilize myself before letting me go.
“Sorry,” I muttered and tried to rub the tingling sensation from my skin. His touch always made me feel jittery, even more so now in this confined space.
A guard appeared in the aisle behind Auric and motioned for me to follow him. “You first, Princess.”
I glanced at Auric, but if I was hoping for some kind of reassurance, it was clear by his blank expression that none would be coming.
Fine. I’ll do this myself. I lifted my aching chin and sidestepped him.
2
Layla
The guard led us to the bay door, several feet from the cockpit, where two other men waited. As we approached, one of them grabbed a bolting mechanism on the steel door and unlatched it. I braced myself when he tugged the heavy metal open on sliding hinges, sending a blast of air into the cabin as my ears popped.
“Are we not… landing?” I asked, side-eyeing the guards with their fluttering free wings.
“Nope,” Auric replied, sounding bored, but I knew him better than that. His gaze flicked to each of the other guards, cataloging their weapons, their stances, and their demeanors.
I knew, because he’d taught me to do the same.
The first guard reached for my shoulder and guided me toward the opening. Wind whipped my hair wildly into streaks of brilliant fuchsia across my vision.
“Um, I—”
“You’ll jump and fly straight for the island,” the guard interjected as he worked at the straps binding my wings. “Don’t get any ideas about escaping unless you have a burning need to drown. You’d have nowhere to land before your wings gave out.”
While he tugged at the straps to free my wings, I looked out the open door at the ocean. Night had nearly fallen, but I could see flickering lights in the distance emerging from the vast darkness of the sea.