I swallowed a wise-ass comment, figuring the longer I kept up the bickering, the more chance I’d talk myself out of asking Keane for help. I couldn’t help remembering the disappointment in Kimber’s voice when I’d called to tell her Dad wouldn’t let me go to the party. She’d tried her best to hide it, and I knew she understood, but still …

“I guess you could say I need your help living my life in spite of my situation,” I said, hoping Keane would see it that way.

“Good for you. Now what is it?”

I clasped my hands in my lap and stared down at them. If Keane decided to tell anyone about this conversation, I would be in big, big trouble. Not the oh-my-God-I’m-gonna-die type of trouble I was trying to learn to live with, but the my-parents-are-gonna-kill-me type of trouble I’d once thought would be a nice dose of normalcy.

“You know I’m friends with Kimber Leigh, right?” I asked. So far, Keane hadn’t come into contact with either Kimber or her brother Ethan, at least not while I was around, but I was pretty sure he knew who they were.

“Your Unseelie friend,” he said, proving me right.

I nodded. “Her seventeenth birthday party is on Friday,” I said.

Keane smiled. “And let me guess: your father won’t let you go.”

I scowled. “No. He says it’s too big a security risk now that the Wild Hunt is in town.” I crossed my arms over my chest and sank down lower in my seat. I was still furious with my dad. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been close enough to anyone for them to invite me to a birthday party. I wanted to go so badly I could taste it.

Keane frowned. “Where’s it being held?”

“At this nightclub called The Deep, down in the tunnel system.” Kimber said her dad had rented the whole place for the party. That was because he’d made Kimber invite the kids of every potential political supporter in Avalon, which made it even more important that I be there. Kimber deserved to have at least one real friend at her party.

Keane shook his head. “I don’t see why that would be any riskier than anything else you do when you leave your safe house. He’s already making you add a second bodyguard when you leave, right?”

I nodded. Any time I wanted to go out these days, it was this big production. I had a freaking retinue. Just in case there was a person left in Avalon who was under the mistaken impression that I was just a normal girl.

“I think Dad’s using it as an excuse,” I said. “He thinks me showing up at Kimber’s party might be taken as some kind of political statement, like I’m somehow supporting Alistair.”

Keane shrugged. “It’s Kimber’s party, not Alistair’s.”

“Exactly! But Dad put his foot down.”

“So what is this favor you want to ask?” The gleam in his eye told me he knew exactly what the favor was.

“Call me crazy, but you strike me as the kind of guy who’s had plenty of experience sneaking out at night…”

Chapter four

I hadn’t been wrong about Keane and his talent for sneaking out at night. Though actually, I’m not sure sneak is the right word for what we did.

Finn had to think it was strange that Keane came over for a sparring session on a Friday night. Usually, we practiced in the morning, mainly because Keane wanted me fighting on an empty stomach. The one time I’d managed to snag a little breakfast before we started, I found out exactly why he preferred the empty stomach option. Let me tell you, that doughnut I’d sneaked didn’t taste nearly so good on its way back up.

In hopes that Finn wouldn’t get too suspicious about Keane’s unexpected arrival on my doorstep, we told him we were having a lesson to help me keep my mind off the fact that I was missing Kimber’s party. I was sure he wouldn’t buy it, but Finn was more trusting than me.

In typical, annoying Keane fashion, he’d refused to tell me what our plan of escape was. All he’d said was to pack my party clothes and be ready to go at a moment’s notice.

We practiced in the guardroom this time, right under Finn’s nose. Keane said he wanted his father to watch because he might spot any bad habits that Keane couldn’t see because he was up close and personal.

Finn was full of helpful pointers, and the more time Keane and I spent sparring, the more I thought that I was the dupe in this picture, that he’d never planned to help me but had said he would to keep me from trying anything on my own. I was sore, sweaty, and tired—and at the end of my limited patience—when Keane wrestled me to the mats with a spectacularly disorienting throw, then landed on top of me, his mouth near my ear.

“Be ready to go any second now,” he whispered, then jumped nimbly to his feet and gave me one of his condescending smirks.

I had no idea what he meant, and was about to give him a piece of my mind, when I finally realized what he was up to.

My little underground fortress had two bathrooms, one off my bedroom, and one off the guardroom. Even the Fae have to answer the call of nature. In my peripheral vision, I saw Finn heading toward the bathroom, and knew this was the break Keane had been waiting for.

As soon as the door closed behind Finn, I darted into my room and snagged the backpack I’d set right beside the door. My dress for the party was carefully packed inside, and I hoped it wasn’t getting all wrinkled. I slipped my arms through the straps and hurried back into the guardroom, where I found Keane quietly wedging a chair under the bathroom doorknob.