**...And finals are officially OVER!! YAY!! Back to my stories. After today I can get back to my regular schedule of Tuesdays/Saturdays now so expect that!! THANK YOU FOR READING and enjoy this chap ;)**

Chapter 18

There was another note underneath Ari's door the next morning.

No callous murders accompanied it (luckily), only inked calligraphy letters on a faded piece of parchment;

We're watching you.

Ari crumpled the note in fist- on instinct. Some negative emotion he couldn't identify hardened just a bit in his stomach; anger, mostly. Perhaps a little bit of apprehension. Not for himself, exactly, but...

His friends were in the gardens, steam rising from the teacups that they each cradled in their hands. Jamie hesitated as she saw him, her mouth pausing over the rim of her cup.

"Ari," said Aveline, a line appearing between her brows. "Are you-"

"Did any of you get this?" He shook the rumpled message in front of her face. Eyes widening, she grabbed it from his hands.

"I didn't. Did you?"

The others shook their heads as they read the note. Jamie's gaze flitted to him, her cheeks paling, and for a moment she almost looked... concerned?

Ari dismissed the idea as soon as it came, unbidden. He was being ridiculous, and there was no circumstance in which Jamie would ever look at him that way.

At about the same time that Ari was beginning to truly feel uneasy, Aveline rose to her feet.

"May I speak to you for a moment?"

His teeth gritted. "That's a great idea."

Aveline waited for Lyla and Jamie to politely leave before taking his arm. They'd barely walked outside of the bounds of the courtyard before she stopped him.

"Ari-"

"We shouldn't have brought the children," he interrupted her, his voice barely above a whisper, now. The garden was quiet; the only movements being the dewdrops sliding off of their leaves and the pastel pink flowers unfurling with the frost of the morning- but he couldn't be sure.

Aveline blinked. "What?"

"I told you; we can't do two jobs at once. We're going to get caught, Aveline-"

"No, we're not."

"Did you not see what they put under my door?!"

"They're just trying to frighten us. Ari, no one outside of the crew knows the truth about the children."

Her words reassured him, somewhat— but Ari still felt that pit in his gut.

"This assignment is worse than I expected."

"Which is why they need our help," she countered.

Ari set his jaw. "If anything else goes South, we're getting the hell out of here."

"Fine, that's fine. But I don't regret our choices, Ari, and neither do you-"

"I know," he insisted. "But we need to consider when we put other people in danger."

"This isn't even about the boys, is it?"
Comprehension flitted across her features. "It's about Lyla... and Jamie."

Aveline might have said something else, but Ari didn't wait around to hear it. Annoyed, he pulled his wrist out of her grip and left the garden, his boots squashing annoyingly through the damp grass.

None of this was her fault. He'd apologize to his first mate later.

This assignment was unnerving him; that was it. It was making him antsy. He couldn't stay in the palace another minute.

And yet- how else was he going to get any answers?

The castle was bustling with people; mostly nobles, when Ari entered the Great Hall. All of the women had jewels on their gowns and held glasses of bubbly liquid. The princess had brought a whole entourage of people with her, most of them irritating and loud. Just last night, Ari had been playing cards with Henry in one of the sitting rooms, and one of the drunk ladies kept trying to sit next to him, wearing so much perfume he thought he might choke. (To be fair, she left promptly after he told her so).

The Princess Camille threw a ball nearly every weekend. They saw her rarely; yet when they did, she was usually surrounded by an adoring swathes of people. Ari paid her little mind, since she obviously wasn't in any position to help them.

Ari found the small wooden door to the dungeons with little difficulty, despite the confusing hallways of the palace. This time, however; the ginormous guard sitting behind the doorway wouldn't let him in.

"I was here yesterday," Ari protested. "Lady Belthrop herself gave me personal permission-"

"Is she here?" The guard grunted, lifting a brown glass bottle to his lips.

"Well, no, but-"

"No one's allowed in. Palace orders."

Ari tried again. "You know Eli Moraine? He's one of the Kaidian palace guards; a Lieutenant, now, I think, and would be very upset if you didn't let me down."

He was rewarded a disgruntled stare.
Figures. How many times he'd tried to tell Aveline how useless Eli was, he'd lost count. Not that she'd listened.

"Five minutes?" Ari wheedled, but to no avail.

He pointed emphatically at the back wall. "What's that, over there?"

The guard didn't blink. He really was huge. He looked like a bear; what with his scruffy dark beard and odd caveman noises.

"I could fight you for it," Ari suggested.

"You could try."

Ari was just peeved enough this morning to want to do something stupid.

He made a couple of halfhearted swipes at the larger man; his fist making hard contact with a trunk of a stomach. Ouch.

Ari tried to skirt around the guard, but was promptly dragged back.

If he really wanted to, Ari thought, he could stick him in the throat and get out of there- but that would cause more problems for him than anything else.
Besides, he was bored more than anything. Sparring with this giant at least gave him something to do.

When one of Ari's punches accidentally landed a bit too hard on the guard's shoulder, he lost his patience; winding his big, beefy arm around Ari's neck and yanking him to his side. Ari laughed, blowing a chunk of hair out of his face.

"Ari?" Jamie's champagne-colored dress materialized in front of his limited vision. Of course. Ari exhaled, reluctantly raising his eyes to her face as he waited for his heartbeat to speed up. She looked pretty today; her eyes more blue than green, like a periwinkle blossom. It was funny; Jamie's increased manners and elevated confidence- even the way she walked around him with her nose up in the air- it only added to her beauty, somehow. Ari thought about telling her so and then wondered why he even entertained such ridiculous notions.

"What do you want?!" He tried to sound annoyed at the interruption, despite his vulnerable position of being in a chokehold.

"A word?"

"Can't you see we're busy?"

"Evidently," said Jamie, lifting an eyebrow. "It will only be a moment."

Ari was promptly released from the ironclad grip in which he was held. The guard slammed the dungeon door shut on them, and Ari flexed the fingers in his hand as he waited for the blood to rush back into his face. Jamie tapped her foot.

Ari smirked, knowing doing so would probably annoy her. "What?"

She scowled. "You're an idiot."

"So I've been told," he drawled, leaning against the banister on the marble staircase. "By you, if I might add- several times, in fact."

"What were you doing in there?"

Ari sighed, inspecting his fingernails with a gaze he hoped appeared bored. "I was hoping to wheedle more information from our friend in the dungeons, but alas."

"Speaking of our friend in the dungeon..." Ari watched Jamie pull her bottom lip between her teeth and tried not to let the sight distract him. "That's what I wanted to speak to you about."

"What about him?" Ari tilted his head. "Because- I wasn't going to say anything, but his cell smelled suspiciously like lobster. Was I really the only one that noticed?"

Jamie's exasperated huff cut him off. "Could you please just be serious, for one moment?"

Ari poked his tongue in his jaw as he studied her. Jamie's jaw was set, her chin raised. "Fine."

"I want to break Kai out of prison."

Ari scuffed his boot into the marble floor. "You believe him." A statement, not a question.

"I think it's worth a chance."

Ari wasn't surprised. He had wondered himself if the boy in the dungeon was telling the truth. What had seemed too much of a risk to take yesterday had shifted ever since he'd found the note under his door that morning. They needed answers, and fast.

"Alright."

Jamie looked taken aback. "You're not going to argue with me about this?"

Ari shrugged.

"That's surprising."

"I figure the more time we waste, the more people die needlessly."

"Watch it. For a second, it sounded as if you actually cared."

That was the problem with Jamie, Ari thought; she always saw through his bullshit.
"You think I don't?" His voice was low, and he took a step towards her, wondering if he was making her uncomfortable. Her breath seemed to quicken in her chest, her eyes darting to the side as if she was nervous. "I wouldn't be doing any of this if I didn't care, Jamie."

"Really? It's not just about the money for you?"

He raised his eyebrows as if to say, you tell me.

"No, I suppose not," she said softly. Ari kept his eyes on hers, unsure if he'd be able to take them away if he wanted to.

"We'll break Kai out tomorrow."

For a moment, Jamie looked as if she wanted to laugh. A strand of hair had fallen into her face, and Ari itched to brush it away.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just something Aveline said yesterday..." She glanced away.

He could hear the smile in his voice. "Aveline said what?"

Jamie's fidgeting only increased his curiosity. "What did she say?"

"She said you would do anything I asked you to," she said, boldly. Stepping closer. Ari let out a long, loose breath, like wind escaping his lungs.

He weighed his answer carefully, wondering if it should be said aloud. Perhaps in the next moment he would hope it hadn't been. They were so close Ari could smell the lavender of Jamie's perfume, and wondered distantly if he was going to kiss her.

No. He'd leave this in her hands.

"Perhaps I would."

Ari waited for Jamie to turn her nose up at him, to scoff and roll her eyes and turn away.

But she didn't.

Instead, so quickly Ari couldn't properly process what was happening, Jamie grabbed his face between her hands and yanked him down to her. Her lips touched his— not a soft and tentative pressure, as they had once been, but fierce and insistent as her hands shifted down to his shoulders.

Ari responded automatically, winding his arms around her waist and pulling her towards him. Her mouth parted; or maybe it was his, and she tasted like tea and something warm. It was like a release; Ari would think, later- like the snapping of a string that had been ever-tightening with repressed tension. Jamie let her lips skim over his jaw, sending tremors down his spine, and Ari wondered- bewildered- if she knew what she was doing to him.

Footsteps in the corridor made Jamie break away from him with a start. Dazed, Ari ran the back of his hand over his mouth.

A small group of nobles crossed the hall, laughing and gossiping to each other as they trotted down the marble. They passed on quickly; and if they noticed Ari and Jamie standing guiltily in the hall they didn't pay the two any mind. Their tittering gradually faded off and Ari turned back to the girl in front of him.

Jamie's face whitened, her hand reaching up to nervously twiddle with her hair as if she'd only just realized what she'd done. Ari found himself staring at her as if seeing her for the very first time.

"I'm sorry, I should not have..."

Instead of responding, Ari fastened his hand around her wrist and pulled her to him again.

**Thoughts?? yay or nay??**