My hands are shaking so bad I can barely take the clothes Renit hands over. Fingers closing around the leather and smooth fabric, I find a way to place the clothes on the shelf. I need to take a deep breath; I need to calm myself before this fear, this panic, gets out of hand. This isn't the first time Renit, and I have been in a dark, huddled closet and I've lost my senses.

He was there to help me last time but now, he simply watches me as I drag a hand through my hair and search through the clothes. I lay them out, reaching up one final time to wipe the feel of Rex's lips off of my own, before turning to face Renit once more.

"Can you turn around?" I ask quietly. I can't bring myself to meet his eye so I stare at the knives across his chest. Forcing myself to see straight is difficult when all I want to do is sit in the corner and rock myself until I feel better.

"Are you all right?" Renit questions, his voice equally as soft.

Nodding quickly, I urge him to turn around. For a second, he hesitates but then obeys by turning to face the opposite shelf. Peeling off the gown with Rex's touch left behind, I shove that into the corner of the shelf and begin pulling on the many layers of the matching armor that Renit is wearing.

I buckle the pants with shaken fingers and slide the shirt on, followed by a thin plate of armor for my abdomen, my shoulders, and my knees. An entire mess of clinking and shifting sounds my movements, alerting anyone outside the door that someone is in here, but I hope the servants will stay away and guess someone is losing themselves to someone else in here.

After a while, Renit says, "You didn't have to do that."

Buckling the straps, I shake my head. "That was the only way to distract him. He may be drunk but Rex is still the most notorious assassin in the kingdom. I couldn't take any chances."

Once I'm dressed, Renit turns back around and helps me with the buckles, securing everything in place. I feel much more comfortable in something like this, I'm not on display for everyone to see and when I do walk down the halls, Renit and I will be shadows in the dark. Not important like I was in a low-cut gown that revealed everything I didn't want others to touch.

"There are other ways you could have gone about it," Renit whispers. He tightens a buckle on my arm and moves onto another after another when I'm still busy trying to get one strapped down. My hands are shaking so bad I can barely move without rattling like a goat on a frozen night.

"I know that," I snap, not wanting to hear what Renit has to say. That's the least important factor to me right now, the mistakes I made and the easier things that Renit would have done so there weren't any complications to come after.

He stills, slowly moving over the buckles and strapping the last few around my legs. I won't have any weapons but the buckles will keep the leather and metal and cloth in place so I don't catch on anything and tear. "Rex won't be a problem from here on," Renit offers. "He's either waiting for you or passed out drunk somewhere. The longer he waits, the more likely he is to move onto another woman that catches his eye."

Nodding to myself, I stare at the wooden door. Still trying to forget all his touches, the fierce want in his kiss, I need to wipe Rex from my mind completely. But he's still there, his warmth traveling up my spine like a snake waiting to strike. My first real kiss belongs to Rex Fletcher. Not Bren, my childhood best friend or Renit, the prince I've come to care about. No, it belongs to the most notorious assassin in all of Esaria. That's nearly worse than kissing him in the first place.

Once Renit finishes tightening the buckles, I slide on the pair of leather boots he brought along with him and peek out into the hall. It's empty, none of the servants are going back and forth so I take Renit's hand and lead him out. We break into an easy and quiet jog, using the balls of our feet to remain silent on the marble floors.

The prince checks around every corner and ushers us along, leading towards that treasure trove underneath the palace. Likely unguarded as all the attention belongs to the ballroom and the hundreds of guests within its confines.

When a servant finds their way in our direction, Renit slinks into an alcove and tugs me along with him, hiding until silence returns and we can continue on. Thankfully, this palace has more hiding places than the castle in Mailan and our chances of getting caught are little to none.

The lower and lower we travel, the darker the halls become. Smooth marble finally turns to either stone or wooden floorboards, depending on what room or hall we pass through. All unguarded and unoccupied, in the opposite direction of where Rex is heading. I can thank Lord Cavanaugh for giving him a room on the top floor instead of lower where he's more likely to catch us. 

With each descent, the palace is colder and the voices slink away into faint murmurs that only rises when the noise of their voices increases in laughter or strong storytelling. Renit doesn't pay them any attention and neither do I, not as we reach a barred metal door at the end of a dark and damp hallway. There is no light down here so I use the wall as my guidance towards that door.

The night sky beyond does not help, the only window is a small cutout in the top of a wall and moonlight is not close to shedding in.

Renit feels around, searching for a handle, and finds a metal bar in greeting. He tugs up, removing the lock on the door, and the strong metal falls open to reveal an even darker room beyond. Before Renit steps in, he forms a ball of crackling lightning in his hand and surveys what he can see from the doorway.

Gold of all different sizes stares back at us, glistening against the light, and Renit moves into the treasure trove. Once we're secured in the dark and cold room, the prince secures the door behind him and hopes that no one will come down here and see the lock has been unlatched and there are two thieves, one a prince, scouring through what belongs to a Lord.

I don't know where to look, to the heaping piles of gold coins or the golden sets of armor in the corner of the large trove. Their helms rest neatly on top, covered in diamonds and rubies that glisten against Renit's blue orb. But my eyes aren't searching for anything other than that box—I want to get out of here and never return. I can't do that if I'm too busy admiring all the things that don't belong to me. The only treasure I need is my mother's necklace, now hidden underneath the armor.

Coins crunch underneath our boots and sometimes, jewels crack and break into pieces before we realize we've stepped on them. Lord Cavanaugh will not be pleased to know we're breaking some of the most valuable and oldest pieces in the kingdom. He'll have our heads for it and Rex will be the one to take them.

The walls travel high and above our heads, thick wood beams jut out from each corner. Some have fallen from their spots in the ceiling, angling to land in the gold and remaining upright as a ladder to reach the higher levels of those beams. That is a possible escape route if someone does come down here but I don't think our unlucky streak stretches farther than what I had to do with Rex. I still feel his phantom touch as I search through the trove, deep in the coin piles, to find the box.

It has to be around here somewhere. Lord Cavanaugh wouldn't leave something so valuable to get overtaken by other treasures that aren't nearly as important. No, a crystal provided by the first witches is one of the most important treasures of all, one he would keep in a secure place where the other treasures can't touch it.

I force myself to think outside of the box—literally—as I turn back towards the rest of the trove. The box is...protected somewhere in here. Not out in the open, resting on top of a pile of coins like the rest of the treasures, but hidden in a place that no one will ever look. Inside. The box is inside something.

Renit is already heading in the direction of the armor, meaning our minds are thinking in the same regard. We pull off the helms resting on top of the armor and peering into the depths of what someone left behind. Nothing, the armor is empty until we reach the final set of titanium—armor meant for a human. Any witch that comes down here would find themselves searching for a box in armor that will dull their powers and threaten the use of strength.

But it does not scare the prince to reach inside. At the same time he does, his lightning orb disappears and leaves us in the dark. That's when I hear the voices, at the same time Renit pulls the final box from inside the armor.

Someone is on the other side of the door. I recognize the voice to be Lord Cavanaugh, accompanied by others. He must give tours of the treasure trove, maybe even using the gold coins as gifts to his guests.

I stare at that metal door, unsure what to do until something clicks. Renit is still trying to find a decent hiding place when I grab his arm, tugging him towards one of the wooden beams that have long ago fallen from their secure place against the ceiling.