Reckless

As the water rises, Paedyn tells Kai she can’t swim, so he asks her to hold onto him so that he can keep them both afloat. She then notices a partially obscured grate above them. Together, they open it with difficulty, and Kai, who can see that Paedyn is weakening, pushes her out of the tunnel.

Paedyn emerges from the sewer but turns around to see Kai drowning. She dives back in and pulls him out with difficulty. When he starts breathing again, Kai tells her he doesn’t regret the things he confessed in the tunnel, prompting Paedyn to lean toward him to kiss him. However, he uses her distraction to clamp a chain, which he stole from their cell earlier, between her ankle and his own. Paedyn feels betrayed, but they need a place to wash up and sleep.

Kai asks Paedyn to steal a skirt to hide the chain around her ankle, and she reluctantly complies. They then find an inn, where they sneak into an empty room for the night.

Paedyn bathes first, while Kai sits outside, the chain between them going under the door. Kai tells her that he found the soldier she killed in the desert, and Paedyn admits that she saw him bury the Imperial she killed in Ilya. As Kai grabs a clean shirt from Paedyn’s pack, he sees her father’s journal.

After Kai washes up, he and Paedyn share the bed, despite her protests, since they’re still chained up to each other. They agree to pretend not to hate each other as long as it’s useful, such as when they need to hold each other to keep warm. In the morning, Kai informs Paedyn that they’ll be heading back to Ilya through the Sanctuary of Souls, a “rocky terrain infested by bandits” (219), to avoid crossing the Scorches again. The innkeeper interrupts them, banging on the door to chase out the intruders, so they sneak out through the window. Chased through the streets of Dor, Paedyn and Kai pretend to be a couple kissing in a doorway to avoid detection.

Kitt is growing restless and paranoid about Kai’s extended absence, thinking that his Enforcer may have run away from his duty with Paedyn. He suddenly decides to stop grieving his cruel father and reclaim his responsibility as a king.

Kai and Paedyn eat and rest on a roof and then climb down and head toward the edge of the city, still trying to pass as a couple. However, some men recognize them and try to grab them. Since they’re outnumbered, Kai and Paedyn run and hide inside the first building they find. It turns out to be a gentleman’s club filled with people gambling and scantily clothed women. Kai urges Paedyn to blend in, so he sits at a table and she sits on his lap. They flirt and taunt each other while Kai plays cards, until some of the men pursuing them enter the room.

Paedyn and Kai keep pretending to be a guest and his companion, and they get even closer to each other to avoid detection. Paedyn tries to remind herself that they’re only pretending but struggles to fight her attraction to Kai. The men eventually leave, and Kai collects his earnings before they leave. As they walk through Dor, Kai confesses that he had no intention of killing Paedyn’s father. In fact, he was about to defy the king’s orders when he found his target asleep but had to kill Paedyn’s father when he unexpectedly woke up.

When Kai offers to braid Paedyn’s hair, she appears jealous, mistakenly believing that Kai has been with other women and braided their hair too. However, Kai explains that he has only practiced on his younger sister, Ava. Ava was kept a secret after she was born with an illness because the king didn’t want to appear weak in front of his kingdom. Kai adored her, but she died when she was four years old and was buried under a willow tree in the garden, which fills in details relating to the novel’s Prologue. Paedyn is shocked to learn about Ava and expresses sympathy toward Kai. Later, while they sneak into a barn for the night, Kai asks why Paedyn isn’t a Mix, since her mother was an Ordinary but her father was a Healer. The question unsettles Paedyn, who never thought about it.