Maybe it was a mistake. Iris had been a member of the Scourge and the daughter of its late leader, no less. Returning her to the districts beyond the capital was a gamble, but after speaking with her again, Jacob didn’t feel like she was a large enough threat to the kingdom to deserve another prison sentence. Her attachment to the king helped as well. While he couldn’t support them as a couple, he wasn’t concerned about her turning on Caspian and trying to kill him again. Even if she rejoined the rebellion—and even that felt like a big ‘if’—he didn’t expect her to do anything to target the monarchy this time.

“It is. And I would prefer to leave now,” he replied casually when she asked if his offer was serious. Taciturn by nature, he didn’t elaborate or share his reasoning for coming to the decision that he had. She didn’t need to know more than he’d already told her: that he was going to drive her past border patrol and let her go back to her home. If she had questions, they could discuss the matter further after they were on the road. He didn’t want to be out longer than he had to anyway, since his presence would be missed at the palace if he dawdled much more than he already had.

When Iris gave him her condition for leaving, the guard listened silently and then nodded once. “I won’t tell him a thing,” he assured her. He’d never had any intention of telling Caspian that he’d helped her slip out of the capital. It was better if the young king believed she had left of her own volition, because she was right. In his current state, it was very likely that he would spend every spare minute he had trying to bring her back. It would have been even worse if he left to look for her, himself. Abdicating the throne would leave Aspiria in a perilous position, so they had to make it look like she had broken up with him and didn’t want him to come after her. It was the only way they could make sure he didn’t do anything reckless.

He knew Caspian wasn’t going to take it well, but it was for his own good. His and Iris’s. With that thought in mind, Jacob offered her his own pair of sunglasses as a simple disguise and stepped over to the door to lead the way out. “Follow me and keep your head down,” he said curtly. “It’s a fifteen minute drive to the border.” He only glanced over his shoulder once to make sure she complied before he headed out of the suite, leading her down to his car that waited in the parking lot in front of the resort.