#CHAPTER 81: Loyalties

XADEN POV Patrolling the rest of the area went by well enough. Once Nicholas had said what he needed to say, he’d calmed down significantly and otherwise left me alone for the most part, unless to point out certain parts of the border that had been weakened during the attack. Nor did he bother to question me about my decision to hide the bracelet for the time being. Good. This was my business, and my business alone. I wasn’t sure what I would do if Maeve’s necklace was somehow actually tied to this confounded bracelet we stumbled upon. Maybe there was a logical explanation for it to be in the middle of scenic nowhere, where a battle just so happened to take place. Maybe it was pure coincidence that they happened to look the same. … But maybe it wasn’t. I rubbed my temples with tense fingers. All this damn thinking was making my head throb. This was an obstacle for another time. Before long, we circled back to the rendezvous point, where Henry and Lucas were waiti