16. CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 16

DANIELLA

Varamede wasted no time shooting out the door.

I nearly screamed for Kryn to run, but I managed to bite my tongue as I rushed after the thunderlord, wanting to trip him or slow him down somehow.

When I burst out the door a few steps behind Varamede, I was glad to see that Kryn was already marching down the street, the bottom of his cloak swaying from side to side.

Varamede went after him, dodging people, electric power growing brighter in his hands. I struggled to keep up as the thunderlord got closer to his quarry, without divulging his presence. Except Kryn knew we were after him, so why wasn’t he running?

“Hurry up,” I urged Kryn through clenched teeth.

At the corner ahead, Kryn stopped. Then, he glanced over his shoulder and pretended to finally notice his pursuers.

Varamede jerked an arm forward and lightning flew from his fingers, heading straight for Kryn. Not an instant too soon, he took off at full pelt, swiftly disappearing around the bend. The thunderlord’s attack struck the road, sending cobblestones flying in every direction. People screamed and dashed out of the way, running into adjacent businesses, whose doors and shutters quickly slammed shut.

As he reached the corner, hand ready with another attack, Varamede put on the brakes and carefully peered around the wall.

My heart hammered at the same rate that my feet struck the street. “Kryn, you idiot!” He was going to get himself killed.

Just as I got there, Varamede turned the corner and disappeared. I followed, just to run straight into his back as he came to a sudden stop. He staggered forward, cursing.

“Dammit,” I cursed too, and quickly backed away from him, rubbing my left boob, which had gotten squished during the coalition.

“Where did he go?!” Varamede demanded. He whirled on me and repeated his question. “Where the fuck did he go?”

“How should I know? You lost him. How do you expect me to run with these shoes?” I tried to appear as irritated and frivolous as the vapid women in Cardian’s gathering last night.

“What good are you? You didn’t even launch an attack to stop him?”

“Well, I could have, but you were in the way, and I suspect you wouldn’t be happy if I’d given you a haircut.”

God, my levels of bluff were epic. I couldn’t have damaged one precious hair on his head even if I’d busted a blood vessel trying. I was dry.

He huffed in displeasure but didn’t argue with my logic. He liked his hair and head right where they were.

“That was… him? Wasn’t it?” I asked. “We didn’t just imagine that?”

He gave me a look that suggested he thought I had no more than two neurons to rub together.

I smiled inwardly. He’d bought it.

“I need to warn Cardian.” He took off in the direction of the palace.

“Wait.” I went after him, trusting that Larina was keeping up but staying out of sight. “I was the one who spotted him. I should be the one to tell Cardian.” Maybe I was laying it a bit too thickly, but if he thought I was trying to gain favor with Cardian, he might mistake that pettiness for loyalty.

Of course, Varamede didn’t wait for me, so I took off my uncomfortable shoes and rushed over the meandering cobbled streets, barely keeping the thunderlord in sight.

When I arrived at the palace’s gates, I bent over, breathing hard. The guards eyed me with amused expressions.

“What’s so funny?” I straightened and stomped by. They composed their expressions and went back to looking blank. “Assholes,” I mumbled under my breath.

As I entered the palace, I searched for a sign of Varamede but found none.

“Which way did that thunderlord go?” I asked the guards stationed there.

“Toward the throne room, my lady,” one of them answered.

“Thank you.”

He raised his eyebrows at my good manners, something I’d come to realize most people in the upper echelons didn’t waste on those they considered beneath them.

I burst into the throne room, considering for the first time that none of Cardian’s appointed guards had tried to stop me. It was a good sign. He must have told them I was one of his crew. But now came the real test.

Eyes roving all around as Varamede stood in front of the dais, I was glad to see that Cardian wasn’t there. Panting, I joined the thunderlord’s side.

“Where is he?” I asked.

Varamede gave me a sidelong glance and didn’t bother answering my question. My answer came in the form of a page boy, who entered through a side door and announced that the king would arrive shortly.

Good, it would give me a moment to compose myself. I was finger-combing my hair back, when Cardian marched through the door, looking peeved.

“What is so important that you had to interrupt me?”

Interrupt what? His nap? He was known to enjoy daytime leisure as his nights ran late almost every day of the week. But maybe he was finding out that being king and mounting a war wasn’t at all compatible with sleeping until noon.

“You are—” Varamede started, but I jumped right in, not giving him a chance to finish.

“I spotted Kalyll in town.”

Varamede glowered, bits of an electric storm crackling in the whites of his eyes. Witchlights! What if his looks could actually kill?

Cardian considered me for a moment, examining my disheveled hair, then focusing on my bare feet and the shoes I carried in my right hand. I resisted the urge to hide my dirty toes under my dress and stood straighter instead.

I thought he would judge my appearance harshly, but to my surprise, a smile stretched his thin lips.

“You are a wild one, aren’t you?” he asked.

What? Was that what he chose to focus on after what I’d just said? This time I did hide my toes under my dress. I didn’t like the lecherous expression on his face as he looked at them. Disgusting!

“Cardian?” Varamede said the name like a question that, had he spoken at liberty, would have probably been What the fuck, Cardian?

Very slowly, Cardian swiveled his head to look at the thunderlord. “She must be mistaken. There is no way that—”

“I saw him too,” Varamede interrupted.

For the first time, Cardian appeared concerned. “Are you sure?”

“Certain.”

The false king’s shoulders seemed to shrink as he started pacing the length of the dais. “Were the others with him?”

“I didn’t see them,” Varamede and I answered in unison.

We swapped mean glowers. Maybe, I could kill him now. He had served his purpose and had delivered a convincing message to Cardian. I looked down at his hands. All I had to do was reach over and…

Stop!

I slammed Dark Dani back. She was a real murderer, that one. How could she make killing someone seem pleasurable? I had sworn an oath to protect and save lives. I couldn’t go around killing everyone who looked at me the wrong way.

He would kill you if he thought he could get away with it.

Very true. In fact, I had no doubt that as soon as Cardian got tired of me, Varamede would release the mother of all thunderstorms on me.

“There’s no way he escaped,” Cardian said, sticking his hand in the right pocket of his trousers. “He’s well guarded. Isolated.”

“What if someone helped him?” Varamede asked.

Cardian’s blue eyes snapped to his pet thunderlord. “No one would want to. No one would dare.” He paused, seemed conflicted for a short moment, then made a snap decision. “I need to make sure.”

As I noticed the change in his expression, I made a snap decision of my own. Following my instincts, I took a step forward and grabbed Cardian’s arm. I knew my hunch had paid off when I felt the throne room dissolve around me, its walls melting down to the floor like candle wax. A familiar dizzying feeling took hold of me, and I fought to stay upright as my stomach flipped.

In the next instant, we re-materialized and, for a short instant, I had the glimpse of a peaceful meadow carpeted with thousands of dandelions. I knew instantly I was in my realm, passing through. The land seemed to pull on my blood and whisper you belong here. The sensation only lasted for one precious second, and then we were dissolving again, and when we reappeared, we were in a drab room with gray, sooty walls and only the glow of a dozen half-spent candles illuminating the space.

It all happened in under a second, too fast to keep my head on straight and answer Cardian when he whirled on me and shook his arm off my grip.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I… I… what happened?” I glanced around, feigning surprise and ignorance. “Did you transfer? Oh, no. I hate transferring.” I pressed a hand to my stomach, letting my face show how sick I felt. I didn’t have to fake that. My heart was hammering, and my nerves were making me feel nauseous. It really didn’t pay to slam Dark Dani down. I let her out again.

My surprise and confusion served me well, however. Cardian batted a hand in my direction, then walked toward a dilapidated wooden door.

“Stay here,” he ordered me. “It won’t take me but a minute, and we’ll go back to Elyndell right away.”

“Thank Erilena.” I invoked the goddess they all do even though I know nothing about this deity, then wrinkled my nose and glanced around the room. “I don’t think I like it here.”

“What is there not to like?” Cardian managed to sound amused despite his obvious tension. “Take a seat on that lovely chair while you wait.” He pointed at a dusty rickety thing with a moth-eaten seat cushion, which would probably collapse under the weight of a newborn.

I rolled my eyes, and he finally left the room, smiling, as if pleased with his own wit.

As soon as he disappeared through the door, I discarded my shoes on the decrepit chair—sending a cloud of dust flying into the air—and went after him. As an afterthought, I also tore the veil off my face and threw it to the stone floor.