Chapter 31

I sat up straight in my bed, heart pounding, face burning, and body alight.

“Reyna, get dressed,” called Frima’s voice through the door.

I didn’t reply, staring around the room in confusion, sensation pulsing through my core.

It was a dream. Just a dream. I patted my hands over my body, checking. My shift was still on, and I was in bed alone.

It had just been a dream.

My dream.

I drew in a breath. I had no idea my brain was capable of something so… so filthy . Did I have a thing about his shadows? Where the fates had that come from?

His hungry eyes, his huge cock, his sultry promises all flooded back to me, and desire washed through my body.

I didn’t want to beg anyone for anything. But when he’d spoken to me like that… I had never wanted anything more.

The door clicked, then swung open. I squeaked in surprise, gripping my sheets and yanking them right up to my chin defensively. Frima stepped into the room. She was dressed in her fighting leathers, and her lips quirked into a wry smile as she looked between me and the empty wine glass.

“Get washed and dressed. Brynja isn’t bringing your breakfast to your room, I’m taking you downstairs instead.”

“To the Queen?” I croaked.

“No.” Her smile softened. “With Lhoris and Kara in the thrall quarters. It’s a gesture of goodwill from the Prince.”

I blinked at her. “Really?”

“Really. I’ll wait outside.”

As soon as she was gone, I scrambled out of bed, trying to get reality to flood the surreal dream from my system.

The Prince was letting me see my friends. And I wanted nothing more. Except maybe a cold bath.

I glared at the empty wineglass as I made my way quickly into the bathing chamber. I washed in cool water, trying to douse the heat the dream had caused. Slowly, as the fuzz from sleep ebbed away completely, the sensations pulsing through my body lessened. I forced myself to picture the Prince, dressed. Dressed in lots of clothes; shirts and cloaks and furs.

He had kidnapped me. Threatened to kill my friends.

I did not want to see him naked. I did not want his shadows on my body. I did not want to beg him for anything.

He was only being nice to me today because he needed me to work hard for him, and he wasn’t stupid. The best way to get me to co-operate was through my friends. He knew that.

But that didn’t lessen how pleased I was that I would be able to see them, and I needed to concentrate on them.

* * *

I exited the bathing chamber in a hurry. I had clean shirts and trousers in my shouldersack and pushed my hand under the pillow to retrieve it from its hiding place. But there was nothing there. I pulled everything off the bed, searching frantically, but it was gone.

I let out a growl of anger. The staff in that bag was worth an absolute fortune. And in the hands of a gold-fae, it was a powerful weapon. Could someone have known I smuggled it in?

I kicked the bed post. That had been my only source of money. The ace up my sleeve. And now it was gone.

Cursing under my breath, I stamped to the wardrobe to pull out the clothes I had arrived in. I was surprised when I yanked them out that they smelled of chalky powder and lemons. They had been cleaned, I guessed by Brynja.

The maid had access to my room, I thought, pulling on my trousers. Who else did? All of the warriors, and the Prince. I tried to remember when I’d last checked the bag was there. Before I went to the statues with the Prince was the last time I remembered seeing it. But he had been with me the whole time I had been outside my room, and so had Frima.

Svangrior had been walking away from my room when we returned, but I had seen nothing on his person that looked like my bag, or a place he could have been hiding it.

Maybe the thief took it during the ball?

Dressed, I picked up the warded headband from the desk and did my best to twirl my hair around it, so that it was away from my face. I stuck Voror’s feather into the side of it, less artfully than Brynja managed, but it would have to do.

With one last scowl at my reflection, I turned to bang on the door. Frima opened it.

“Why do you look so pissed? I thought you’d be happy to see your friends,” she said as I stomped out of the room.

I considered telling her about the bag. But I still didn’t trust her, and I had no reason to be this mad about clothes being stolen. Telling her would raise suspicion about what was actually in there.

Whoever took it must have known the gold staff was in there, I thought. Who would have stolen clothes?

“I’m just tired,” I said as we began to walk down the gloomy corridor.

“Dreams keep you up?”

My face heated as memories of the dream coiled through me, making my muscles clench. “No. I don’t know what all fuss is about with that wine.”

“Liar,” she chuckled.

“Can, erm, fae get into dreams?” I asked, as casually as I could.

She laughed. “Not unless they’re high fae. Who have been extinct since the gods left. Why? Did you get a visit from a fae in your sleep?” Her eyes sparkled.

I glared at her, then at the seemingly endless maroon walls. “I fucking hate this color,” I snapped.

Frima looked at the walls. “You prefer gleaming white and gold?”

“I have no idea what I prefer.”

She didn’t answer.

We walked in silence the rest of the way, and this time I did pay close attention to the route. I’d found my way to the thrall quarters once on my own, but knowing the quickest way couldn’t hurt.

The long table in the middle of the large room was deserted, and Frima hurried me to the barred room I knew Lhoris and Kara were in. “You have twenty minutes, before everyone returns. Keep your voices down.”

She unlocked the door and shoved me in.

Kara was on me in seconds, wrapping me in a hug. I hugged her back, savoring the moment I hadn’t thought I’d be given.

“How are you doing?” I asked her when she released me. Lhoris was sitting on the floor of the room amid a swath of loaded plates. Cheeses, breads, cold meats, and a tray of fruits I mostly didn’t recognize surrounded him. He smiled up at me, huge beard twitching.

“We’re good,” Kara said. “How are you?” Concern filled her big eyes.

“Better than I thought I would be.”

“Sit. Eat. Tell us,” said Lhoris.

After peering out of the bars to make sure Frima wasn’t hanging around to listen, I did as he said, taking as much food as I could fit on a plate. Today would be a long day, I knew.

“I assume since we weren’t punished for the other night, that you took the brunt,” he said quietly, eyes scanning my bare forearms for evidence of my punishment.

I shook my head. “Svangrior didn’t tell the Prince. Or punish me.”

Lhoris cocked his head. “Why not?”

“He, erm, gave me an incentive to not try again that he thought would work better.”

The big man nodded knowingly, glanced at Kara, and took a bite of cheese. She looked at me excitedly. “Did that owl really talk to us? Lhoris said he still can’t really believe it,” she said in a rush.

I smiled at her. “Yup. He really did. He’s called Voror, and he has a pretty high opinion of himself.”

Her mouth dropped open. “I told you so!” she said, turning to Lhoris.

He gave her an acknowledging nod, then turned to me. “Sounds like you have learned a lot since we last spoke. Tell us.”

Indecision sparked in me. Did I risk telling them about the statues? I didn’t know enough about them yet to have anything useful to share, so it wasn’t worth the risk, I decided.

“The Prince warded this headband so that the Queen can’t get into my head, then told me there is a place where he thinks there might be gold,” I said, deliberately vague in my half-truth.

“What place?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.” An outright lie, but one to protect them. They were not warded against the Queen, after all.

“And the owl?”

“Sent by a fae woman to assist me. He doesn't know who she is, and nor do I.” Lhoris paused shoveling food into his mouth.

“Sent to help you?” he repeated.

I nodded. There was no way I was going to tell them that she’d also said the fate of Yggdrasil depended on me. Just thinking about it made my head swim, and I forced the thought out.

“I always knew you were special,” Lhoris muttered.

“What?”

“Your hair. Your complete lack of past. Reyna, you are being sought.”

The words reinforced my own realization, and to my surprise, I drew comfort from that. “Yes.”

“I’m not sure you can run from this.”

“I know. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up.” I looked at Kara, willing my sincerity to sound in my words. “When I know more, we’ll have leverage. We’ll get out, it just might not be through running.”

“Although if an opportunity arises…” Lhoris said ruefully.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m not getting complacent.”

He smiled. “What else has happened?”

Between mouthfuls of food, and as succinctly as I could, I told them about the trip to the workshop, and the ball. Everything except the finer details of my interactions with the Prince. And the dream.

“Please tell me you don’t believe he may not be the monster everyone says he is?” Lhoris asked, voice hard.

“Of course not.” Even though part of me is starting to want to.

Forcing memories of the dream out, I focused on devouring what was left on my plate. “Someone stole my bag.”

Lhoris’ face darkened. “The staff is gone?”

I nodded. “They must have known it was there.”

“They can’t have. Perhaps they went through your things and got lucky.” He let out an angry breath as Kara spoke, tapping her finger against her jaw thoughtfully.

“So somebody gave you a key to get out of your room and then opened the bear cage, and somebody stole your bag. Do you think they’re the same person?”

I stared at her. “Opened the bear cage?”

She nodded, fine hair falling around her cheeks. “Yes. Don’t you remember hearing the mechanism?”

“Well yeah, but I never thought…” I played the events back in my mind, and realized she could be right. Someone could have deliberately opened the cage. “You think they gave me the key to lure us into danger?” Frima’s words about the whole escape attempt being suicidal came back to me. If whoever gave me the key had the same thought then perhaps I didn’t have the secret ally I thought I did.

“Maybe. Are there people here who would want you gone?”

I snorted. “The Queen, for sure. Maybe Svangrior. He seems to hate me with a little more passion than is necessary.”

“What about the female fae?” Lhoris asked.

I shook my head. “She’s playing a different game. Trying to get me to trust her, I think.”

“None of them can be trusted,” he barked.

“I know.” I swallowed hard, then turned to Kara. “So, what have you two been doing?”

“They give us tasks to do in here, but we’re not allowed out,” Kara said.

“They can’t risk anyone seeing your rune-marks.”

“But everybody knows you’re here if the Queen threw a ball to announce it,” she said. “Why do we have to be kept secret?”

“Because any slave or fae courtier here might decide to use one of us to get on the good side of the Queen,” Lhoris said gently. “We are safer in here, although I admit it is becoming stifling.”

I glanced around at the windowless walls, feeling guilty about both my trip out on the horse to Tait’s village, and the fresh air at the ball.

“Hopefully you won’t be in here too much longer,” I said, though I had nothing to follow the statement with.

“Indeed,” said Lhoris. “Find out everything you can about what the Prince wants with you. Keep your eyes and ears open at all times. And whatever you do, do not fall under their spell.” His eyes bored into mine as I nodded. He had no idea just how strong that spell could be.