Chapter 19

Dare

Kaelan was going to kill me.

He wouldn”t be mad that I had abandoned him to his father. Kaelan would”ve wanted Jaia, Azora, and me to run once we saw Edric”s guards in the street, when we knew the king himself was waiting on the border. Once we had intel on what was happening, we”d tried to find our wayward prince, but he had been busy doing horrifying things to Hanna. No, it wouldn”t bother him that we had left him to his father.

I”d lost his goddamned cat.

”I thought you were watching it,” I told Jaia. We”d been lingering at the meeting place we”d designated, waiting for Kaelan under a spreading tree outside the city.

She frowned at me, then back up at the ancient tree on which Kaelan”s cat was currently perched. ”You know the Grey believe that the tree forever captures the spirit of its dead? Do you think it”s true and that”s why the cat chose this tree? Maybe he”s trying to get in touch with his littermates who have passed on---”

I groaned, cutting her off. ”We”re going to cause an international incident.”

”I”m pretty sure Kaelan already did that when he fucked our princess in front of everyone who passed down the street,” Jaia retorted.

The idea irked me. No one should be watching Hanna with lascivious ideas.

We finally got the cat down from the tree.

I hated that I couldn”t get messages from Kaelan. Of course he had to bond with Thorne. The magic would only work between them, since they were related. They were both royals.

But it still pissed me off. Even the magic thought I should be an outsider, because I was a peasant.

And at a moment like now, it was inconvenient.

But luckily, we had finished wrestling Finnias into a bag before we saw Kaelan”s dragon swooping across the sky.

”I thought we were being stealthy,” Azora muttered.

Kaelan swept low to the ground and then transformed, stepping out of the air and onto the ground as easily as if he were taking the last stair.

He looked pissed.

”I have your cat,” I said, holding out the bag. ”Finnias is alive and well.”

”I expected no less,” he said, clearly thinking it was nothing.

I sighed. I opened the mouth of the bag, and Finnias clawed his way up my tunic to my shoulder, howled indignantly and directly into my ear, and then leapt to Kaelan. Kaelan held his arm out, and the cat landed lightly on his shoulder---claws retracted.

I rubbed my shoulder, which felt clawed to pieces. ”What happened, exactly?”

”I fell out of a window.”

”You have wings.”

Kaelan glared at me. ”And you have a brain. And yet . . .”

I spread my hands as if to appease him. Then, knowing it would have the opposite effect, I asked, ”Was it the enchantment?”

Kaelan tilted his head to one side. ”How do you know about Thorne”s ridiculous claims?”

”Why are you keeping secrets when you know I”m loyal to you?”

”Because you aren”t that kind of loyal,” he retorted.

I didn”t press him. I knew what he meant, and I didn”t want him to form that thought into more concrete sentences. I was loyal to Kaelan, not necessarily obedient.

”I have to find Seraphine,” Kaelan snapped at us. ”Jaia, Azora, you”ll come with me. Dare, I need you to track down Hanna and rescue her from Thorne.”

”Rescue her?” I repeated. ”Does she want to be rescued, or is she going to try to kill me?”

”You”re bigger than she is.”

”So are you, but apparently she pushed you out of a tower window.” Jaia was examining her fingernails, which was a sure sign she was saying something she knew would rile up her target.

I couldn”t tell anymore which of my friends had lost their minds. He had thrown himself out of a window; he hadn”t fallen. Kaelan would never fall.

He had done that for a reason.

Was Kaelan lying to himself about the enchantment?

Or worse, was the enchantment protecting itself?