Chapter 21

Hanna

”What did you do with him?” I demanded.

”Ah, well, he owes me,” she said with a smile. ”I finally had the chance to collect. Thank you for finding him for me.”

”What are you talking about?”

”I was having you followed, of course. I was delighted to receive word you had reached the border.”

Thorne”s hands knit into fists.

She fixed her beautiful smile on Thorne. ”I”m not your enemy.”

I swallowed every snarky remark that suggested itself to me. ”Is that so?”

”I”m certainly not your friend,” she admitted with a small laugh. ”But I”m not your enemy. I need my daughter returned to me.”

”Oh? You aren”t trying to put her on Kaelan”s throne?”

”No,” she said dryly.

I waited, listening for her to fill in the gaps.

She just stared back at me, an amused smile written across her lips.

Thorne leaned against the walls. He could sit in awkward silence for hours. He wasn”t going to be the one to change this conversation.

”I”ll help you break the enchantment on Kaelan,” she said. ”But first, I want Seraphine returned to me.”

”Why the hell would I believe you?” I asked.

She tilted her head to one side. ”Well. I do have in my possession the one and only magician who can make your potion…besides myself… so you had best hope I intend to do so.”

”My sister can make the enchantment,” Thorne said.

”No, she can”t. Or you would’ve fled home to Caer Far, not here.” Judging from her smile, she knew she had us where she wanted us.

Thorne bristled at the mere mention of Caer Far.

”I”m not going to negotiate with you,” I said.

”You will,” she promised. Thoughtfully, she added, ”I can even give you what you need to save Kaelan now. You can bring Seraphine to me after you”ve seen it work.”

I turned around.

”I just need collateral,” she said.

”What were you thinking?”

”Thorne.” She flashed us both a smile before her gaze flickered to him. ”You can come home with me. We”ll treat you very nicely. I know what you mean to Kaelan and Hanna.”

Fear seized my chest. ”There”s no chance in hell.”

”I wouldn”t say that,” Thorne disagreed. ”After all, I”m not yours to protect.”

Tension flared between us. I could kill him.

But I couldn”t let him go.

”We”ll find another way,” I said.

But Thorne had stepped in front of me. I moved to his side, but I had the feeling he was barely listening to me. ”You”re threatening to invade my kingdom.”

”I”m not ready for war either, Thorne,” she told him. Well, apparently none of us were pretending now that it wouldn”t be war in the end. ”I need my daughter back.”

”Why? Because she”s trying to take your throne?”

”You”re not as stupid as you look, are you?”

”No.”

”How does Kaelan fit into her plan?”

”She needs a mate of noble blood to take the throne. The magic in our kingdom is rather . . . patriarchal. A woman can”t rule without a king at her side.”

I snorted, and her gaze flickered to me. ”You see how ridiculous it all is.”

”Why Kaelan?” He had noble blood, but what else did he bring to the table?

”She”s been obsessed with him for a long time,” she muttered.

”Unfortunately for her, so am I,” I muttered, then regretted it as both of them looked at me.

As it turned out, I would fight for him if I must.

”Thorne won”t lose anything,” she promised me. ”Once you return Seraphine to me, you”ll get him back.”

”Fine,” Thorne”s voice rumbled, deep and resolute. ”I”ll go with you as collateral.”

”No,” I said, then turned to the Snake Queen. ”No, he won”t.”

She smiled, but there was no humor or kindness. Her eyes danced at the scene playing out between the two of us.

Thorne still didn”t look at me. ”You need Kaelan back. We both do.”

Cold dread lodged in my throat. ”You can”t trust her.”

”Of course not.” Thorne finally looked down at me. ”I don”t trust anyone but you, Kaelan, and Dare.”

He gave me a wink that the Snake Queen couldn”t see, and I stared at him, trying to make sense of his plan.

”You tire me.” The Snake Queen”s voice sliced through the stillness. In one fluid motion, her hand swept through the air, and suddenly there was a doorway where there had been only wall.

I stared at it, shock rushing through me. She had power like Zehr”s, only . . . she didn”t need to touch people to travel them as he did, dragging them through the shadows.

”Come with me,” she commanded, her tone laced with power, ”and I”ll get you the antidote.”

My feet felt rooted to the spot. I had never witnessed magic like her sheer power.

The portal”s hum vibrated under my feet and through my bones, and a sudden image flashed before my eyes: our kingdoms locked in an inevitable war. She could march thousands of troops one-by-one through that door and behind our lines.

It was a war that must come eventually, but it would come sooner if she had to fight Kaelan, because he had taken Seraphine in marriage.

The stakes were far bigger than my broken heart.

And Thorne knew that damn well too.

”Thorne . . .” My voice was a whisper.

The Snake Queen”s cold, reptilian eyes met mine, startling in that beautiful face. ”Don”t be afraid of me. I know how little you mean to Honor. I”m not going to cage you in my kingdom and offer you as a prize.”

If she thought the way she had just said that was comforting, as if she had clearly thought through the possibility, then perhaps she wasn”t as dangerously smart as I thought.

He held his hand out to me. ”We”ll go through together.”

His voice was so confident, as if he knew nothing could go wrong. I took his hand.

For Kaelan, I”d risk anything . . . except Thorne. How could I go on alone? How could I pin down Kaelan---who had already tried to kill me---and force him to drink the antidote?

But Thorne seemed to have a plan, so I had to trust we”d end up back on the other side together. He knew better than to leave himself in the tender care of the Snake Queen.

I stepped through the portal, Thorne”s hand gripping mine with a silent promise that his stoic facade could not mask.

”Trust me,” he whispered, just before the world around us melted away. For a moment, the sensation of traveling through the portal disoriented me; colors and sounds collided in dizzying chaos until we emerged on the other side.

The Snake Queen”s castle unfolded before us like a scene from a dark dream. Silver-haired sentinels lined the hall, their eyes gleaming with a feral glow, yet it was the Snake Queen herself who demanded attention. Her athletic form moved with lethal grace, and her silver braid seemed to catch the dim light, turning it into a weapon of its own.

“I need Kaelan’s blood.” she said. “I’ll make the antidote before you so that you can trust it will work.”

She summoned servants, who carried in the gabari root and other supplies, then spread it on the table they carried before her.

“Give it to her,” Thorne told me quietly.

Reluctantly, I took the bottle she held out to me. There was an amused smile on her lips at how I took the bottle from her cool, scaly fingers and pulled away as quickly as I could.

I murmured the words of my spell, and the blood dripped my fingernails into the bottle, pooling there.

She finished making the potion, then held up the small bottle of luminous liquid. “I swear on my life that this is what I vow: a bottle of antidote for my daughter’s enchantment that blinds your lover.”

The faint scent of magic curled around her, promising her words were true.

I reached for it, my fingers trembling as I took the antidote to Seraphine”s enchantment.

Her gaze pierced mine, and her voice dropped to a conspiratorial tone. ”Do not underestimate Seraphine”s ambition or the danger she poses.”

”I won”t. She”s taken something from me, and I intend to get it back.” I slipped the antidote into my pocket.

”If you fail to win back your prince and he colludes with Seraphine, I will take your kingdom and destroy everything in my path,” she told me with a smile. ”Nothing will ever grow in that poisoned ground again, no matter how many enchantments you attempt.”

”You don”t need to threaten me,” I said. ”I”ll save my husband, and maybe I”ll even be extra nice and slice your daughter”s throat.”

I could not believe I was allying myself---no matter how briefly or carefully---with the Snake Queen.

”I want her back alive,” she disagreed. ”I”d like to have some words with my daughter.”

”We”ll see what happens,” I said with a careless shrug.

Adrenaline surged through my veins as I felt the weight of the potion against my hip. My gaze shifted between Thorne and the Snake Queen, expecting any moment to erupt into chaos.

But Thorne didn”t move against the Snake Queen.

The portal hummed with energy behind us. I braced myself for the fight I was sure would come as Thorne and I rushed back through the portal. But as I turned to face him, ready to stand back-to-back against our foe, his dark eyes caught mine, and the world seemed to still.

”Hanna,” he said, his voice low and laden with an emotion that made my heart stutter. ”There”s something you need to know.”

”A betrayal?” the Snake Queen asked in delight.

His hand reached out, brushing a lock of hair from my face with a tenderness that belied his stoic nature. ”I love you.”

The confession shattered the momentary calm, sending shock and warmth spiraling through me.

But before I could speak, Thorne seized my shoulders, pushing me backward with a force born of desperation.

”Remember that,” he murmured, just as the portal”s pull seized me, wrenching me away from him as if I were caught in a riptide.

I stumbled through the portal, the colors and sounds twisting around me. As I reached the other side, my feet found the solid ground of Ekardo”s house. I whirled, desperate to understand, to return, to fight at Thorne”s side.

For a fleeting second, our eyes met across the collapsing threshold of worlds. His face---a portrait of pain, love, and sacrifice---burned itself into my memory.

And then, with the finality of a closing book, the portal snapped shut, leaving me alone amidst the dust and shadows of the magician”s abandoned home.

”Thorne!” I screamed, but it was too late.

I was alone.