Chapter 4

Kaelan

In the middle of the night, I left a message for my father.

Hanna was kidnapped. Leaving to rescue her.

Rescue. That wasn”t exactly what I was planning.

I dashed off the message, trying to make it look as if I had written it in a split second before we rushed off.

”You will come with me,” I said, looking around at my three friends.

Jaia lay in front of the fire, her boots half tied, one arm thrown over her face as if she had just fallen back asleep in the midst of getting dressed. Azora sat with her feet tucked beneath her on the couch, looking like a child who had accidentally found her way into my army.

Dare, who knew exactly what the stakes were, still yawned dramatically.

”Between the three of you, and our rebel peasants, I feel like I have my own personal army. A terrible one,” I muttered.

Then I appealed to Dare. ”You know better than anyone what my father will do if he thinks I”ve disobeyed him.”

Dare raised his hands. ”You know I want to go with you.”

”Why?” I demanded. ”You obviously assume Thorne...”

Had a good reason.

Thorne always had a good reason.

I fell silent. Rage had closed around my chest like a vice.

But he had stood before me and lied...

No, it was more than rage. I was familiar with rage. Rage spurred me to fight. This made me feel...

Broken. Sharp. Like a weapon even I could not control.

I shook my head.

”I want to be there for you,” Dare told me, his voice serious for once. ”And I want to keep you from ripping them apart.”

”You”ve never cared particularly for Hanna,” I reminded him, hoping his loyalty was complete at least when I didn”t have to divide it with Thorne.

Dare”s brows arched. His face was always expressive---dangerously expressive for court, in my opinion---and right now it said, is that what you think?

I decided to ignore it for now.

”If my father thinks I”ve disobeyed him, he will target you,” I told the three of them. ”You have to be careful.”

”And why is that?” Jaia asked with her usual faux-innocence, her eyebrows raised.

There was probably no one else on the face of this earth, besides Hanna, who would push me when I was furious.

”Because I care about the three of you, strangely enough, given the way you are... Now let”s move.”

”I”ll go first.” Azora unfolded herself. ”No one will notice me.”

She picked up her cloak and gloves and tossed them to Dare. He caught them and frowned at her, clearly displeased to find himself a valet. ”Make sure you get those outside for me. People will notice if I”m wearing a cloak to sneak through the halls.”

”Very well,” Dare grumbled, bundling the clothes under his arm. For all his complaints, he tucked the gloves into his pocket carefully, knowing how much Azora would suffer if he lost them.

”Why would you sneak?” I frowned at her. ”You need to clear the way. You need to look innocent.”

”I”m leaving Dare”s room in the smallest hours of the morning,” she said. ”I can”t look that innocent.”

Dare let out a groan. ”My reputation...”

”Oh?” Jaia”s usually careless gaze swept to him sharply. ”Given how poor your reputation is, I”d think Azora could only improve it.”

Dare had fucked his way across the front and through half the castle, it seemed at times. Meanwhile, I hadn”t been able to bring myself to touch another woman after Hanna.

And Thorne had kept to himself, too. We had teased him about it.

Now I had to wonder if, just like me, he had been waiting for Hanna.

While Dare tried to dig his way out of his latest verbal misstep---Jaia could be quite scary at times---Azora rolled her eyes and slipped out into the hall. I cracked the door opened and used a spell to enhance my hearing as she made her way toward the servant who was standing watch. Or drowsing against the wall. It was hard to tell at this point.

The desire to go snap the servant”s neck so he couldn”t crawl to my father”s feet swept through me powerfully. But behind me, I could hear Dare trying---ineffectually---to defend himself, and Jaia telling him just how much he wasn”t great relationship material. Azora was trying to hide her smile at Jaia”s protectiveness.

I wouldn”t sacrifice their lives to my fury. My father had always considered my friends my weakness, and he had despised that weakness almost as much as he valued it. It was the guarantee of my obedience.

It was also the guarantee I”d kill him someday.

Azora slipped out the door. ”Oh,” I heard her say softly in her mousy little voice, as if she”d just seen the servant outside and was startled to be caught.

”Miss Azora,” the servant said. Garen. One of my father”s most loyal cringers. ”Have you seen Prince Kaelan?”

”Is he looking for me?” she asked, her voice low, as if she were trying to keep from being overheard.

”No,” he said. ”But we can”t find the prince anywhere. His father wants to see him first thing in the morning--”

Edric did love his sleep.

”Oh,” she said. ”Well, I”ll... go look for him.”

Her voice said she would do no such thing.

”Is he with the princess?” she added.

My hands closed into fists. The princess.

I was most certainly not with the princess, luckily for her.

”I assume the two of them are together, but they aren”t in her room. Or his.”

The servants had searched her room? Mine?

I could picture Garen entering, with a questioning look on his rat-sharp features, then a dozen of my father”s men moving into the luxurious apartment where my cat slept on the hearth. Finnias would”ve fled under the bed as the men pushed aside the sheets that still smelled like Hanna. Their boots would fleck dirt and ice over the rug where I had knelt before her.

The desire to snap his neck was so strong. I was surprised they hadn”t bulled their way into Dare”s room on my father”s orders, but they had good reason to be timid. They could cringe their way into our rooms pretending to light the fires or to serve us. Forcing themselves into Dare”s room against his will, in his presence, would be a declaration of war.

”I need to get my cat,” I told Dare.

He rubbed his face with one long-fingered hand. But all he said was, ”Of course.”

I would never leave the cat alone in this castle. Dare usually smuggled it down to the village for me, but we didn”t have time for that now.

”He”ll come with us.”

”Of course he will.”

Azora hesitated in the hallway, looking as if she wasn”t sure which direction to go. Sometimes I wasn”t sure what was an act with her. Her uncertainty and air of weakness was useful for her... but I was curious sometimes how much was real and how much was an act.

She hadn”t always been quite so uncertain of herself.

”Do you know where the princess is?” Garen demanded, straightening.

”I”m sure she must be in her room!” Azora said, before taking off down the hall---and hooking to the left.

Hanna”s room was down the corridor to the right.

Garen pushed off the wall and followed Azora. There was a look of stupid-smug satisfaction written across his face, and it made me want to gut him even more than I usually would.

”Let”s go,” I told Dare tersely. ”Azora will meet us outside.”

”I”ll remind you when we get back that I need a nicer apartment with exterior windows,” Dare said dryly. ”All this trouble could”ve been solved if you”d just taken better care of your best friends. Even if your father sees me as a servant--”

He went on, but I ignored him, stepping out into the hall. Dare shook his head and touched my shoulder, moving ahead of me.

”I”ll go to your room and get the cat,” Jaia whispered.

”The cat will bite you like it bites me,” Dare warned her.

”I”m a lot more likeable than you,” Jaia disagreed, then she was gone. ”Animals can judge character, and yours is terrible.”

Dare and I made our way outside. We wound our way through the halls, moving steadily further and further from the main center of the palace.

”Lord Dare,” someone said in front of me, where Dare was pacing ahead.

I stopped and leaned against the wall, hating that I had to hide to escape my father.

All I wanted to do was tear him apart and burn off some of my rage. Just some. Because the rest was still waiting for Thorne and Hanna.

In the distance, I could hear Dare finding fault with the speaker for something. At great length. Dare was always good for going on and on.

I imagined the look of wide-eyed surprise on Hanna”s beautiful face when she turned a corner and found me.

The way I”d curl my hand around her throat so I couldn”t hear any of lies spilling from that sweet red mouth.

The tears spilling down her round, perfect cheekbones, sliding down the faint freckles that I didn”t want anyone else to ever be close enough to see.

But the fantasy shifted in seconds. Then in my mind, my lower lip hovered almost touching her skin, until I gave in and kissed away the salty tears. My grip loosened as her lashes fluttered, her knees buckling, and I caught her in my arms. Light-headed, unable to fight her own desires, her lips would seek mine.

Gods.

Even when I fantasized about killing her, she still owned me.

”Right away, Lord Dare!” the man said in the distance. His slippers flapped rapidly over the loose stone flagstones---we were almost through the servants” quarters---moving in the opposite direction.

I turned the corner as Dare glanced back at me, his blond hair flopping roguishly into his face.

”I acted like an asshole for your sake,” he told me.

”You usually act like an asshole for far less worthy causes.”

”Is punishing your lovely bride and gutting our best friend really the most worthy cause?” Dare disagreed.

I ignored him. We reached one of the far hallways where a door led out to the exterior. We stepped out into the icy wind, so powerful that it tried to blow the door shut again, sealing us inside the palace.

Piercing the cold wind, sunshine fell on my face. The faint warmth reminded me of Hanna”s pull for me, the way her presence always felt like sunlight warming cold-stiffened limbs.

”There will be a trap in your room,” Dare fretted, sticking his hands in his pockets as he paced, his boots muffled by the piles of snow.

”No one that works for my father is going to lay a trap that gives Jaia any hesitation,” I told him.

Edric had sent Dare, Thorne and me to the front to make a point. He”d left me there for five years, summoning me home once a year to see if I was sufficiently weakened and submissive. Despite my best efforts, it had taken time to convince him that he could remake me as he wished me to be.

But Edric”s cruelty had been his mistake.

Because my time fighting monsters had forged us into weapons... ready to fight the true monster.

Dare huffed beneath his breath, crossing his arms and rocking absently.

It was funny how hard he tried to pretend he didn”t give a damn about any of us. Yet how much he cared was written across his face.

A dark figure was moving toward us through the snow. I pulled my knife, and Dare”s gaze flitted toward me.

”Easy,” he muttered. ”Let”s not murder anyone today. You didn”t let me murder Mattias.”

”He ended up dead anyway,” I said.

Dare”s jaw knit together tightly. He knew the reasons we had to bide our time, but I knew how much he hated it. Having Mattias dead, but at the hands of the magic chasing Hanna, was dissatisfying.

The dark figure”s hood fell back, revealing Jaia”s wildly curly hair and grinning face.

She was carrying a bag gripped awkwardly in her arms, and as she reached us, she thrust it toward Dare, who raised his hands to his shoulders, refusing the offer.

”I”ve got your cat,” she said breathlessly. ”I”m still proud of you for taking on pets again, Kae.”

Dare raised his eyebrows at her, giving her a quick shake of his head, trying to warn her off.

”I don”t need you to be proud of me,” I told her, and she rolled her eyes.

We hadn”t been friends yet when my father”s servants slaughtered Fere, Kais and Lune. My three dogs.

They had hung them from the rafters of my room. My father had brought me in, and I”d tried to school my face, tried to show no feeling...

”Shut the fuck up, Jaia,” I added.

”No wonder your wife ran away,” she said jauntily.

My hands flexed. I wasn”t sure why she was pushing me now---even more so than usual---but her antics were beginning to overwhelm my affection.

Dare sauntered casually between the two of us.

”Hanna was starting to grow on me, by the way,” Jaia said.

The thought of having them fly with me made me want to gut myself; it”d be a more pleasant experience than listening to Jaia prod and tease. ”I don”t care.”

”We need to bring them with us,” Dare warned me, as if he knew I didn”t want to... and thought I was selfish enough to give into that impulse.

I turned on him---I loved Dare like a brother, but he had an exceptionally punchable face at times---but then the door flew open. I expected it to be Azora.

Instead, Garen stepped out.

Jaia stared at him in surprise, still holding the mewling, angry sack cradled in her arms. Dare stiffened.

”Prince Kaelan, I”ve been looking for you everywhere---” the man began, in the same oily voice the servants always used.

”You”ve found me,” I told him with a feral smile. ”Lucky you.”

The man”s eyes went from triumphant to wide and terrified in an instant as I caught him up.

”Kaelan---” Dare protested, leaping forward.

But I”d already snapped the man”s neck. The crack seemed to split the muffled air, so loud that it could be heard from within the castle.

The man went limp in my arms.

I let him crumple into the snow.

”Nothing will get between me and... my bride.” My heart raced from the sudden violence.

It wasn”t enough.

It hadn”t made me feel better at all.

”We”re going to have to take the body with us.” Dare raked his fingers through his hair, looking exasperated and wild-eyed and loyal all at the same time. ”We can do that. But you can”t leave the girls here---”

”The girls?” Jaia scoffed.

”Shut up,” Dare told her, echoing my words. ”You always make everything worse, somehow, and it”s already pretty bad.”

Jaia crossed her arms, frowning. ”Well. I meant it. I”ve come to like the princess---”

Dare put his finger to his lips, silencing her with a meaningful look.

Jaia rolled her eyes.

The cat let out a wailing meow.

I glanced at the castle. ”Ah, fuck. Give me my cat.”

”Gladly.” Jaia bundled him into my arms.

I let the strings loose. The cat leapt onto my shoulder, claws digging through my cloak and tunic, and hissed dramatically at Jaia.

Jaia, being Jaia, hissed back.

The door flew open again. Dare, for all his bitching, had his knife in his hand, ready to fight.

But it was Azora who stumbled out, her cheeks pink.

Dare flipped his knife around and sheathed it, then pulled out her gloves. ”Here.”

”You”re coming with me,” I told them all. Dare was right, not that I needed to acknowledge that; it was such a rare occurrence.

I threw the body over my other shoulder. We trekked away from the palace, using a spell to sweep the snow behind us so there was no trace of where we”d been.

Then once we were far enough beyond the castle to escape sight, we took flight.

Time to find my rebel bride.