Chapter 6

Dare

We flew over Thorne”s city and landed just outside its walls. Even our shifting magic---though it was so tightly interwoven with who we were---wouldn”t work here. Thank the gods Caer Far was one of the few cities with competent enough magicians to keep any magic from functioning within its walls.

”Protect my cat,” Kaelan told Azora tersely as he lifted the fuzzy animal off his shoulder and set it into her arms.

Azora held the cat uncertainly.

”You like this thing better than you like most people, don”t you?” Jaia asked.

”I like that cat better than I like anyone, including you,” Kaelan said. ”Remember that.”

As he strode toward the castle, everyone in his way scattered like rabbits in front of a tiger. Even if he hadn”t been wearing a royal cloak and a thin silver crown, even if his aura of power hadn”t always intimidated everyone around him, the general air of murderous anger he carried would”ve had people fleeing.

Kaelan carried himself today like a man looking for violence.

He strode up to the castle, where the doors already stood open. Inside, we found soldiers milling. I scanned their faces, looking for a familiar one.

When I did find a craggy face I recognized, it came with a surge of concern.

Edric”s soldiers.

Not the ones who were loyal to Kaelan.

My blood thundered in my ears.

Did they have Hanna?

Jaia shook my arm, and I realized she was staring at me with a frown, as if she had already spoken and I hadn”t heard her. She repeated herself, ”How did they get here so quickly?”

But the look on her face said she was more focused now on my reaction.

I shook it off, even though my heart was beating so fast it hurt.

”Edric must”ve had them massed near here.” It wasn”t until I said those words that I realized Hanna and Thorne weren”t the only ones in danger.

Had Edric massed his troops here because he knew about Thorne”s role in the rebellion?

We”d carefully fed Edric information about the rebellion, hoping to control what he knew and how he saw the threat.

Maybe we”d failed.

”Kaelan didn”t order this?” she frowned, as if she worried our prince had gone rogue.

”No,” I said tersely, because I could smell the bloodshed and death from here.

Thorne”s mother greeted us, her smile thin and brittle. But I ignored her as Kaelan spoke to her, moving rapidly up the stairs and down the hall.

Thorne”s old room was destroyed. The wall itself had been blasted down by battle magic. There was rubble everywhere, and it was easy to imagine my hulking dark haired friend and Hanna’s slender frame both buried under the debris. I climbed over some of the broken wall and my foot slipped… in a puddle of blood.

”Is the queen alive?” I demanded. My voice came out harsh.

The commander of the guard approached me. ”My lord...”

”I asked about the queen.” Flashes of imagery came to my mind. Hanna, her skull crushed above that beautiful face. Her throat slashed open with a sword, her crystal blue eyes staring unseeing into eternity. Blood leaking into that soft strawberry blond hair, staining it forever.

”Yes, my lord.”

His words were barely audible to me, but I could read his lips. His eyes were both terrified and confused.

The waves of my emotions washed over me, then flooded away. Anger still clutched my chest. They could”ve killed Thorne and Hanna.

”What happened here?” I demanded of one of the soldiers.

There were bodies strewn everywhere. Hanna and Thorne”s work, no doubt. Blood splattered over the ruins of the walls.

”We tried to arrest them,” the soldier said, his face pale.

”I see,” I said. ”And did you hurt them?”

”They escaped.”

I took a step toward the man, who went even paler as he cringed away. ”That isn”t what I asked.”

”They hurt her.” It was a little girl”s high voice.

I turned to find Thorne”s little sister. It had been a long time, and I barely recognized the toddler she”d been in the girl who was tall and trying hard to be regal.

”Did they?” My voice came out like ice, cold and deadly.

The soldier took another step back, his boot cracking some of the destroyed wall that was underfoot.

My gaze slid back to him, but my question was for her. ”How?”

”They cut her with a poisoned blade,” she said.

”And how do you know that?” She had seen Thorne and Hanna since the fight. She could lead us to them.

It was best not to rush that information to Kaelan, then.

But surely, he”d be busy once he learned these soldiers had hurt Hanna.

”I was in the room.” Her pointed little chin rose proudly. ”They attacked Thorne and Hanna, and I was right here.”

”Is that so?” I asked the commander of the guard. ”Did you attack with a little girl in the room? Did you put this child in danger?”

”We didn”t mean to,” he said.

”You should”ve waited for my prince,” I told him.

”My ap--”

I cut him off. ”And how badly was the prince”s bride wounded?”

My voice sounded cool and disinterested. My heart pounded in my chest.

”She ran away---”

”She”s still mine.” Kaelan”s voice was cold as he entered the room behind us. ”And she”s under my protection.”

As much as he wanted to punish her now too.

Suddenly every man in the room but me was on their knees.

”I”m sorry, your majesty.”

Kaelan stepped closer to the man, looking larger than life, as if he had begun to shift and his wings might rip out of his body at any moment. The commander couldn”t seem to raise his gaze to meet Kaelan”s eyes.

Kaelan”s voice was hushed. ”Tell me about every mark your men left on my queen”s body.”

This was no moment for a child to witness. Even Thorne”s sister.

”Come here,” I told her, holding out my arm to her. “What was your name again?”

She gave me a look as if I were stupid. “Coril.”

I wasn’t stupid. I just didn’t care about children’s names.

The two of us made it down the stairs before the screaming started.

I winced.

”Kaelan loves her, doesn”t he?” Coril asked quietly.

”Yes.”

”My brother does too.”

”I know.”

And I didn”t know what the fuck I was going to do with the mess that these two deranged assholes” love would cause.

Love is unhinged.

And my two best friends hadn”t exactly been properly hinged to begin with.

Coril and I went down the stairs to the main lobby of the house. The doors had been bashed open.

Coril”s mother rushed toward her. ”Coril! You keep disappearing!”

She looked torn between wanting to smack her and wanting to hug her. Funny that exasperated expression sent a trickle of memory racing up my spine, connecting me with a past long forgotten. My mother had stood in the doorway, calling for me, then strode my way, the chickens scattering in front of her...

I couldn”t quite remember her face anymore. Just a general sense of mingled anger and affection. Just the faintest memory of feeling safe once.

”She”s helping,” I promised. I glanced at the soldiers working to repair the immense, arched wooden doors, which were deeply gouged. But the soldiers were alive. They hadn”t tangled with Edric”s guards, apparently... ”You tried, but in the end, you let Edric”s guards in?”

”We didn”t have a choice.” Her voice was soft. Embarrassed.

”I know.”

We all had to do the best we could in our kingdom.

Even when that meant letting evil come too near the ones we loved.

The thought nagged at me.

”Come with me,” Thorne”s mother told Coril, dragging her away down the hallway. Coril craned her head over her shoulder and smiled goodbye at me, and I raised a few fingers in a wave. I never knew quite what to do with kids.

I kept moving through the castle, looking for Jaia and Azora before they could get themselves into trouble. Kaelan might be satisfying his bloodlust---though I doubt it would do much to empty his cup of rage---but he would want to move out as soon as we could. We hadn”t learned anything that would help us move forward with finding Thorne and Hanna, but I was pretty sure Kaelan would never resort to harming Thorne”s family.

Pretty sure.

”The Grey kingdom?” Jaia”s voice was barely audible through the closed door, but her skepticism was still loud. ”Oh, the princess will love it there.”

The answering murmur was genuinely inaudible. I scrubbed my fingers over my face. Of course Jaia was so damned loud, when she wasn”t actively spying, that I would hear something I didn”t need to hear.

I didn”t want to know where Hanna was headed.

I tapped on the door.

Jaia opened it a second later, her knife in her hand.

”What the fuck are you going to do with that?” I demanded, pushing her wrist away from me so the pointy end wasn”t quite so personal. ”You had to know it was either me or Kaelan.”

”It could”ve been Edric or one of his guards.”

”Mm.”

She tilted her head to one side, but at least she slid her blade back into the sheath against her ribs.

Behind her, I caught a glimpse of Azora, looking guilty---but then, Azora always did---and one of Thorne”s sisters. I could never remember the names of them all. Thorne had so many kin, and I couldn”t remember them---perhaps because their existence always reminded me so thoroughly of my own lack of family.

”Kaelan”s on his way,” I said.

And so, their conversation was over.

I added, ”With bloody hands.”

”Let”s hope that”s the bloodiest they get today.” Azora murmured.

”Do you think it”s improved his mood?” Jaia asked brightly.

”I think it might improve his mood if you shut up and followed orders.”

”What about you?” Jaia dragged her fingers absently over the hilts of her knives along her left side. It was the kind of nervous tic that makes everyone else nervous. ”Are you just going to follow orders?”

”Lower your voice,” I gritted, my voice barely a growl. I glanced at the door. ”Thorne”s sister, would you shut that on your way out?”

”Of my own lab?” she said, then threw up her hands. ”Actually, that”s fine. Whatever gets your entire cursed entourage out of here quick as possible.”

She rose, her skirts rustling, and hustled out of the room. She wore a very fancy sapphire gown, but it was bleached with chemical stains from her potions. The nobles were always so careless with their things.

”Thorne”s sister?You don”t remember anyone”s name, do you?” Jaia mocked me.

I waited until the door had clicked shut. ”I don”t care enough to remember.”

”Or you care too much,” Jaia muttered, but I wasn”t going to let her distract me.

”What are you doing, Jaia?”

There were questions she shouldn”t ask.

She folded her arms and didn”t deign to answer me.

But Azora said, “Kaelan is enchanted.”

“Do you have proof? Or is that just what Thorne’s sister believes?” I demanded, doubting tham all at the moment. I raked one hand through my hair, surprised by how furious I felt. ”Now you have to decide just how loyal you are to Kaelan.”

And so did I.

”Loyalty and obedience aren”t the same things,” she said glibly.

I shook my head. ”I still don”t know how Hanna escaped from the ship when I was dragging her ass back across the ocean... do you know something about that, Jaia? You went to temple, and you never do. Maybe you”ve never been as loyal to Kaelan---”

She took a step toward me, her eyes blazing. ”Question my loyalty one more time.”

My fingers itched to draw my own blades.

Instead, I said, ”Kaelan”s protected us at all costs all these years.”

For a moment, she studied me, and then her gaze softened. ”True. But now it”s our turn to protect him, Dare. We need to figure out why they ran.”

I scoffed. ”Thorne loves her. We all knew that.”

”It”s more than that,” she said. ”She wouldn”t have hurt Kaelan for nothing.”

”You know her so well already?” I asked. ”You”ve known Kaelan for five years.”

”And I”ve known Thorne for five too,” she reminded me.

”And you”ve known the princess for a few weeks.”

Gods, she had dragged me into her own weird phrasing, the way she called Hanna the princess with a mix of mockery, tenderness, and appreciation.

Which, to be fair, was the tone Jaia adopted with the rest of us---and only us.

”Always bet on the princess, Dare,” she told me.

I had many follow-on questions, but we all felt Kaelan coming down the corridor; there was something about his presence that seemed to change the very air around him.

Jaia gave me a look I could read far too well when she was playing with her daggers. But Jaia threatened my life recreationally on a regular basis. It was Azora”s quick glance my way that I felt all through my chest like a promise.

The way Jaia and Azora had sided with Hanna made me wonder just what they saw in the strawberry-blond chaos demon Kaelan had dragged into our lives.