Chapter 1

Chapter One

Of the many stupid things Cadel McKeon had done in his life, fleeing the castle of Mont de Leucoy with Prince Everest was at the top of the list.

However, since he was being paid rather well to be the prince's bodyguard, and the prince had been determined to escape with or without him, it seemed the best course of action was to follow the prince and hope someone stopped them.

Having spent the last two hours walking or crawling through ancient tunnels with equally ancient spiders, Cadel was considering grabbing the prince and hauling him back to his father.

Although he hadn't quite worked out how to grab the phoenix shifter when Everest could make his skin flicker with flames like a fire witch, burning whoever tried to touch him. And if he shifted, he had no physical body to grab.

"Remind me why we are doing this again?" Cadel asked because Everest was yet to admit the truth, and he needed more than what he'd overheard and rumors. The staff said Everest was always in some kind of trouble, usually for screwing around with his bodyguards. Some of the staff thought it amusing, but others were exasperated as he was old enough to behave better.

Cadel was intrigued by the prince and his reputation.

He'd only been on the job four weeks. Long enough to learn the routine and the expectations when protecting a royal. Absconding with said royal was not on his list of duties.

Everest's other bodyguard had flat-out refused to leave the castle. Which had surprised Cadel, given that the two of them were fucking—something Everest made no secret about, as if he wanted his father and uncle to know and react accordingly.

Everest had also been fucking the man Cadel had replaced.

"I am doing this because I am not leaving another phoenix in the hands of the Shadow Board. I'm assuming you are doing this because you don't want to be fired." Even though it was too dark to see Everett's face, Cadel heard the smirk on his lips.

Sometimes, he wanted to grab the prince by his shirt and give him a shake. He was too smart for his own good. He was reckless and brilliant, and even though Cadel had always thought of himself straight, he admitted that Everest was hot. And not only because he was a phoenix. It was the dark eyes, dark hair, and sharp cheekbones.

"Isn't this something your uncle will?—"

Fire flickered on the tunnel wall, and Everest turned to face him. "My uncle is more concerned with stopping the Shadow Board than saving Olier." Everest considered him. His irises were completely black. The fire on his fingertips danced, creating shadows that loomed behind him. "If you do not want to be here, I am sure you can find your way back. I will manage without someone watching my every step. I do not need you to report my every move, either. I am an adult, and I do not need a babysitter."

The hair on the back of Cadel's neck prickled as the fire and Everest's dark eyes triggered some primal fear that made him want to back away. He swallowed and forced himself to be calm. There was a reason this job paid well…though why the fuck he'd been recommended and had then accepted, he still wasn't sure.

"Sir, you are a royal, and it is my job to protect you." How did he protect Everest from himself?

He wasn't sure how to do that, not when Everest was always five steps ahead. All Cadel could do was attempt to keep up and, if something happened, step in.

The idea of confronting the Shadow Board made his cheeks tighten like his whiskers were twitching. That was probably why the other bodyguard had refused to go with Everest. The Shadow Board wouldn't think twice about capturing them both and turning them into magical batteries until they were drained and died. That's what they did to shifters.

He hoped Everest's uncle and head of the Coven, Dalmon Vecker, could stop the Shadow Board. Because if Cadel lost the prince, he was one hundred percent sure he'd lose more than his job.

And while he'd worked many protection details when he was in the police force, working for the royal family of Mont de Leucoy had seemed like a sweet job.

Or it had been until a couple of days ago.

Once again, he cursed Sam Carver for recommending him and for putting him in contact with Kaine Lenoir, the head of National Security. But it was the kind of job, and the kind of pay, that was very hard to turn down. Which is how he'd ended up leaving sunny Australia for the snow and mountains of a country that most people struggled to find on a map of Europe.

"There is a difference between protecting and impeding, McKeon," Everest snapped.

"If I was impeding, sir, you would know about it." He'd spent a decade in the police force…but he wasn't sure it had prepared him for dealing with the likes of Everest.

Everest smiled. His tongue darted over his lip. Between the flames on his fingers and the flickering shadows, he looked older than nineteen. He was more dangerous than a bored prince seeking entertainment at the expense of others.

Everest didn't think he was smarter than everyone else. He was fucking brilliant, and Cadel had been fascinated from their first meeting. He'd been warned about the games and the way he burned through bodyguards. But Cadel didn't mind a bit of cat and mouse…though he wasn't the cat in this game.

There wasn't much he feared as a lion shifter. Even bears rarely bothered him. But Everest glaring at him and handling fire as if it were nothing…that was making him pause, and he didn't like smelling of fear. Everest might only be nineteen in this life, but he was centuries, millennia, old. And Cadel knew that if it came to a fight, a phoenix would win over a lion for the simple reason he'd burn, while Everest walked away and unscathed.

"I was simply asking if it might be better to have backup," Cadel said carefully, wanting to keep on Everest's good side. If the prince slipped away from him, everything would be a hundred times worse.

"Unless you are terrified of the spiders and such, I don't think we need to call backup. Though I am surprised it is you covering my ass."

"I think Bridgeman enjoyed coveting your ass more than covering it."

Everest laughed, and for a heartbeat, he was just a young man about to do something reckless that might make a good story later. The trouble was those kinds of stories left scars, and laughing about them didn't heal or hide them .

"All the more reason to get out of here before they realize I'm gone."

Cadel hoped Bridgeman would disobey Everest's order and report their disappearance. Sure, they minded Everest, but they worked for the royal family, and Everest was only the prince.

Crossing the king was not high on Cadel's list of things to do.

If he didn't return the prince alive, the shit would hit the fan, and he was going to wear it all. There was no way this ended well for either of them.

He'd known that from the moment Everest, in phoenix form, burst through the window, shifted, and grabbed what was clearly a bugout bag from his wardrobe. He hadn't even dusted the soot off his skin as he'd dressed in black and given Cadel and Bridgeman orders.

Everest hadn't expected Bridgeman to remain, and it had taken him a few seconds to switch tracks. Cadel had been happy to be the one remaining and reporting the disappearance. He sure as hell wouldn't have waited as directed by Everest. Sneaking out of the castle for a night out in the city was very different to sneaking out of the castle after being locked up for treason.

Not that he was supposed to know that.

He wasn't supposed to have heard that argument. And if he hadn't been searching for Everest, he wouldn't have.

At some point, he needed to make a call because he did not want to end up on Mont de Leucoy's most wanted list, along with the prince.

While he'd never worked undercover jobs, he had human and paranormal friends who did. He knew it was a dangerous game, pretending to be something that you weren't. That Everest was trying to play the Shadow Board to rescue another phoenix was brave, and that he'd fed them information that put his father's life in danger to prove his loyalty to them…was bullshit.

Who did that?

The prince did.

Who was Olier to him when the phoenixes couldn't remember their previous lives?

Everest closed his hand, and the flames went out. "I don't want to be stuck in these tunnels all night."

Cadel blinked a couple of times; the flames and Everest's smile were burned into his retinas.

"I'm letting you keep your phone, but if you call for backup before I give you permission, there will be nothing to send back to your family besides ashes, assuming they don't blow away."

Cadel swallowed and nodded his head. That meant he couldn't get caught providing updates. "Understood, sir."