Chapter 2

Chapter Two

It soon became very clear why Everest wanted one of his bodyguards to leave the castle with him. And it wasn't for protection. He wanted someone to carry his shit when he shifted. Everest wouldn't be allowed to leave the country, and if he tried, he'd be stopped at the border, so his plan was to shift and fly, leaving Cadel to drive into Switzerland, where they would meet one of Everest's Shadow Board contacts.

"There are two things I don't like about this plan," Cadel said as he glanced up at the sky through a hole in the barn roof, glad that they were out of the tunnels. There was more that he didn't like, but he was focusing on the two most pressing issues. "The first is that you'll arrive before me and will be in potential danger, and the second is how will you convince your handler that you aren't escaping from…"

He didn't want to admit to knowing about the treason charge. That was an issue for another time. It was another reminder the prince couldn't be trusted. Everest was a double agent, having worked for the Coven and the Shadow Board, trying to free his brother. Although there was debate about whether they were related by blood.

Everest lifted an eyebrow and gave him that cocky smile. Cadel was sure it worked on plenty of men and, if given the chance, plenty of women, too. Not that Everest ever turned his attention to women in that way. "Escaping from my father?"

If Cadel hadn't spent ten years dealing with everyone, from criminals of the worst kind to people having the worst day of their lives, he might have believed the lie. "The king is hardly a terrifying figure."

Everest snorted. "You only say that because you haven't seen him when he's furious."

"Perhaps you shouldn't give him reason to be furious."

The smile disappeared and was replaced with a razor-sharp glare that quickened Cadel's pulse for the wrong reason. When it came to the prince, there should be fear or nothing. Fear was a healthy reaction to absconding with the crown prince and accompanying him into a foreign country to meet with what could only be described as an enemy hellbent on enslaving shifters. Given that they were both shifters, Everest should be feeling a little fear, too. If he was, he kept it well hidden.

He held Everest's dark stare as his pulse fluttered with excitement.

He knew plenty of guys who got off on the rush of doing dangerous things, and he hated working with them. Always had. They took risks that weren't needed.

And yeah, some of them paid off. But some of them didn't, and then everyone needed stitches. If they were lucky. It was a coffin for the unlucky.

He hoped this misadventure only required a shift to heal because, unlike Everest, he wouldn't be reborn and have another shot. This life was it .

He tossed a twig into the small fire they had made. Wind cut through the abandoned barn. He'd worried about trespassing, but Everest had assured him. They were only trespassing on Olier's estate.

This had all been planned, as there were supplies—blankets and food—in the barn, along with a car. He had no idea when Everest had put this together, or perhaps the king had put it together as part of a much larger escape plan if the Shadow Board had been successful in taking over the country.

Cadel knew of a couple of plans. There were always emergency plans.

That the king had been forced to use one when the Shadow Board attacked his estate…Cadel pushed the thought aside, not wanting to dwell on the way Everest had endangered his father, if not by blood, then the man who had raised him as a son.

If it came down to it, Cadel had no doubt Everest would sell him out too, and he'd end up a slave to the Shadow Board, being drained of his life, so a witch became more powerful. The Shadow Board was made up of the kind of people he hated. They did what they wanted, not caring about the damage they did to others. There were no different drug kingpins who were only concerned with their profits.

And what was Everest?

On one hand, wanting to rescue a phoenix who had been hatched and drained many times over the last two centuries was a noble thing. On the other hand, that Everest was willing to risk everything was troubling.

But he understood the prince's frustration. It was like any hostage case where he knew where the person was but couldn't go tearing in to free them. There was a way to do things. He hoped Vecker and Lenoir were working on the problem so all he needed to do was keep Everest alive .

Being separated and letting Everest fly across the border went against his mission. He lifted his gaze from the fire. "Let me make a call so we can both drive across."

"Non. My brother will ensure there is someone waiting to pick me up." Everest pulled the blanket tighter around him as if he was cold.

The wind had teeth. They should've stayed in the tunnel; at least there, they were out of the wind. The fire flickered, threatening to go out. It wasn't keeping them warm, though it had been nice to have a cup of hot tea.

He was tempted to argue that it would be best to let his brothers, as he called them, deal with the situation. But he didn't want Everest to take off during the night. No, Cadel needed to be smarter. He needed to stay with him and become useful. Indispensable, that was how he protected Everest, even from himself.

Vecker had warned him Everest was a handful and that he needed to be watched. Cadel had also been warned Everest liked seducing his bodyguards, which resulted in them getting fired. Clearly, they didn't know about Bridgeman, as he still had his job. Or maybe they were preoccupied with the Shadow Board and didn't care.

"I know how to negotiate," Cadel said.

Everest lifted his eyebrows. "You think you know how to negotiate."

So far, he'd been doing okay. Cadel smiled. "You need someone to carry your things when you're shifted. You need backup. And you need someone the Shadow Board won't recognize. I can do all of that more effectively than Bridgeman."

Everest gave a single nod. "True. Though he would already be offering to keep me warm." From his tone, it was clear he meant more than huddling together and sharing body heat .

"Let me make the call to clear the border." He opened his arm, extending his blanket like a wing. "And I will allow you to snuggle in and stay warm." They would both benefit from staying close, and he'd be able to make sure Everest didn't sneak away.

Everest rolled his eyes like a teenager even though he was the crown prince and an immortal phoenix shifter. "Don't worry about it. I can generate my own heat."

"You can, but you'll burn through too much energy. You might be a phoenix, but you're not that much different from me. Crossing alone is dangerous, and you won't be able to shift back to human because you won't have any clothes to wear. That must be very inconvenient not being able to carry anything when shifted." Cadel let his lips curve in a small smirk.

What he had learned about Everest over the last four weeks was that he liked being the smartest person in the room, and he liked being in control. Even though phoenixes didn't consciously remember their previous lives, maybe they were smarter than other people because some part of them remembered the past and grew from the experiences.

Right now, Everest wasn't being smart.

That was the problem with the prince. He was too smart and too reckless and sometimes he didn't know the difference. It was a flip of the coin to decide which it was going to be. Everest didn't think he was reckless because he believed he had all the answers.

No one had all the answers.

Mostly because the questions hadn't been thought of.

Everest shot him a sharp look that might have offended or troubled another man.

"You knew how to escape the castle, and you knew about this place. No doubt it is either an official escape plan or one you created yourself. But I think your plan gets hazy around here. You need to contact your handler, and you need to arrange a meeting. But at the same time, you don't want to be captured."

"If they capture me, it will be an international incident." Everest shrugged.

"You're assuming they care and won't stage a fake accident to make it look as though you died. You're not the only one running scenarios."

"This is the closest I have come to finding him in two hundred years. I am not letting this chance slip by."

"Being captured alongside him will do you no good."

"Are you sure? They will take me right to Olier." His eyes gleamed in the firelight.

"Perhaps. But what if they don't?"

"If I am captured, I trust you will do everything in your power, including calling Dalmon, to rescue me and Olier."

"We will find him." Not that he planned on allowing Everest to be captured to achieve that result.

"I'm not waiting another life."

"You have witches?—"

"Who found a dragon egg. Not a phoenix. A dragon. Dalmon let his mate give up his finder magic." Everest huffed out of breath. "I will rescue Olier while my brothers unravel the Shadow Board. Hopefully, the Board does not kill all their bound shifters out of spite."

"Then we will find the egg. How can you be sure he's not an egg? Or a small child? Or a?—"

"Because I know." Everest was silent for a couple of heartbeats. "Because when they believed I was a fire witch, I saw some of their bound shifters. I asked about the different types and which ones lasted the longest."

"And?" How fast should he expect to die if caught?

"It depends on how much energy the witch is drawing from them and how well looked after they are. Some witches take good care of their bound shifter, and they live effectively a normal life."

"Effectively? Meaning?"

"They serve their witch their entire life, though they do need periods of recuperation."

"Jesus…that's horrendous."

Everest shook his head. "For some shifter families in England, serving a witch is an honor that guarantees them wealth and privilege. They volunteer because their family will be taken care of."

"That's not a choice. That's selling your soul to the devil so your family can eat."

"Those families have been associated with those witches for a very long time, so while it may have started as that?—"

"You're defending them."

Everest fixed him with a glare that made the hair on his arms prickle. "I am explaining. To you, it looks black and white. To those shifters, it is not."

"Because they've been indoctrinated. What happens if they want to leave?"

"You have money and privilege and power…and one member of your family in each generation volunteers…why would you walk away from that? They are guaranteed protection, and any troubles they find themselves in are erased."

"Let me guess, if they try to leave, then trouble finds them?" The Shadow Board was a criminal organization. The only lives that mattered were their own.

"I do not know."

"And if they have so many volunteers, why did they traffic shifters?" Cadel could guess, but he wanted to hear the excuses from Everest.

Everest opened his mouth, but no words came out. Then he sighed. "Because they don't kill the volunteers."

"And your brother has been with them for over two centuries. He's been raised to be compliant and serve. What makes you think he wants to be rescued?"