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Chapter 13

13

N eve stood in shock as the guards surrounded Pine and shouldered her out of the way. Her heart hammered in her chest, disbelief coursing through her veins as even more guards poured into the ballroom.

The room buzzed with eager anticipation, whispers like a swarm of biting insects, but all she could focus on was the torment etched on Pine's face.

"Stop!" she shouted, her voice breaking through the chaos. The guards ignored her as they began to usher Pine away in an impenetrable wall of pikes and men.

A desperate adrenaline spurred her forward to try and free Pine, but a guard loomed before her, blocking her path. She pushed past him, heart racing. What was going on? How could this happen?

The dragged Pine away, leaving her alone in the ballroom surrounded by dragons eager to see how this would play out. Neve wanted to scream at them, to demand they do something about the injustice going on. But the expectation in the air hung thick. These lords and ladies wanted her to make a scene; they wanted the entertainment.

Who cared about a man's freedom when there was entertainment to be had?

She needed to figure out what was going on and find out how to help Pine. She had to protect him. Instinct drove her out of the ballroom and into the hallway, away from the grinning courtiers. If anyone could help her, it was Briar. She had to find Pine's sister so they could do whatever came next.

Did dragons have lawyers?

In the hallway, the echoes of laughter and music faded into eerie silence. Without any other idea, she walked on, expecting to be stopped at any moment. If they were really worried about treason, shouldn't the place be crawling with security? Neve furtively glanced down the corridor and quickened her pace, her pulse quickening as she heard whispers drifting from another room. She pressed her back against the cool stone wall, straining to catch snippets of conversation.

"… heard he wants to overthrow the king …"

"… Lord Toro said that scum's been planning this for years …"

"I heard he said something to that human amusement of his. Wouldn't be surprised if he did his father in. I never trusted him."

Anger heated her blood, and Neve could have sworn she felt her fingertips get red with actual fire. If she had Pine's powers right now, she'd burn this place to the ground.

She scrambled to remember what she and Pine had even argued about. It all seemed so long ago now. She'd wanted to go home; he asked her to say. Had they even said something about the king? Neve couldn't remember. They certainly hadn't talked about treason.

She had to find Briar.

A part of her wanted to hunt down Lord Toro and give him a piece of her mind. She hadn't thought of him at all in the past two weeks, but she'd known there was something off about the way he was talking to her. She'd thought he was just a creep, not that he was scheming to get her … Pine in trouble.

She kept moving, slipping into the shadows as she heard more whispering voices. Peering around the corner, she spotted a servant carrying a stack of papers, clearly anxious and whispering hurriedly to a group of guards huddled together.

"Lord Toro said these must be signed by the prisoner. He demands his confession," the servant said, a quiver of fear in his voice.

Neve gritted her teeth as she listened to the servant. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Lord Toro was orchestrating this entire charade, and he expected Pine to play along. Did he really think no one would stop him?

She was going to. She knew the truth.

Frankly, she wouldn't care if Pine had been conspiring against the king. She didn't care about kings or princes or whoever was in charge; she just cared for her dragon lord.

More than cared for, if she was being honest.

She had the shape of the plot in her head now. Lord Toro had accused Pine of treason. For some reason, the king had believed him. And if she didn't find Pine soon, they'd make him sign a false confession, and then …

Well, she wasn't sure what they did to traitors here, but it couldn't be anything good.

Was Pine being kept in some dungeon somewhere? Would they torture him? She wanted to find him and set him free, but she had no idea where to look or if he was even in the palace. For all she knew, there was a prison on the other side of town where he'd be locked away in a tower forever.

She had to act now.

Neve crept closer to the group, her mind racing. She needed information, and she needed it fast. The servant clearly knew something, and the guards had walked away. If she was going to take a risk, she needed to take it now.

She took a deep breath and stepped out of the shadows, approaching the servant confidently. "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. What's happening to Lord Pine? There was some sort of commotion in the ballroom, but I missed it all."

The servant jumped, clutching papers to his chest. "M-Miss, you shouldn't be out here." His eyes darted around nervously.

"Please." She tried not to sound desperate, but it was getting hard not to. "Where did they take him?" All thoughts of pretending she was some uninterested third party had evaporated. She wasn't good at playing a part. She just wanted Pine back.

The servant's eyes widened as the beat of boots on the ground announced the guards returning, and he quickly turned to address them. "The human was asking about Lord Pine."

Damn it!

"That's not true!" Maybe throwing a fit would throw them off, but one grabbed her by the arm hard enough to bruise before she could even try.

"His lordship said to be on the lookout for the pet human," said the guard holding her.

"Take her into custody," said the other one. "Lord Toro will want to question her himself."

Neve's stomach twisted with dread as the guard's hands closed even more firmly around her arms. She looked frantically down the corridor, hoping against hope that Briar or someone else might come to her aid, but the hallway remained frustratingly empty.

As the guards marched her away, Neve's mind raced, desperately searching for a way to escape and find Pine. She couldn't give up, not when he needed her. But the iron grip of the guard left her with little room to maneuver, and the fear of what might happen to Pine if she resisted only fueled her growing sense of helplessness.

She couldn't help him from inside a cage. But she had no idea how she was going to get out of this mess.

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