Phillip slouched back in his seat. Bugger a fire cock. George had decided to get obsessed with the wrong female.
Daemon smiled. “You’re going after my witch, George?”
He ignored Victor when their youngest brother also stood, on the other side of the table.
“The Norwoods need to be brought in for a trial. There is no denying that they were involved in the poisonings,” Phillip said, inserting reason to try to salvage their plan. “We can’t complete the investigation without their interrogations.”
“I’m sure the ham for supper was rancid, that’s all,” Daemon said casually, as if he was telling them it was going to rain today.
Phillip raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
Daemon was not gullible.
“The king didn’t eat the ham,” William said.
Pretty brave of him to squeak at all in Daemon’s presence. William really must want the witches captured.
“Victoria was kidnapped,” Victor stated, giving his priority. “We are going to need horses—one each, and spares for the ladies, when we find them.”
Nobody was going to be dragged. Maybe Victor would request padded, silk saddles for them next.
Phillip had been right to send Victor after them.
Daemon took a seat at the end of the table, ignoring his brothers left standing.
Phillip really should have risen from his seat when their older brother and acting king entered the room, but Daemon didn’t usually insist on formalities between them.
Besides, it would interfere with the deep slouch Phillip had going on, his chin nearly to the table as he contemplated how much he was willing to stick his neck out for a witch that had inflamed his interest with one sweaty palms inducing kiss and her closed-lipped secrets.
Daemon took out a little block of wood and a whittling stick. He levitated them with his air, precisely balancing the currents to keep the stick just six inches off the table, then he spun it.
Paper thin slivers of wood were shaved at whirling speed, knife flipping this way and that to cut higher or lower, and the block of wood not shifting a hair vertical from where it hovered and spun.
Everyone sat.
Phillip knew they were all wondering the same thing.
It was important to remember that while Daemon was their brother, he would never be just like them.
The kind of power that would let Daemon peel the skin from someone, agonizing millimetre-by-millimetre, was not that different from Phillip’s own air—but Phillip would never do it.
Daemon’s subtle threat was all the more frightening because he could and would employ his power to get what he wanted.
Until now, Daemon had used his strength for the king.
A sharpened stake floated in place of the wood bock. Daemon had carved a wicked point to it, still spinning the wood around.
“If the claim could point us in the right direction . . .” George said, trailing off.
He was closest to the pile of wood shavings, brushing a few stray bits off of his shirt.
Why was George so damned reckless with his health?
He was like a pit bull once he sunk his teeth into something and he never, ever let go.
Mentioning the claim was just the spark needed to light the dry tinder of Daemon’s temper.
Their eldest brother wasn’t as restrained as George and Victor, burning with all the fire the two of them suppressed.
The stake stopped spinning and pointed towards George.
Enough was enough!
It had been a miserable week, with trying to contain the damage from the simultaneous poisoning attacks. The one on their father had been nearly deadly, in a way that was distinctly different from the nuisance poisonings he and his brothers had suffered.
The real culprit was getting away with attempted regicide, while they bickered, and even though he found it difficult to believe Jill had done it, she would be questioned, as well as any other suspects.
Daemon’s place on the throne was deliberately done as a temporary measure. If Phillip had taken over, the nobles would have his father dead and buried already.
The king was ageing and the nobles wanted a change. No one was desperate enough to want that change to be Daemon.
It still left Phillip feeling strange under his oldest brother’s power, when they normally avoided interacting with each other at all.
The supported and repudiated heirs, their positions forced upon them by an assassin's arrow.
Phillip straightened up from his slouch and used air to slice cleanly through the head of Daemon’s stake, so it would be made harmless. He felt his air-blade hit Daemon’s shield, before it dissipated.
The decapitated head of the stake rolled over to George’s side of the table.
Hopefully, Phillip’s head wasn’t about to follow.
“I can’t feel the claim any longer,” Daemon said, letting the headless stake also drop. He eyed the disembodied head, inches from George. “Good luck on your search.”
The whittling knife flew straight for Phillip’s right eye.
Daemon hadn’t even looked at him before attacking.
Phillip shielded air, just a three-inch circle around the point of impact, and used his left hand to direct the knife handle to his palm, getting control of it before the blade even touched his shield.
Daemon whistled.
“Been practicing, Phil?” he asked, finally directing a lazy glance his way.
Only Daemon knew Phillip’s air was his strongest power. The presumption was Phillip’s blue fire took after his father’s strength and would serve him well when he became king.
Phillip should have burned the stake instead of using air to redirect it.
William and George were both eyeing the whittling knife Phillip was now palming.
“I need a hobby to keep me busy, while the rest of you deal with this rancid ham business,” Philip said, minimizing his magic and role.
He stood up first and pocketed the clever little knife, impressed by the intricate air tunnels moulded into the handle.
Daemon knew his weapons almost as well as Victor.
“Enjoy your free time while it lasts,” Daemon said, also standing.
Phillip smiled at his brother despite the hidden threat.
None of them were free.
Crazy Likes Company
Maeren
Elizabeth
Two Weeks Ago
The first time Elizabeth had someone in her head she couldn’t control, she had been barely outside the gates of the castle. It had been a shock.
At the time, she’d been busy trying to feed her lightning to Victoria’s muscles to move the spell paralyzed princess through the gates and ensure her family’s escape.
Wham! She’d been hit with what seemed like an illusion at first.
Dark cavern walls and flickering firelight from a torch, up ahead, had sent her stumbling forward in confusion on the bright morning path she had been walking, behind Victoria.
Her loss of focus had sent the princess to her knees. Victoria had been caught by her mother’s air.
Jill’s gasp of surprise helped anchor Elizabeth to her reality from the competing vision.
“What are you doing?” her mother’s voice had sharply questioned.
They were out of the hearing of the castle guards, but not out of sight yet.
“I can’t see,” Elizabeth quickly answered, fearful that Daemon had already connected with her mind, using his magic, and figured out that they were escaping.
She could wait here for him with Victoria and slow him down from chasing the rest of her family, so they could still make an escape.
“Go without me,” she insisted.
“Princess, did you hurt your ankle? Let me feel, so I might heal the injury for you,” her mother said, loud enough for anyone listening.
“Who are you?”
A male voice had asked the question, smooth and soft as he tried to coax her into revealing her ident
ity.
That wasn’t Daemon’s dark, commanding voice in her head!
It didn’t seem like lightning at all, more like she had been watching a movie on mute, and suddenly, the sound was turned on.
The speaker was talking out loud. It wasn’t his thoughts that she was reading.
Hopefully, this meant Elizabeth’s thoughts were unheard, as well.
“I’m a purple hippopotamus,” she answered, but in her thoughts, not speaking out loud.
“I need to close my eyes,” she whispered out loud to her confused family. “If someone could take one of my arms to help me? Put my other hand on the shoulder of my Lasier, for support. That should let us all get on with our afternoon walk,” she proposed.
She figured that if she was guided on the path and touching Victoria, then she could use her magic blindly.
Better to hide what she could, until she figured out who was in her head and the extent of what he could perceive through her.
She could keep her location secret if the male in her head saw through her eyes, like she did his.
Simply closing her eyes would block him from seeing anything of her sight, too.
She didn’t risk thinking her suggestions to the others, feeling unsure despite her ‘purple hippopotamus’ test.
If whoever was controlling her vision could spy on her thoughts as well, he might have known better than to reveal that to her. He could be pretending not to have heard her silly answer about hippos.
“She’s at a woods but I can’t see where exactly. She’s not alone.” The male spoke with a bit of frustration, taking some of the honey out of his voice. “At least, she is awake this time, and moving.”
There was clearly someone with him. His last words had sounded relieved.
Had he known that she had been recently in a magic induced coma? That made her think, again, how he must be connected to Daemon or the castle.
He still didn’t mention purple hippos, but Elizabeth figured it was worth testing further.
“I’m on my way to grandma’s house with my new red cloak,” she said in her thoughts.
Her mother’s earth grip firmly took her left arm. She was guided to Victoria’s limp hand, instead of her shoulder.
Elizabeth squeezed, while Jill half dragged her up and forward on the other side.
Employing her lightning blind, Elizabeth made Victoria’s feet take a step for each of her own.
“There’s a bit of a limp left, Princess, but a slightly faster pace will help you work the stiffness off from the healing,” her mother said, loudly.
Their ploy was almost seamless, without Elizabeth needing to speak in their heads to coordinate them.
Her family didn’t question her strange behaviour, which was a blessing.
Perhaps they had already figured out she was hiding from a telepathic attack.
“She’s with the princess.”
The male spoke again. Her vision of what he was seeing hadn’t disappeared even when she had closed her eyes.
She held in a gasp as his vision swung away from the cavern walls that he had kept her focused on, and around to the darkened figure of a large vampire, who she recognized.
A dragon shifter.
It was the one that had captured her, temporarily. He had been a big, grey dragon when he was in animal form.
His eyes were black in the dark cave, where they were standing, but every little bit of light from the torch glittered in them with his satisfaction shining back.
Okay, the male in her head could hear whatever she said, or anyone else around her said, and he could see whatever she saw.
Mind-reading seemed less likely. It was the same for her.
This wasn’t lightning, although some aspects seemed similar.
This was still bad.
Daemon chasing after them already would have been the worst-case scenario, especially as they were barely outside the castle grounds.
The dragon shifter that had bitten Victoria connecting to her definitely qualified as the runner-up of the worst-case scenario.
Elizabeth couldn't even tell Victoria about him, right now, to warn her.
Being told the big dragon that had taken a bite out of her was able to communicate by this new telepathic connection, and possibly track them down, would send Victoria into a panic, without the means to escape.
That would be even crueler than what they already were doing to her, forcing Victoria’s body into compliance with their plan to allow the rest of them to get away.
Elizabeth was responsible for seeing them through this situation.
First, she had to figure out whose mind was connected to her eyes and ears. Then, she would be able to determine the risk he represented.
Already, she knew the connection was dangerous because it involved dragons. The look in the big shifter’s eyes when the princess was mentioned was plenty of warning.
Could they be tracked by the connection this other male had formed?
“She’s walking blindly to stop us from seeing her location.”
The male in her head spoke to his companion, revealing he’d figured out her plan.
He had been walking, with a glance every so often at the shifter, she’d recognized, beside him. The dark cavern walls were getting clearer as they neared a source of light.
“Smart, but you can’t keep your eyes closed forever,” he whispered, as if talking only to her, although his companion probably could hear him, as well.
“Keep walking,” Elizabeth said when her mother asked if she was feeling better. “When it’s safe, I think we should change into clothes more appropriate for a nice jog.”
“Who are you running from?”
The male halted, his voice sharpening.
Elizabeth almost stopped herself, following her sight, which was actually his vision.
This new way of communicating was like her illusions, but she had difficulty seeing past them, to the real world.
It might require the use of her lightning to keep her focus on both ‘realities’ simultaneously.
“You cannot run with your eyes closed,” her mother pointed out. “I would prefer not to be healing you and the princess of sprained ankles every hundred meters.”
It would be difficult. “I’ll put Victoria in front of me. I’ll walk behind, keeping my eyes on her back,” Elizabeth suggested, hoping there wasn’t anyone from the castle still close enough to overhear.
They really ought to be away from even the furthest sentries at this point.
“You will not injure yourself trying to hide from me, stubborn witch!”
The male spoke, and then, as suddenly as he was in her head, his presence disappeared.
Only the red of the sunny day, through her closed eyes, filled her sight.
Was it a trick?
She walked blindly until her mother said it was safe to change, and even then, she stuck to her plan and walked with her eyes focused on the princess in front of her.
The male and his shifter companion already knew about Victoria, so looking at the princess’s back wouldn’t reveal any secrets.
Jill whispered in Elizabeth's ear every few minutes, inquiring if ‘they were alone’ with a nervous flutter that was a hint of the panic her sister had to be feeling.
She tried to reassure Jill that everything was okay. Once she was sure the dragons were gone from her head, she even gave them a sort-of explanation for her strange behaviour.
Unexpectedly, she lied to her family.
Jill was already strung tight. Their mother had just helped them commit an act that would severe her connection to Maeren forever. Her homeland, that her daughters both knew she missed and would mourn anew.
Elizabeth couldn’t add to her family’s stress by telling them yet another danger was tracking them.
It was easier to tell her family that she had picked up on some of Daemon’s thoughts, and those of other guards. She told them she’d been cautiously trying to hide anything at the time that c
ould have been accidentally transmitted.
The closed eyes and hushing everyone earlier was excused. Her explanation was flimsy, but they all needed relief and nobody questioned it further.
If only by speaking the lie, she could make it come true.
Elizabeth worried about it, all alone, as they continued on their escape, none of them ready to call a halt until they were truly far away.
Perhaps it had been a one-off misfire of magic. Elizabeth was prone to misfires in the human realm.
All the magic she’d expended on the dragons, with their own strange powers, a few days ago, could have done something to her lightning.
She was using a lot of magic, now, to keep Victoria completely under her control.
Victoria’s earth-spelled paralysis meant Elizabeth could move the princess forward when Victoria’s mind screamed ‘stop’ at her.
Elizabeth pushed limits of her magic that she didn’t know she could reach. It was exhausting, a perfect set-up for misfires.
Maybe, though, the dragons also had magic that allowed the connection?
Elizabeth had seen the bite on her shoulder, when her mother helped her get dressed for their sudden escape.
Her mother had explained that both Victoria and Elizabeth had been bitten by dragons, while Elizabeth had been unconscious from spelling the dragons to sleep.
The mystery of another dragon, who Elizabeth hadn’t seen, but who had, nonetheless, stolen a nibble, was an obvious clue, now that the dragons had been in her head.
The dragon must have forged this connection on purpose when he tasted her, while she had been unconscious and vulnerable!
It left her feeling even more paranoid, wondering why the dragons would track them. Their sudden appearance in the caves, through the library portal, had been unplanned. Why would the dragons go through the trouble?
Wouldn’t it have been easier to rip their throats out, when Elizabeth had been unconscious and Victoria vulnerable?
Perhaps Victor and George really had scared them off, and now the dragons were on the hunt. They were said to be desperate for rich witch blood.
The potential threat made her rush her runaway family across Maeren at a breakneck pace.
Did she need to scare her family or Victoria any further by revealing this new complication?
No Witch Way Out (Maeren Series Book 2) Page 3
