by Lisa Daniels
He challenged me with a look. When he was satisfied that I would not interrupt him again, he corrected his approach. “You have lived here in relative freedom. Knowing what some of the other princesses in the neighboring countries have endured, I thought you were smart enough to appreciate my leniency. The past 24 hours have proven that you do not appreciate it, so I will no longer show the same magnanimous approach to you living in my palace. Remember, you were the one who chose this path. You will be the one to regret your decisions by this time next week. Whatever you have heard about the prince, it doesn’t even begin to cover what he is actually like.”
Glaring up at him, I could not help but say, “I’m certain what I have heard about Lord Derrick is only a fraction as well. Yet it is far worse.”
A meaningful grin spread across my father’s face. “So you decided to choose the lesser of the two evils. I suppose I cannot fault you for that. But what if I had found someone else, someone who would have treated you well, and I was holding him for the last round of negotiations? That means that you ruined it all with your meddling.”
“It is hypothetical and nothing more. I know that you have not found anyone else and you are just trying to make me regret what I did. Don’t waste your time because I know that you don’t care about my future, just what you can get out of selling me.”
He glared down at me, not even bothering to deny it. Instead he changed his tactic. “Who visited you last night?”
“Who says that anyone visited me last night?”
“I heard that the men in front of your door were knocked out, but none of my other guards were.”
“It was incredibly easy, too. They were too surprised to react when I opened the door.”
His eyes narrowed as he analyzed what I was saying. “You expect me to believe that you would be able to knock out two guards?”
“Do you think that someone managed to sneak past all of the other guards, knocked the guards out in front of my door, came into my room to spend the night, and then just left? What the hell would anyone have to gain by doing that?”
“That is what I want to know.”
I threw my hands up in the air, ignoring the throbbing pain in my back and wrist. “It’s not something I can answer because that is not what happened. If you are going to slander me, you had best have a sensible theory to back it up. Otherwise, everyone is going to learn what you really think of your daughter, and that will get back to the prince. What will happen to your plans then?”
My father’s eyes went to the door, and there was clear concern on his face. He had been so angry, he had spoken without thinking, and it was only my words that reminded him what he stood to lose by reacting instead of thinking. Turning back to me, he glowered, “What would be the purpose in knocking out two guards and then remaining here?”
With a heavy sigh, I tried to look like I was confessing. “I had hoped to leave the palace entirely. I didn’t realize how many guards you had stationed along the way. It was hard enough knocking out two guards, do you really think I could take out all of the ones stationed between here and the gates?”
My father watched me for a moment, then asked another question, “So why were you undressed this morning?”
“Like I said, it was strenuous knocking out two much larger men. I was hot and sweaty by the time I got back to my room. I had no idea that you were going to send the steward up to see me this morning. I figured that I was just going to get food and water until my wedding. Believe me, I would have been properly dressed before he got here had I known he was coming.”
“Then why did you torment him?”
“I’m bored and he was here.”
My father chewed on his cheeks for a moment, clearly thinking over my explanation. “Well, I will remove those concerns for you. Your wedding is only a few days away. I think some fresh water will be all you need between now and then. There. See? All you had to do was tell me, and I will make your wishes come true. No more visitors.”
With that, he turned and left my room. I stared at the door for I had no idea how long. My cheek, back, and wrist were hurting, but those were things I could deal with. For the next six days I was not going to be given any food. While my father was correct that water was all I needed, I had not eaten much yesterday either. The state I would be in by the time the wedding rolled around was questionable at best. Clearly my father would put together a plan to hide the fact that he had been starving me, but how would the prince react when he realized that I would not be able to perform on our wedding night?
Once he was married to me, the prince would have no reason to care what happened to me. If I were not able to carry his child, allowing me to die would be his best option. My father knew that.
And he didn’t care.
Pulling myself off of the floor, I began to clean myself up and try to determine how to get out of my current situation. There was a deep cut on my cheek. He had made sure to turn at least one of his rings so that it hurt me. There was time to rationalize it before the prince arrived, as if he would even care. I was no beauty, and it wasn’t like the prince would care too much about my appearance.
Though I had thoroughly enjoyed my night with Leland, I knew better than to rely on him. He had two friends currently in the palace, and they clearly took priority over some woman he was simply assessing for compatibility. I had no idea exactly what that was supposed to mean, but it was clear that was his only interest in me. No different than anyone else who had approached me.
If I was going to get out of this, I could only rely on myself.
I muttered as I looked out the window, “Well, if it gets down to it, I can see how far I can climb out the window. And if I fall, it will be a better death than what my father has planned.”
With that, I began to clean up and consider my options.
Chapter 5
The First Meeting
True to his word, I had no visitors for the next two days. Twice a day, a guard would knock on my door and leave a pitcher of water. I did not have enough water to clean up because by the end of that first day, I was drinking to stop the pain in my stomach. There was no doubt this would not last, but the way it would end looked increasingly less pleasant.
Over that first day, I spent a good bit of time considering my situation and the easiest way out of it. Since I had confessed to clubbing the guards, whoever was stationed outside would certainly be keeping an eye out for me. Too late, I realized that my explanation put me in worse danger—it assumed that Leland would use the same method to get into my room. If he didn’t come, then my only real option was the window.
To test my theory about the guards outside, I tried to open my door. As expected, it had been locked from the outside. With the closest passageway door two flights down, the window was my only option. A voice said through the door, “Sorry, princess, but you are not allowed to leave your room.”
I saw no reason to even dignify that with an answer.
Moving to the window, I looked down to see just how far I would need to go. While it would be great to make it all the way to the ground, I knew that would be far more difficult than risking slipping into a window below me and getting to one of the passages to escape. I was already feeling weak after having eaten very little for two days. I knew enough about myself to doubt my abilities to climb down the side of the tower at the best of times. The way I was feeling, a pain in my stomach and another in my back, it would be suicide to try to go all of the way to the bottom. Going a couple of floors was going to be enough of a challenge.
I leaned over a little, then immediately pulled myself back as my head began to spin. Bracing myself against the wall, I leaned my head back and looked up at the ceiling. “Get it together, Jada. If you don’t make it out within the next five days, you will be leaving here a slave in six.” The world around me spun for a second longer, but it quickly passed.
With a deep breath, I turned and looked out the window again. My hands held on to the side, but my
eyes ran down the stone, looking for the closest window. The closest passage was two floors down, but on the other side of the tower. It meant that I would need to pass through the room and hallway to reach the door. I had no idea how many guards were on duty or where they were stationed. As much as I wanted to believe it would be easy once I was off my current floor, I knew that my father would be wary of my abilities. After all, I was his daughter. He knew that I would be looking to escape through any means possible. It was almost surprising that he didn’t ask someone to stay in the room with me.
Almost.
After what he said to me, I believed that he thought I might seduce anyone in the room, so he chose to leave me alone. Knowing that I was still a risk to his plans, he would likely ensure that there were plenty of soldiers on the floors below me. Should I make it out of my room, there would be little chance that I would find any escape. A part of me thought that he was hoping I would plummet to my death. It wouldn’t surprise me. Sure, it would ruin things with the prince, but my father was likely coming up with some kind of accident that would explain it. A bit like a morbid curiosity, he would be interested to see if I would just surrender and accept. He had certainly known that I was planning something, and perhaps he was trying to figure out if this was it. Ever since I had stormed into the room and announced my decision, he had ensured that it would be incredibly difficult for me to escape. I was pretty much isolated from the rest of the world in my room. Now I didn’t even have access to the servants to get messages to anyone. Not that I had anyone to contact. Mrs. Teasdon certainly couldn’t have done anything for me, and I would never ask her to help me because it would put her at too much risk.
“You may just be thinking from a place of paranoia, too, you fool. He would lose too much if you died. Especially if the prince decided to attack because of my death.” I heard myself speaking, but I wondered if I was just trying to make myself feel better. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter.”
I moved back into the room, the emptiness of my stomach beginning to take over my thoughts. As much as I wanted to believe that Leland would be back for me, I knew better than to put my trust in someone I barely knew. If anything, I had failed him once. Instead of meeting him as promised, I got myself locked up. If I was being honest, I was surprised that he had come looking for me.
Lying on my bed, I stared at the ceiling and gave myself permission to think back on that night with him. One of my hands raised to my lips and felt them as if that would bring him back to me. I closed my eyes and smiled for a moment before the pull on my cheek reminded me that I was still healing. My father’s ring had given me a deep cut that had just scabbed over. Any movement of my mouth was pretty much guaranteed to reopen the wound. Feeling weak, pathetic, and weary, I just stared at the ceiling, willing my mind to leave my prison.
Leland had told me what the world was like outside of the city. I had never had a chance to experience it myself, not with how cautious my father was of his sole heir. I had been easy to control for so much of my life that he had plenty of reason to be overprotective. Not like now. Shaking the thoughts away, I forced my mind to focus on the world that I had heard described during the couple of visits I had made to Leland’s cell. A small smile momentarily moved my lips as I thought about that first encounter.
I had snuck past the guards and moved quietly up to the floor where they had been keeping him. Our dungeons were strange, with some above ground and others below. The lower the prisoner, the more dangerous they were considered. Yet they had placed a shifter on one of the highest levels of the tallest turrets. It still made no sense to me, but then I didn’t feel that an explanation was required.
His voice greeted me before I saw him. “What have I done to attract the attentions of a princess?”
My head turned to look behind me. He was the only prisoner on this floor, but there were guards constantly checking on him. I worried that they may not be too far, and then I would be in trouble.
“Don’t worry, little one. The closest guard is three floors away.” He then switched to an exaggerated whisper, “Or do you fear something else?”
I hardened my expression and moved to the bars of his cell. Clearly they had gone through a lot to make sure that he could not escape. Not only was his cell tiny, but he was chained to the wall by his wrists, ankles, and neck. I stood and stared at what I saw.
“Perhaps you still haven’t had your lessons on manners. It is rude to stare.”
Despite his situation, the shifter in front of me still had a sense of humor. My eyes took him in as I tried to figure out what to say now that I was looking at a shifter for the first time.
His warm smile caught me off guard while I was trying to think of what to say. “Did you come to see the curiosity? Or were you hoping for a little taste of danger?”
The tone he had adopted shook me out of my state. Giving him what I thought was a haughty look, I responded, “I wasn’t sure what to believe.”
He tilted his head to the side as much as he could. “Didn’t believe that they had caught a shifter?”
“No.”
“Were you doubting that they had managed to finally pin me in the cell?”
“No.”
“Then what did you find unbelievable?”
“I don’t feel it necessary to tell you.”
One of his eyebrows rose and a grin spread across his face. “The haughty princess. Not beautiful enough to be married. Too smart to push her luck. Now she pushes in another direction in an attempt to find a way out.”
My teeth clenched at his words. I wasn’t sure how, but he had managed to figure out what I wanted from him without me saying anything.
“Apparently I was able to divine your motive for coming, if not what you wanted to see for yourself.”
“Are you in a position to be analyzing anyone?”
He gave an effortless shrug of his shoulders, “I’m always in a position to analyze and judge. It is my reason for being here.”
“Are you planning on attacking my father’s kingdom?” The way his brow creased was satisfying, but I didn’t want him to feel that I was ignorant. “Of course not. There is nothing for you here. No matter what the king and his men are saying, I’ve researched enough history to know that your kind has no interest in ruling over humans. Whenever shifters start appearing in the city, women start to disappear.”
I watched as his mouth moved ever so slightly. “So you think that we come to claim women for some kind of sacrifice?”
“No one has been able to figure out what you do with them.”
“So you came to ask?”
I nodded my head.
His eyes narrowed a little, “And what will you do with the information?”
“It depends on what the answer is.”
“Are you certain you want to know?”
I thought back over the little that was in the records about shifters. They always won, so I had no doubt that much of what was recorded was either an exaggeration or an assumption that had nothing to do with the reality. After considering it for a second, I answered honestly, “No, I suppose it does not matter. Whatever your answer, my mind is already made up.”
He blinked once in response, my words apparently not the response he had anticipated. “And just what have you decided?”
“I came to ask if you would be kind enough to get me out of here.”
His eyes widened. The humor that had been in his face and voice was gone. “And what makes you think that things will be better by leaving here?”
“I don’t know that it will be better, but I have a difficult time thinking that it could be any worse than my future if I remain.”
“It is very likely that death is what waits for you if you leave here for the wide world. Your lessons here will not have prepared you for life outside. Would it really be worse to marry a rich man and bicker with him for the rest of your life?”
“Neither of the men my father is considering now is to my liking. On
e will care little for me as long as I can pop out babies for him. The other will use me for something far more nefarious. I would prefer to take my chances with the world at large.”
“Perhaps you underestimate the world outside of the palace. Things can get worse for you.”
“At least I would be able to die on my terms. To act as I see fit instead of being told what to do and being checked when I don’t follow someone else’s demands on me.”
“Those are some strong words, but I very much doubt you realize just what kind of world you would be entering.”
“That is true. However, I do know what world I am in and where it will lead me. I prefer to have some say rather than to just accept the whims of my father.”
“Are you sure that I won’t gobble you up?”
I smiled at his words. Clearly he thought I was being childish or foolish, perhaps even both. “At least it would be quick.”
At this, he laughed. “You are interesting. I think I might just like you, princess.”
I smiled back at him, “Not half so much as you are about to.” I stepped forward, my eyes casting back the way I had come.
“They are still a ways from here. No one will be on this floor for at least another 30 minutes.”
“Good to know.” With that, I pulled out the keys, then unlocked the cell. Stepping into it, I moved to the shifter pinned to the wall. I barely looked at him as I undid the locks keeping him against the cell wall. “There. Now you won’t have to strain yourself to get out of them.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” he said, rubbing his wrists.
“These kinds of things don’t usually hold a healthy shifter. If you wanted out, I doubt that anything so primitive could hold you.”
