“Touché. Well, in that case, I’m in.”
They had arrived at the palace steps now, so Isa had to resume acting like a jerk to Leo. But before the guard caught up with them and could hear what she was saying again, she whispered, “I’m really sorry if my dad beats you up. He’s a jerk. But I promise we’re going to stop him.”
Leo shrugged. “It’s alright. It won’t be the first time I’ve been beaten up.”
Isa nodded and took a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with, then.”
Chapter Five
Leo lay on the cold, concrete bottom of his cage, trying not to move anymore than necessary. Even breathing hurt, which made him wonder if he’d broken a rib. No, it wasn’t that bad. The pain was just amplified because his body was already so weak from hunger. His normal shifter ability to recover rapidly from injuries was slowed down somewhat because he had no energy, but he was fine. He just had to rest a little longer than normal, which wasn’t much of a problem since he was stuck in a cage with nothing to do but rest, anyway.
One of his eyes was swollen shut, and he had black and blue bruises all over his body, so he was sure he wasn’t a pretty sight right now. But overall he was fine. The meeting with the Emperor had been worth it, if only because it had given him the chance to make secret plans with Isa.
When Leo had been brought back to the cell and thrown roughly in by a couple of palace guards, Otto had looked at him and shook his head.
“What did you expect, man?” Otto had asked. “That you could waltz in and negotiate with the Emperor? This is Gilt Hollow. The only logic these people listen to is the logic that says they’re better than us because they’re human and we’re not.”
Leo had only grunted and groaned in response. He wasn’t about to tell Otto what had really happened. Even though there was a wall of cage between them, he was pretty sure Otto would find a way to kill him if he knew that Leo had told the Princess about the secret tunnel to Bear Hollow.
God, I hope I can trust her. If this had all been some ploy, Bear Hollow was screwed and it was all Leo’s fault.
But Leo truly believed that this was not a ploy. Something told him he could trust Isa, and that she was going to be the missing link the shifters needed to finally break free from Gilt Hollow, once and for all.
Something also told him that there was something deeper developing between Isa and him than just two people who happened to be working on the same side of the revolution. He’d seen the way she looked at him, as though she were looking right into his soul and liked what she saw. To be honest, he liked what he saw, too. She was beautiful, genuine, and kind. At least, she was all of those things if she followed through on this plan with him.
But as thoughts of being attracted to Isa flooded Leo’s mind, he tried to push them away. Even if they were attracted to each other, what future did they have together? She might be fighting on the shifters’ side, but she was still from Gilt Hollow. And she was the daughter of the freaking Emperor at that. Her life had been about as different from Leo’s as it could possibly be. She might not value her possessions as much as most of the Gilt Hollow citizens, but he was pretty sure she would never want to live in a place like Bear Hollow, where everyone lived in huts that didn’t even have working electricity half the time.
Still, it was nice to dream about what kissing a woman as beautiful as Isa would feel like. Leo would not deny himself that much. Dreams were all he had. He’d been in Gilt Hollow so long that he felt like a stranger caught between two worlds. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to have a normal life with a normal lifemate like everyone else in Bear Hollow, so he dreamed about love in whatever way he could and contented himself with that.
Leo had drifted off into actual dreams when a sudden loud noise woke him. Groggy and disoriented, he sat up quickly, wincing at the soreness in his ribs. All around him, other shifters had woken up as well, and were staring at the door. Leo’s heart leapt when he saw that Isa was standing in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. She must have slammed the door open as she always did, causing the loud bang that had pulled him out of sleep.
“M-my Lady,” one of the guards said, timidly greeting her. Leo was sure that the guards would have loved to be able to ban Isa from the room. She had caused them nothing but trouble every time she came in. But Isa wasn’t banned, and the stern look on her face said she had come here to get what she wanted.
“Release this one,” she ordered, pointing at Leo’s cage. Every face in the room turned to look at him in shock, including Otto’s.
“Leo, what’s going on?” Otto asked in a whisper. Worry furrowed his brow.
“It’s fine,” Leo whispered back. “Trust me. I expected this.”
“But, my Lady,” the guards were protesting. Leo noticed that their protests had become a lot weaker than they used to be. Isa had been right. They guards were used to her by now, and their half-hearted protests to her demands showed that they were going to cooperate. Leo’s heart began to beat faster with excitement. This was it. He was really about to get out of here and have a chance to go to Bear Hollow with Isa.
“Do not argue with me,” Isa said sharply. “Have you forgotten that I am the Emperor’s daughter? Do I need to call him down here to remind you? I will gladly do that, although I doubt he will be amused if I have to drag him out of bed in the middle of the night because a handful of guards can’t seem to get it through their head that the Princess’s orders must be respected.”
“Of course, of course. As you wish, Princess.” One of the guards moved to unlock Leo’s cell, then paused and turned to look at Isa. “Would you like him shackled? He can be quite dangerous, and I see you don’t have a guard with you this time.”
“Leave him free. I can handle him. He knows better than to risk angering my father by harming me.”
The guards exchanged worried glances, but they didn’t dare contradict the princess again. Moments later, Leo found himself standing free of his cage, with no shackles on his hands or legs. He felt a bit unsteady on his feet, but he forced himself to stand tall as he glared at the guards. They held their hands over their swords, ready to slice him to pieces if he made one false move toward the princess. If only they knew what was really going on here. Leo stifled back a laugh. He had to play his part well.
Isa was playing her part extremely well. She glanced at Leo, looking him up and down with disgust as though she couldn’t believe she’d been stuck dealing with such a monstrosity. “Come along then,” she said to him in a disdainful tone. “And no funny business. I am a princess, and I’ve been trained to deal with all sorts of threats. Don’t think that I can’t slice you to ribbons with the dagger hidden in my skirts. I wouldn’t mind getting rid of you and not having to run these awful errands for my father anymore, so don’t tempt me.”
Leo nodded solemnly, forcing himself not to smile. He could see Otto’s worried face out of the corner of his eye, and he suddenly wished he’d explained at least a little bit of his plans to Otto. Otto might be paranoid and overprotective, but he was a good man, and he cared about his fellow shifters. Without any clue about what was happening, Otto was going to spend the night fretting about what Leo’s fate might be.
It was too late for Leo to change that now, though. Anything he said would be overheard by the guards and jeopardize the whole mission. So Leo followed Isa out of the room with his eyes low, acting like a man who was worried that he was on his way to his doom.
As soon as they were down the hallway from the room, Isa ducked into one of the rooms that used to be used as a room for the shifter competitors to wait for their matches during the Shifter Games. The room was dark and empty now, lined with benches and lockers that hopefully would never be used again. In the darkness of the room, Isa started stripping off the frilly dress she’d been wearing, revealing the plain black outfit she wore underneath: fitted black pants and a fitted, long-sleeved black shirt.
“Oh thank God,” Leo said when he saw her new out
fit. “I was already worried about how you were going to effectively sneak around in a giant, glittering dress.”
Isa rolled her eyes. “I hate those dresses. I hate pretty much all of the Gilt Hollow clothes, actually. They’re so impractical.”
Leo wanted to tell her that he liked the way she looked in the plain, black clothing better anyway, but he didn’t want to be too forward. So he stayed silent while she shoved the huge dress she’d been wearing into one of the lockers, and then he followed her out of the Arena building.
The most dangerous part of their journey would be getting away from the Arena. The area was well-lit, and there was always a chance that they would run into guards even in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the number of guards patrolling about the Arena had been drastically reduced, since so many of the guards had been killed in the poisoning scandal at the last Shifter Games. Leo and Isa managed to get away from the Arena and into the woods without running into anyone else, and once they were in the woods, Leo knew they would be safe.
Just a few weeks ago, these woods had been constantly crawling with soldiers. But since almost the entire Gilt Hollow army was gone now, the woods were empty and eerily quiet. Leo took over the lead, showing Isa the fastest way to the tunnel entrance. When he got there, he hesitated for just a moment. This was the moment of truth. If Isa had intended to trick him, now would be the perfect time for guards to jump out of the forest and announce that they’d been following the pair and that Leo was in trouble.
He had come this far on faith, though. Might as well keep trusting her. He brushed away the shrubbery that covered the tunnel’s secret entrance and opened the door. Holding his breath, he turned back to look at Isa, praying that she wouldn’t suddenly be joined by Gilt Hollow guards.
To his utter relief, she was still alone. She was staring at the entrance, shaking her head in wonder. “Okay, I’m really glad you came with me. Even with all of your descriptions, I don’t think I would have been able to find that tunnel entrance on my own.”
“It’s really well hidden,” Leo agreed. But he didn’t want to stand around and discuss it. He was still nervous that someone might catch them. “Come on. Let’s get going. We still need to hurry if we’re going to get everything done before someone realizes that I’m missing when I’m not supposed to be.”
Isa nodded and gestured toward the tunnel. “Lead the way.”
A little while later, they emerged from the tunnel at the outskirts of Bear Hollow. This entrance was hidden well, too, and Leo carefully pushed away the leaves and branches blocking his way out of the tunnel.
“Well. Here we are. Bear Hollow.” He looked around at the familiar landscape, his heart instantly aching with longing. If only he could stay here forever, and not go back to Gilt Hollow at all. But he worried if he did that, Isa would get in trouble. Eventually, the guards would be interrogated and someone would realize that Isa had been the one to set Leo free without authorization. He knew she’d be in big trouble then, regardless of the fact that she was the Emperor’s daughter. And after all she was doing for the shifters, Leo didn’t want to take a chance on her getting in trouble because of him. He already knew that he’d be going back across the tunnel with her in a few hours, leaving Bear Hollow behind once again. But he had hope that one day soon he’d be here to stay. If the plan to destroy the palace worked, this war could be over soon.
And if the plan didn’t work, well…he didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to think about how many more shifters might die before all of this was over.
“Where are the streets? And the houses?” Isa’s voice broke into his thoughts.
“Oh. We’re still on the very edge of the town. It’s mostly just trees out here, so we’ll have to walk a bit to get to where it actually starts to look like a town. But I’m warning you right now, it’s probably not going to look like a town to you. We live in glorified huts and the streets are nothing more than dusty trails.”
Isa nodded as though she had known this all along. And perhaps she had known it, in theory. But Leo knew this was the first time she had actually seen Bear Hollow in person, and he watched her eyes grow wider with every step they took toward the town. For Leo, this was home. Even though he’d been in Gilt Hollow for so long, living in a sprawling estate that belonged to a wealthy nobleman, he had never lost sight of the fact that this was home. These humble huts, most of which didn’t even have their own bathrooms but shared an outhouse with another family, were what he had grown up with. He missed the simplicity and community of this place.
But he had to wonder how it all must look to Isa. She seemed remarkably down to earth for the daughter of the Emperor, but still. She’d grown up with unimaginable wealth and power. This must all look like horrible squalor to her. To her credit, though, she didn’t make any shocked comments, and she kept the expression on her face relatively neutral.
“Where will we find your friend?” she asked as they turned the corner on one of the dirt paths.
Leo grinned. “Probably at the bar.” He could hear the faint sound of music from Bear Hollow Brews, which was a few more blocks away. He didn’t know what time it was exactly, but it couldn’t have been too terribly late yet, because the bar was still open. He grabbed Isa by the hand excitedly—not thinking about the fact that it might seem awkward or presumptuous of him to hold her hand until he felt a little jolt of electric heat pass between them.
“Oh! I’m sorry!” he said, pulling his hand back abruptly. “I didn’t mean anything. I just wanted to pull you along to the bar. I was so excited to see my friends and, uh…sorry.”
He stared at her awkwardly, thankful for the darkness that hid the embarrassment in his face. But to his surprise, she reached out and grabbed his hand again. “It’s okay. No need to apologize. I may be a princess, but that doesn’t mean I have to act like one.”
Leo smiled back at her, his heart suddenly feeling like it might burst. He forgot all about the pain in his body from when the Emperor’s men had beaten him, and he forgot about the pain in his stomach from his intense hunger. All he could think about was the sweet warmth spreading through him from where his hand was connected with Isa’s. Boldly, he leaned in and planted a soft kiss on her lips. He knew it was a risky move. She held his life in her hands. She could easily have him killed. She could easily rat him out to her father, and then tell everyone in Gilt Hollow where the secret tunnel was.
But he knew in his heart she wouldn’t do any of those things. He knew she felt the same inexplicably strong connection between them. Somehow, the two of them with their different lives were connected. Leo hoped that connection would last beyond just tonight, however impractical it might be to imagine a future together. But if the night was all they ever had together, he was going to enjoy it. He was going to show the Princess the places that were most important to him, and he knew she wouldn’t look down on him. She was different from all the other women he’d met in Gilt Hollow. Hell, she was even different from all the shifter women he knew. There was something so deep and genuine about her soul. He wanted to hold onto her hand and never let her go.
She let him kiss her, then smiled shyly and said, “We should keep moving.”
She was right, of course. As much as he would have loved to stand there in the deserted street all night, kissing her until the rest of the world disappeared, they had a job to do.
“Yup. Let’s go. Not much further.”
He walked the few short blocks to Bear Hollow Brews with her hand in his, and entered the front door of the bar with a giant smile on his face. He’d missed this place like hell.
But his smile faded when he saw every face in the room turn to look at him. The confusion and even hatred in many of the eyes took him off guard. As the bar fell completely silent, he realized his mistake. He’d brought the Emperor’s daughter into Bear Hollow with no warning and no explanation. Tempers were already on edge here, with many shifters having lost family members in the recent raids and battle.
Most people weren’t going to be happy to see a Gilt Hollow citizen, especially not a Gilt Hollow citizen who happened to be the daughter of the evil Emperor who was responsible for ordering so many shifter deaths. Leo had to get a hold of this situation, and fast.
It probably didn’t help that he was holding Isa’s hand, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to act ashamed of her, just because some of the shifters here might not approve of his choices. Boldly he stepped forward into the room, never letting go of her hand.
“Hello, everyone. I’m here with Princess Isadora of Gilt Hollow because she’s volunteered to help us. Hear me out before you fools all riot.”
Chapter Six
Isa had never been shy. Growing up as a princess had required her to frequently stand in front of large crowds, and she had mastered the art of looking calm and confident no matter how many people were staring at her. But she’d never had so many people staring at her with such animosity, and she found herself involuntarily shrinking back from the angry faces at the bar.
Leo wouldn’t let her step back completely though. He held her hand firmly, and in a loud strong voice he explained why Isa had come, carefully emphasizing how she had broken him out of the cages for this task. As he spoke, the anger in the faces all around her slowly began to fade. By the end of Leo’s explanation, a few people were even clapping. Isa had never seen a crowd’s emotions turn so quickly, but it was clear that the people here loved Leo and trusted him.
“Well, then!” a loud voice from behind the bar called out. “I think this calls for two beers for Leo and Princess Isadora. On the house.”
“I won’t say no to a beer, Axel,” Leo said with a wink at the loud man. “And I’ll take some food, too, if you’ve got any to spare. Gilt Hollow has been trying to starve us all out.”
“Please, everyone, just call me Isa,” Isa said as the volume in the room started to rise again. She wasn’t sure if anyone had heard her, but at least she’d tried. Leo started walking toward the bar, still holding her hand. She went with him, nervously glancing around at the faces of people who less than ten minutes ago had looked like they wanted to murder her. Now, everyone was smiling, and Isa relaxed.
The Princess and the Bear (The Shifter Games Book 5) Page 4
