Essex put a hand on my shoulder. “Jackson, please have a seat,” he said. “I will make you some tea. It will be helping to calm your nerves.”
“I don’t need to calm my nerves,” I shouted. “I need to find my fiancee.”
“Yes, but what good will you be to her if you are angry and confused with such rage?” he asked, his accent heavy and his voice calm. “I will be helping you. Please, sit down and let us talk this over.”
“I’m sick and tired of talking,” I said. “I’m tired of sleeping in her bed alone while she’s out there somewhere being put through hell. I can’t take it anymore.”
Mary Anne stood and put her hand on my arm. “I know how hard this is,” she said. “But Essex is right. We need to sit down and figure this out. This drawing could be a valuable clue, Jackson. I can send a message to Joost and Cristo and the others. Have them start searching every mental institution they can find that’s close to an emerald gate. It’s a place to start at least.”
I shook my head. They wouldn’t find her. The emerald priestess wasn’t dumb enough to have her in some place that anyone could just walk into. She was hidden somewhere out of our reach, and until I found someone who was willing to betray the priestess, Harper was lost to me.
“We need to move the schedule up,” I said. “We need to execute the plan tonight.”
“We’re not ready,” Mary Anne said. “What you’re asking is going to take weeks to plan. We’d be walking into a nightmare if we tried to do it now. We need more resources. More people helping.”
“Then get Andros,” I said. “Get the Resistance involved. Rend. John Pierce. Whoever we can find. Tell them to be here tonight.”
Mary Anne touched my arm. “I know you want to do something, but if we rush into this right now, someone is going to end up getting killed,” she said.
I groaned and paced the floor.
Dammit, why does everything have to be so difficult? I wanted to just get it done without all the careful planning.
But Mary Anne was right.
We needed more time.
“Contact the others,” I said. “Tell them to start searching every mental institution and hospital within a fifty-mile radius of every emerald demon gate. If they don’t find anything, tell them to go a hundred miles.”
I grabbed the drawing.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I need to kill something,” I said, opening the door. “I’m going hunting.”
A Deserted Wing
As soon as I had the opportunity, I shifted and soared through the castle. It was nearly impossible to ditch my handmaidens, but I’d caught them all looking at something out on the balcony.
They weren’t fast enough to keep up with me, but I knew I didn’t have long before one of them found me. I needed to find Ezrah quickly so we could talk in private.
I flew toward the guards’ quarters, hoping he might still be there this early in the morning. But somehow I got turned around and ended up in a deserted wing of the castle. A storm had destroyed part of this wing decades ago, and from the looks of it, my father still hadn’t ordered any repairs on what used to be the main quarters for the maids and cooks.
How many more demons from the outerlands could have lived here in the King’s City if this wing was renovated? Fifty? Maybe more.
I shook my head and turned around, trying to reorient myself when I heard voices coming from one of the old chamber rooms.
The tiny hairs on my arms stood up as I heard my name. I quietly inched toward the room to listen more closely. It was a risk to be here alone when my loyalty was still in question, but I wanted to know who was talking about me.
“Let me deal with the princess,” a woman said.
“Her reappearance here in the castle couldn’t have come at a worse time, Mother. We were so close this time, and we can’t afford any more setbacks right now.”
It took me a moment to place the voices, but when I did, I had to stifle a gasp. It was Tatjana and Orian—Aerden’s mother and sister. What were they doing here away from the main part of the castle? And why would my presence put their plans in danger?
“She’s nothing but an annoyance,” his mother said. “Sooner or later we’ll find a way to prove she isn’t loyal to the crown, and that will be the end of her. Besides, she could be very useful to us.”
“How?” Orian asked.
“She knows things we don’t know,” his mother, Tatjana, said. “Like the location of the Resistance forces. Information about the domed city in the Southern Kingdom. I’ll convince the king that these are resources we must have, and that in order to prove her loyalty, she’ll need to give the information willingly.”
“And what if she doesn’t?”
“Then she’ll be labeled a traitor and the king will get rid of her himself,” his mother said. There was a smile in her voice that made my heart tighten in my chest. “I’ve got everything under control, so stop worrying. It won’t be long now. You have to trust me.”
“I do trust you,” Orian said. “It’s her I don’t trust.”
The voices grew closer and footsteps sounded against the old white stone that paved the floor in this ancient section of the castle. I wanted to hear more of what they were discussing, but I couldn’t afford to be caught listening in.
Reluctantly, I shifted and flew through the corridor and turned down another hallway. I found my way to the guards’ quarters and slowed.
I took a deep breath to calm my heart and smoothed my dress and hair. I needed to look presentable, like a princess who didn’t have a care in the world except serving her kingdom. The thought alone made me want to gag, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
When I found him, Ezrah was preparing for a patrol outside the gates of the King’s City. His eyes widened when he saw me approach, but he forced a smile and stood.
“Princess Lazalea,” he said. “To what do we owe this honor?”
“My mother has just informed me that preparations have begun for a festival in my honor,” I said, chin tilted upward, as if he was nothing more to me than a nameless guard. “I need to speak with you about my security at the event.”
“Of course,” he said. He cleared his throat and excused himself from the room.
As soon as we were around the corner and out of sight, he grabbed my arm. “What were you thinking, coming here? It’s too dangerous for us to be seen together like this,” he said. “You have to stop thinking of yourself and start thinking of what it would mean to the Resistance if my true identity was discovered.”
“If you expect me to be your leader someday, you won’t ever speak to me in that way again,” I said. I ran a hand across my braid. I hadn’t meant to snap at him, but if he realized just how much I’d been sacrificing of myself to be here, he wouldn’t accuse me of being selfish. Not now. “I had to speak to you. Did you hear about the games?”
“Of course,” he said, glancing around to make sure no one else was in the hallway with us. “I probably knew about it before you did.”
“Aerden’s going to enter,” I said. “He’ll volunteer. You have to stop him. He isn’t ready.”
“He won’t,” Ezrah said. “I’ve told him to keep his head down. I’ve told him to wait for us to make a move before he does anything.”
“And how’s that been working out?” I asked, an eyebrow raised. He’d told me about Aerden’s run-in with the guards. How he’d stood up for the older prisoner and risked his own safety to save someone else. “Look, I know him better than you do. He’s not going to stay in that dungeon if he thinks he can fight his way to freedom. He was powerless for years, unable to do anything to earn his own freedom. He thinks he has something to prove.”
“I’ll talk to him,” he said. “But if he decides to enter, there’s nothing I can do to stop him.”
“Find a way,” I said.
“I need to go. We shouldn’t be talking like this.”
“Wait.” I grab
bed his arm and he paused, shifting his weight. “There’s something else I need to tell you. Something about Aerden’s mother.”
“It will have to wait,” he said, motioning toward the approaching footsteps of his fellow guards. “We’re out of time. I’ll come to you when I can get away.”
I clenched my jaw and took in a deep breath. I hated not having more control than this. I hated having to constantly wait and see what would happen next. I wanted action, not waiting.
“Dammit, Ezrah, you said you wanted information. I’m offering it to you. This is important,” I said.
He sighed and glanced behind him. “Speak quickly.”
“When I was searching for you, I ended up in the deserted wing near the old church,” I said. “I overheard Tatjana and her daughter talking about me. I didn’t hear the entire conversation, but it sounded like they were plotting against me. Trying to get rid of me for some reason. They said I could be useful because I know information about their enemies like the Resistance and the Southern Kingdom, but other than that, they wanted me gone.”
“I had a feeling something like this would happen,” he said. “Since you’ve been gone, a lot of demons have been making strategic political moves to try to position themselves as the next heirs to the throne.”
I sucked in a breath. “They want to take the throne for themselves?”
“Yes,” he said. “And it doesn’t surprise me that Tatjana and her husband are making moves to see that happen. There are others, too.”
“Like Kael?” I asked.
“What do you know of him?” he asked.
“Only that he’s become a trusted friend and advisor of the king,” I said. “Mother mentioned him the other day in the courtyard.”
“Lea, there’s something you need to know,” he said, his face dark with worry. “I heard a rumor that your parents are planning to make an announcement at the festival. You’re to be betrothed to Kael.”
I fell against the wall, my mouth open in horror. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m afraid it’s very serious,” he said. “They’re planning for a very rapid courtship and engagement. The wedding is scheduled for the end of the third moon cycle.”
I shook my head. “That’s only a few months away,” I said. “I’ve never even met this man. How can they expect me to marry him?”
“Because a married princess is much easier to keep in line,” he said. “And Kael has been angling for the throne. Now that you’re home, this is the best way for him to get it.”
I forced back tears. It was all starting to make sense. “Kael was the one who suggested the King’s Games to my father,” I said. “He must know Aerden will fight.”
His head flinched back slightly. “Why would that have anything to do with Kael?” he asked.
I didn’t know how to answer that question. It was Jackson, not Aerden, who had been chosen as my mate from the day I was born. And yet, ever since he’d been freed from the Order, there had been something growing between us.
I’d been denying it, because I didn’t want to risk my heart again. But sometimes the heart has a mind of its own.
“Just make sure he doesn’t enter those games,” I said. “I don’t care what you have to do.”
Ezrah nodded. “I have to go,” he said. “I’ll come find you when I have the opportunity.”
He bowed and started to walk away.
“Ezrah,” I called.
He turned, frustration pinching his features. “Yes, Princess?”
I met his eyes, pleading. “Don’t tell him about the engagement,” I said. For reasons I wasn’t quite ready to admit to myself, I knew it would hurt Aerden to hear that I’d been promised to someone else. “He doesn’t need to know.”
“I won’t tell him,” he said. “But news like this travels through the dungeons quickly. I can’t control what he hears from someone else. Why? Do you think it will matter?”
I shook my head, but didn’t offer an answer.
Ezrah bowed again and hurried toward the other guards leaving for patrol.
A few younger trainees passed by me and bowed their heads, but I could see the question in their eyes: What was the princess doing here in the guards’ quarters?
Ezrah was right. It had been risky to come here.
I walked back to my room in a daze. I hadn’t been living in the castle for a whole month yet and they’d already found me a husband.
What they’d done was put a time limit on my residency here. I would die before I married a demon like Kael. Someone who was willing to put another man in a fight to the death just to open up a slot for himself in the arms of the princess.
If he thought he could win my heart by killing someone I loved, he had no idea who he was dealing with.
There was more going on here than I could explain, and Aerden getting mixed up in the King’s Games was only going to complicate everything. I was already at war with my own heart here, having to face old memories for the first time in decades. The last thing I needed was a set of new worries to occupy my every waking hour.
Tatjana and her daughter were plotting against me to take over the kingdom. Kael had arranged the games just to get rid of Aerden. My parents had promised me to a demon I’d never even met and already despised.
How could things possibly get worse?
But that was a foolish question. Things could always get worse.
If Aerden fought in those games, he’d be risking his life. He was an amazing warrior, but his powers were blocked. He’d be at a major disadvantage against every single opponent he faced.
But if I knew Aerden, nothing Ezrah could say would stop him from entering the games. He would fight, and I had to do everything in my power to make damn sure he would win.
The One Who Returned
Three suns warmed the skin on my shoulders as I threw the pickaxe over my head and down into the sapphires. I pretended to be completely immersed in the work, but I was watching the guards.
They had moved Trention to another section of the group, far away from me where I couldn’t help him if they wanted to punish him for not working hard enough. But I always had the old demon in my sights. Only cowards and bullies picked on the oldest and weakest, and someday I would find a way to make the worst of these guards pay for their treatment of my friend.
Things had been quiet the past few weeks, and it had me on edge.
I’d expected the guards—especially Reynar and Karn—to torture me any time they saw the opportunity, but they avoided me instead. I suppressed a laugh. I think they were afraid of me. Reynar had poured every last drop of his power into the lightning spell he’d cast on me that day, and I had not so much as fallen to my knees.
But their fear had unexpected consequences.
My days of anonymity were over the second I grabbed Karn’s whip. The prisoners still didn’t know my name, but they watched my every move. They looked at me as if they weren’t quite sure whether I was a hero or a ticking time bomb.
Except for Trention, they kept their distance, but they noticed me now. I heard them whispering about me at night in the cell when they thought I was sleeping. They told elaborate made-up stories of my life before I’d been sentenced to the dungeons, each prisoner guessing at what I’d done to get here or where I’d come from.
Some of them made me laugh, like the one who was sure I’d come from a small mountain village where I’d grown up battling rock golems for sport. Others hit closer to the truth, guessing I’d been a member of the Resistance, caught while trying to assassinate the king.
I let them tell their stories. They were much more interesting than the truth. I was a coward who had abandoned his kingdom and gotten kidnapped by the Order of Shadows. I’d been a slave for a hundred years, saved by a human teenager.
My story was not a heroic one. Not yet.
But I’d been spending my days and nights thinking of the best plan to rescue Lea.
Ezrah told me she’d been brought up from
the dungeons weeks ago and had rejoined the other royals in the castle. She’d somehow convinced her father that she was truly home and that she would be loyal to him, no matter what.
I smiled at that as I mined the gemstones. It was hard to imagine Lea playing the role of the obedient daughter. She must have been biting her tongue so much these days it was probably swollen and bruised. What I would have paid to be a fly on the wall for just an hour in that castle.
But I also knew that her presence in the castle put her in danger. Anyone who’d had their eye on her father’s throne would want her dead or exiled. Including my own parents.
Everyone knew her father was in terrible shape. He may not willingly pass on, but the Council had the power to remove him from the throne if they agreed he was not fit to rule.
If the king had not named a successor, the Council also had the power to elect the next king or queen. Since my parents now held two spots on the Council, they also held two votes in all the decisions being made.
Lea showing up again had likely messed up everyone’s plans. My guess was that no one on that Council wanted to see her as their queen.
She was a survivor, and she would find a way to fight. But other than Ezrah, she had an entire castle full of demons who desperately wanted her gone. One way or another.
I swung my pickaxe harder, the tip smashing through nearly a foot of raw sapphire. The prisoner next to me paused and stared at the stones, his eyes wide. I ignored him and turned my thoughts back to Lea.
Was she thinking of me at all? Or did she roam the halls of her father’s castle thinking of my brother and what she thought she’d lost?
I swung my axe again, determined to make it right. Even if she could never love me, she deserved to know the truth. I was done with the lies and the fear.
I was done being a coward.
Just as my axe hit the ground, a commotion broke out near the front of the line. I pulled back and stepped to the side, trying to see what was happening.
Reynar had pulled a younger demon to the side and pushed him to the ground. He’d removed the boy’s shackles, which was never a good sign.
Forgotten Darkness Page 17
