“Of course it’s him!” Soren blustered. “He’s headed straight for the cottage, and there! He just looked right at the door. That’s definitely our man. Are we waiting until he goes inside first, so we’ll have him surrounded? That’s actually a good idea. Trap him in a small space.”
Fuck, no. I didn’t want her surrounded and trapped so it’d be impossible for her to escape. The safest bet for her to get away was now, out here in the open.
Moving quickly, I leaped from my spot near a bakery where I’d been fiddling with the horse.
“Halt!” I yelled, unsheathing my sword and holding it up in the air, pointed in her direction. “In the name of the king, we apprehend you for questioning.”
Women screamed, villagers scattered, and chaos reigned. Loaves of bread and other baked goods went flying.
“What the hell?” Soren muttered from behind me as he scrambled to unsheathe his own sword but fumbled in his haste as pastries beaned him in the head. All the other men waiting nearby were similarly surprised by my unexpected move. No one could immediately jump in to catch her, giving Vienne just enough time to escape, which she took, immediately springing away and darting through scrambling people before she disappeared between two cottages.
“You, you, and you four,” I ordered, pointing my sword at the quickest, most agile men on my team along with Soren. “Apprehend the Lowden woman and keep her detained for questioning. The rest of you, help me catch that cloak.”
Nodding, everyone took off to fulfill their assigned duties without question, and I dove headlong after Vienne, following the pull from my mark. When I realized a couple of my men were following me, I pointed them off in different directions than I was going, saying we needed to split up, until soon, I was the only one on her trail.
She was slick, I’ll give her that. I barely kept a portion of her cloak in sight, and if I hadn’t had my mark telling me where to go, I would’ve lost her long ago between all the mayhem, people, and buildings. She took a zigzagging path which impressed me. I would’ve been proud of her ability to escape if I weren’t so damned confused about what she was doing out here in the first place, meeting with people of magic in secret like this.
When she entered the woods to the west of the castle, I frowned, wondering where the hell she was going. The drawbridge to let her back inside was clear on the other side of—what the hell?
I’d stayed far enough back to ensure that she didn’t know she was being followed, but I’d still been able to keep the barest of visuals. Once she passed between two trees and around a thick shrub into a small clearing, however, she disappeared completely.
I frowned once I reached the glade, stopping to turn in a circle. She’d been here. Right. Here. With this break in the trees, I should’ve been able to see whichever direction she’d gone from here.
Closing my eyes, I focused, feeling for her. She was still close, to my…left. I turned that way, hurrying forward as a slight scraping sound filled my ears. But when I reached the shrubbery where the sound had originated… Nothing. She was gone. She’d been here. I swear, she—
Wait. I could feel her moving again, but now she was…
No, that wasn’t possible. It felt as if she were under the earth. I pursued the sensation, staring at the ground, until I reached the moat. Squinting at the water, I saw nothing in the liquid depths, but I felt her under there until…holy shit, her presence seemed to reach the castle and then was lost to me as she moved out of range.
“What the actual fuck,” I murmured in awe. There must be a secret passage into the Iron Castle from somewhere out here in the forest.
Incredible.
I turned around and stalked back to the city to meet up with my men again.
“You!” Soren charged as soon as he saw me approaching. “What the hell was that shoddy kind of fuckery? If he got away, it was all your fault for springing out like that, catching us all unaware without any notice. And he did, didn’t he? The dark magic bastard got away?”
“I don’t know,” I lied, wiping sweat off my face so I wouldn’t have to keep eye contact while I spoke. Then I turned to the others. “The trail I was following went cold. What about you men? Did you find him?”
When everyone else shook their heads miserably, I hissed out a curse to make it look as if I were pissed.
“Where’s the Lowden woman of magic?” I asked. “I want to question her myself.” And preferably alone. If she ratted Vienne out, I didn’t want anyone else to hear it.
“Gone,” Soren growled. “She wasn’t in the cottage when we stormed it.”
“Shit,” I said, when honestly I heaved out a sigh of relief.
Vienne was safe. And her identity would remain concealed. Thank God.
“This is all your fault,” Soren went on. “You shouldn’t have led this mission. You ruined everything. Now the bastard is onto us and aware how close we got to him. You lost us the only advantage we had.”
Ignoring him, I turned to the others. “Keep looking for clues. I’m going back to the castle to report to the king.”
“And I’m going with you to report to the fucking king.” Soren strode after me, dogging my heels. “I’m telling him exactly what happened and how this disaster was your fault. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted the magic bastard to get away today because of how horribly you just handled everything.”
Growling, I spun to face him. “And why the hell would I do that? This entire fucking mission was my idea and plan in the first place.”
“Probably to throw us off track and distract us with this fiasco of a wild goose chase you just sent us on.”
“Okay,” I said, listening to him because his argument actually had some validity. If I were protecting the dark magic, this would be a good way to divert attention. “But to what extent?” I asked. “What the hell am I supposed to be distracting you from?”
Other than my one true love who’d snuck from the castle through a secret tunnel in a clever disguise to meet with a sketchy magical individual from fucking Lowden.
Dammit. What had she been thinking? What the hell had she been doing?
I adamantly refused to believe she had any dark magic in her, but…fuck. What if she did? Would I still protect her then?
A part of me screamed, yes. I’d follow her to hell and back. She was my one true love. She was Vienne. But…this…none of this boded well with me.
I needed answers.
When Soren scowled and mumbled, “I don’t know yet,” I snorted and spun away to continue my voyage back to the castle, ignoring his ranting while he blamed everything to ever go wrong in all the realms on me.
Chapter 34
Urban
Once we returned to the Throne Room to report the events of the morning, I didn’t have to say a word; Soren detailed it all to the king with emphasis on everything he was sure I’d fucked up.
“I don’t trust him,” he accused, pointing at me. “I’ve never trusted him. He needs to be punished for this.”
I snorted, folding my arms over my chest. “For not catching the dark magic on the first try? Are you fucking kidding me? I got us closer to him than we’d ever been before.”
“What’s all the commotion about in here?” Yasmin asked, sailing into the room. “Don’t leave us girls out of all the good stuff.” A winded Vienne hurried in after her.
I stared openly at Vienne until she discreetly glanced my way. Once we made eye contact, however, her eyes flared open wide before she quickly and guiltily glanced away again. I narrowed my stare, wishing I could drag her from the room in that very moment and get my answers right then, but I had to go through this hoopla of a circus first.
As Caulder explained to the queen what had happened, Yasmin blinked rapidly, seemingly shocked. “You mean, you were honestly that close to catching the dark magic and you let him get away?” Her accusative stare fell on me. “Caulder, you can’t honestly approve of such sloppy work, can you? He must be punished.”
“Punished?” Vienne gasped, arching her sister an incredulous glance. “You can’t punish him for not being able to do something no one else has been able to do either.”
“That’s a good point,” Caulder murmured, rubbing his chin as he studied me.
“Well, no one else was assigned with the task of finding the dark magic,” Soren argued. “I say he needs incentive to try harder next time. Twenty lashes’ worth.”
“That’s just preposterous!” Vienne cried. “No. I won’t let you whip him again. He’s done absolutely nothing wrong.”
“Aww, how sweet,” Yasmin cooed. “Defending your one true love.”
As Soren growled out his contempt, Vienne muttered, “I’m defending an absolutely innocent man. That is all.” She whirled to Caulder. “Why, you might as well tie me up next to him and whip me too if you agree to any kind of punishment. Because I didn’t catch the bearer of dark magic today either. Shame on me.”
“No one touches Vienne,” I barked. “I’d rather accept twice the required punishment than let a single lash touch her.”
Caulder sighed and buried his forehead in his hand. “No one’s touching anyone, because no one will be punished this day. Now, will everyone stop arguing about the tiresome topic already? I’d rather get back to the subject of catching this traitorous magical intruder, if you please.”
I nodded, adding, “I have a few more leads to follow up on and hopefully I’ll have more information for you soon.”
“Then, go.” Caulder waved me away. “Every second that evil remains in my castle all of us remain unsafe.”
I nodded and marched from the room.
I could feel it the moment Vienne started after me, so I slowed my pace, allowing her to catch up, then I veered into the Red Chambers, the smallest, most private room on the castle’s ground floor.
As soon as I stormed into the room, I ran my hands through my hair and cursed liberally. She entered behind me, breathing heavily. When I heard the door close, I finally whirled to face her, grasping her shoulders and hissing, “What the hell? What the hell? What the hell, Vienne?”
But she merely drew in a deep breath and smiled up at me warmly. “I knew you knew it was me out there.”
“Fuck, yes, I knew it was you,” I snapped, letting go of her so I could run my hands through my hair some more and grab hold of the locks, pulling taut. “Now could you tell me what I don’t know, like what the fuck were you thinking stealing out of the castle in that disguise and going to talk to a Lowden woman when you know good and well there’s dark magic lurking about?”
Relief showed in her eyes. “So you know I’m not the source of the dark magic? Good. Thank God.”
“Of course, I know that!” I spat incredulously, though I hadn’t known at all. I had hoped she wasn’t. I had adamantly denied to myself that she could be. But I hadn’t known, not until this very moment, where I could look into her eyes and see the relief that she experienced, realizing I still believed in her. That was all the reassurance I needed.
“But none of the others would’ve been so easily convinced if you’d been caught,” I went on, railing, because learning she had no dark magic in her really didn’t help the situation at all. “Hell, your own husband probably would’ve had you hanged within the hour, insisting you possessed some kind of evil sorcery in you.”
“I know,” she murmured on a concerned frown as she rubbed at her neck. “Kind of a troubling prospect, if you ask me.”
“So, do you care to enlighten me as to what the hell you were doing out there today?”
She lifted her eyes to mine. “You’re mad,” she said with some surprise.
“Yes, I’m mad!” I cried. “I don’t recall being this fucking mad in a long fucking time.”
Blinking, she merely studied my face before calmly saying, “You were terribly upset the morning after you felt my orgasm.”
What? I shook my head, confused. “Yes. So?”
“So,” she said. “Your anger’s not as frightening as I thought it would be. You cut such an intimidating figure with your sword and that dashing scar at the corner of your lip, like a man not to be trifled with. But I’ve never felt scared of you. Not at all. How incredible.”
Huh? How the hell had the topic moved to this?
“Because you never have to fear anything from me,” I fumed. “Now, can we get back to how pissed I am? You could’ve gotten caught…and hurt. Not to mention, you left your daughter alone in the castle while there’s dark magic—”
“She’s not alone. I left her with two maids and three guards.”
“But she’d basically become an orphan if anything ever happened to you,” I went on, feeling the need to rant. “We already know how Soren treats his motherless children. Do you want that fate for Anniston, too? Because whatever you were doing out there today could’ve put you in the direct line of fire with the bearer of dark magic and gotten you killed. How do you think that would affect your child? How it would affect me?”
She studied me a moment longer as if looking deep inside my soul. Then she murmured, “What if I had been the bearer of dark magic? What would you have done then? Would you have turned me in, like you should? Or would you have protected me?”
Running my hand through my hair yet again, I turned away, unable to face her. “I don’t fucking know,” I confessed moodily. “Don’t ask, okay.” Then I whirled to her. “I would’ve gotten you help. I would’ve done whatever it took to get that shit out of you. I would’ve saved you.”
She just stared at me, her eyes wide, without replying.
Growling out a curse, I wiped my hand over my mouth and muttered, “Are you going to tell me what you were doing out there or not?”
“Yes,” she whispered, slowly nodding her head up and down. “Yes. You almost took a lashing to protect me. You made yourself look incompetent in order to let me escape. You kept my secret. I know I can trust you with anything.”
I heaved out a sigh and threw my hands into the air. “About fucking time.”
“The truth is I was doing the same thing you were doing,” she said on a rueful shrug. “Trying to find the bearer of dark magic. That house… The woman I was going to meet…”
“Yes?” I nodded, listening.
“She was my nanny from childhood. Nanny Wynter. She came here years ago from Lowden to escape the Graykey family’s terror. They were murdering anyone with magic in them so they could steal their powers. She’s a good person. I trust her, so I was going to meet with her this morning to ask if she would sneak back into the castle with me and help trace the darkness here. Because you said yourself it takes magic to find magic, right? So…”
I lifted an eyebrow, fascinated. “So you were going to find the dark magic,” I deduced. “And you didn’t care that Caulder had forbidden more magic people from entering the castle? Even the good kind?”
She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Caulder’s being a damn fool about that. The fear from his own parents’ death has blinded him to the point it could put us all in danger. Honestly, I don’t know what he’s so afraid of, but bearers of good magic wouldn’t hurt us; they could only help.”
Nodding, I grinned at her. “Agreed. I’m just impressed you were willing to break the rules to do it.”
She sent me an irritated glance. “I’m surprised you hadn’t done it yet yourself, Prince.”
My smile turned to pure naughtiness. “That’s only because I don’t know anyone nearby with magical powers I could trust, and I certainly didn’t know how to sneak anyone with such abilities back into the castle without getting caught. But now that I know about your old nanny and that nifty little tunnel you have…”
Vienne winced. “You saw the secret entrance, then, did you?”
“No,” I admitted, shaking my head. “But I know you know where it is, and that’s all I need. Your old nanny escaped, by the way.”
Her lips flickered with a small smile. “I don’t doubt it, what with the way you were holler
ing and carrying on outside her cottage.”
I chuckled. “You don’t seem all that worried that we could’ve caught her for questioning. Are you that certain she wouldn’t have ratted you out as her secret contact from the castle?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. She might have, but I knew you wouldn’t have caught her in the first place, so… It didn’t matter.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “So confident of her ability to escape my men, huh?”
Vienne rolled her eyes. “She does have magic powers.”
“Truth.” With a sigh, I shook my head. “Do you know how to find her now? If we’re going to sneak her into the castle to sniff out this dark magic bastard, then we need to—”
“Wait!” Her eyes widened with shock. “You’re going to help me with my plan?”
I frowned, surprised she could even be surprised about this. “Of course. You’re the one who said we have the same mission.”
“Oh, Urban!” Lunging at me, she hugged me hard around the neck and slapped a happy kiss to my cheek. “Thank you.” She began to pull away but I pressed my hand to her back, keeping her breasts smashed against me and her hair in my face a bit longer, filling me with her scent and softness. “Thank you, thank you, thank y—Urban? Are you going to let me go?”
“Maybe,” I said in a raspy voice, pausing to breathe her in deeply and closing my eyes to remember this moment for all eternity. Then I groaned. “Or maybe not.”
“Urban,” she scolded, slapping my arm and backing away with just enough force to break free of my hold. “There’s no time for that. We have a castle to save. Heck, an entire kingdom to protect.”
I rather thought there was always time for such contact, but I sighed and cracked my neck from one side to the other. “Okay, fine. So you know where to find the magic nanny, right?”
She bit her lip and winced. “Maybe. I think. It’s the only place she might possibly go at a time like this, anyway.”
“Great.” I rubbed my hands together. “Where?”
But Vienne only winced again. “Um…actually, I can’t tell you. You might have too hard of a time believing me.”