The guards outside drew their weapons, but I used air magic to blow them off their feet. Their heads knocked against the wall, and the guards slumped to the ground.
We cleared the first street with ease, but the sheer number of fae walking the larger roads made escape more difficult. Weaving around fae, many stared.
“Is that Prince Vale?” one person said after my hood fell down, thanks to a gust of wind. “And his wife?”
Bleeding skies!
Neve did her best to pull my hood back up, but word of our appearance in Avaldenn spread like a ripple of water. We’d made it to Lordling Lane when another alarm sounded.
“That’s the city watch!” The words were no sooner out of my mouth than a shriek pierced my ears.
“I knew it! Thatwhoreis back!” Calpurnia screamed. “Stop them!”
“Get that female!” Adila added, her tone as imperious as ever. “The king has a bounty on her head!”
I ignored my cousin and Lady Ithamai, and barreled forth with Freyia at my side and the others steps behind. Luccan’s home was in sight now. Closer. Closer still.
We reached the gate, and I shifted Neve in my arms. The wards around Luccan’s home would allow me in if I gave blood.
“Here!” Luccan slammed into the gate, and at his touch, the wards fell. “Inside!”
We funneled in, Bac last as he was carrying Tanziel on his own. The moment we were safe, Luccan slammed the door shut.
“To the gateway.”
I exhaled for the first time in what felt like many turns, and followed my brother inside, to safety.
Interlude
KING MAGNUS AABERG, THE WHITE BEAR, PROTECTOR OF WINTER’S REALM
The King of Winter dismounted his gryphon, bones aching, magic depleted to practically nothing.
At least he was not alone in his weakness. At present, Warden Roar could not shift. His Clawsguard had no access to magic.
And yet, aching though his body may be, the king had rarely felt so invigorated in his soul.
I will strengthen in time. I will become stronger than ever before.
Stablehands took care of the gryphons, and the king and Roar strode into Frostveil Castle. Fae stared, for no matter that the two currently worked together, the Lisika warden and the Aaberg monarch were an unlikely pair.
“I require a concubine on my cock, and my belly filled with roast boar,” the king said to a servant who waited at the door with two goblets of steaming mulled wine. The king took one golden goblet, the warden the other. “See that the concubine comes to my room immediately. Send the food a half hour later.”
The servant walked away.
Alone again with the warden, the king’s voice lowered. “Once I’m done with her, I shall call a meeting. Be prepared.”
“I will, Majesty,” Roar replied, no judgment in his tone, though the slight curl of his lips indicated distaste. Lord Roar did not approve of Magnus’s harem. It was one reason the king flaunted it when the Warden of the West was around.
They parted, the king veering to his rooms. However, when Magnus arrived at his quarters, he found not a concubine waiting for him, but the Lady of Silks, Nalaea Qiren.
King Magnus smirked. “Here to revisit old times, Nalaea?”
Her black eyebrows pulled tight over piercing green eyes. In the corridor’s torchlight, Nalaea’s ebony skin gleamed like the fine silks her family sold all around Isila.
Even Magnus, a purveyor of the most beautiful fae in the kingdom, did not deny that the Lady of Silks was stunning. His physical attraction to her, as much as his need for her cunning mind, was why their affair had lasted so long. He sometimes thought that had he been a male to marry for love, he might have wed Nalaea. Although there was no doubt Inga had proved far more useful than a mare ever would have been.
“You think I’m here to bed you?” Nalaea snorted, not bothering to be embarrassed around the Clawsguards who followed the king, their golden cloaks fluttering behind them like ghosts. The knights sworn to his bloodline knew about the affair. Many did. Initially, some had dared to claim that theLady of Silks bedded him to get ahead. They lost their tongues for the insult—and not by the king’s orders.
