“You must want to do more than talk to offer 500,000sovasfor my capture. How did you do it anyway? The poster. My likeness couldn’t have been sketched on a guess.”
He rubbed his amber crystal again. “I kept a drop of your blood.”
Her eyes went wide. It took all her restraint to keep from flexing the palm he’d once cut. “Why did you take it in the first place?”
“That’s not for you to know right now. Besides, I’m not finished answering your previous question. I kept a drop of your blood which was just enough to catch glimpses of you over the years.”
“Why did you…”
“Why did I want to check in on you?” He barked an indignant laugh. “How can you ask that, Aveline? Do you think I released you from the dungeon to be cruel? You were a child. I was curious to know if you survived.”
She noted that he said he wascuriousif she survived, not that hecaredif she had.
“By the way, where have you been these last six years?” His gaze swept over her briefly, landing again on her tattoos. “Those are interesting markings. Faeryninsigmora.”
Her heart leapt into her throat. She hadn’t expected him to recognize her tattoos. He was a dark witch, a mage, not a…
Her eyes wandered over his face, taking in his uncommon beauty. His sharp cheekbones. The slightest blue tinge to his black hair. And his ears…how had she never noticed the angled edge before? They weren’t exactly pointed, but neither were they totally round. Could he be of Faeryn descent?
She shook the thoughts from her mind. What mattered most was that he’d asked where she’d been. That meant there was a chance the Forest People were safe from his knowledge. “Don’t you already know where I’ve been? You confessed to spying on me through a drop of my blood.”
He glanced at his nails with disinterest. “I saw your face, not your surroundings.”
Relief swept over her, but she hid it behind a shrug. “I’ve been right where you left me. In the woods.”
“In the woods,” he echoed, his eyes narrowing, “where you just so happened to become marked withinsigmora.”
She held his gaze, her lips pursed tight.
The coach came to a stop.
“Ah, we’re here.” He leaned forward with a quirked brow. “What’s it going to be, Aveline? Do I escort you from this coach as my prisoner or a princess?”
She bit her lip as a spike of panic laced through her. She still had so many unanswered questions. The hunters. The Beast. The unicorns.
“Only one of those choices will let you see your brother again,” he said, a hint of taunting in his voice.
Her pulse quickened at his mention of Dimetreus. Her brother. The king. A man she’d come to hate almost as much as the duke. A man who may or may not have been controlled by a powerful mage.
There was only one way to find out. She took a deep breath and hoped Morkai couldn’t hear her lie.
“I want to be a princess again.”
“Well then,” Morkai said, opening the coach door. “Welcome home.”
34
Teryn Alante felt like a dead man in his saddle after riding all night, but he hadn’t been willing to let the duke’s coach out of his sight. Not only was Cora inside it, but Teryn had yet to receive her bounty. To claim it, he’d have to meet with King Dimetreus at Ridine Castle. His reward for betraying Cora, however, was the least of Teryn’s worries. He couldn’t care less about it now. But that was a fact he’d kept to himself as soon as he’d realized how outnumbered he and his companions were against Duke Morkai’s well-armed guards. It would have served him little to confront the duke, the very man Cora had been working against. No, Teryn would save his questions for the king himself. Perhaps he would explain why the woman he’d known as Cora was actually Princess Aveline.
He still didn’t understand how it was possible. The princess was supposed to be dead, murdered by Cora’s own hand. After the duke had ordered his guards to seize her and haul her into the coach, Teryn hounded him with questions. He’d been met with nothing more than an annoyingly condescending grin and the duke’s assurance that Teryn could ask anything he wished once he arrived at the castle.
Which was where they were now.
It was an hour past sunrise when Ridine Castle came into view. Teryn and Lex rode through the gatehouse, following just behind the coach with two guards at the rear and two more at the fore. They entered a courtyard, which Teryn was surprised to find so empty. Perhaps he was used to the rhythm and regality of a palace, not the more practical nature of a castle. Ridine itself was a plain structure forged of stone with high walls, tall turrets, and an overall formidable appearance. Adding to that impression were the looming Cambron Mountains and the dark forests that skirted around the castle walls.
“I still wish I had any idea what the bloody hell was going on,” Lex said, eying Teryn as they continued to follow the coach into the courtyard.
Teryn sighed. “I’ll explain later.” He’d said as much several times already, but Lex would only narrow his eyes. He had every intention of telling Lex the truth, but he wanted to wait until the duke’s guards were no longer in such close proximity. Or maybe it was more that Teryn wasn’t ready to admit what he’d done.
