I clapped my hand. “Pack your things first.” I didn’t care about our own. There was nothing here we couldn’t replace at Evergorne. “We’ll leave as soon as we trade the blossom for the talisman.”
They both bowed and left, scurrying down the hall.
We left our suite. I clung to the blossom as we took the stairs to the queen’s suite, the few lords and ladies we passed either hissing at us or scowling when they saw what I held.
We make a great team, I said.
That we do, love. Let them glare. We’ll be out of this place soon and can forget all about them.
We arrived at the queen’s door to find the same guards present. The woman we’d interacted with before gave us a sharp look before dipping her head forward in one of the shortest bows I’d ever seen. But her opinion of me didn’t matter. All I cared about was fusing the three talismans and saving Lore’s life.
After making us remove all our weapons again, the guard swept the door open. “She’ll see you now.”
We stepped inside, pausing on the rug.
Each detail inside her suite appeared as I remembered, yet dismay roared through my belly, making my instincts rattle around inside me like stones in a jar. The air hummed with stored power, thrumming with the energy of every contestant who'd died to feed a feral queen.
We exchanged a look and stepped further into the room.
The guards followed, pouring in through the opening, surrounding us.
Magic whipped around us, pinning our arms to our sides.
Lore—Struggling, bellowing, I tried to pull my small blade from my boot, but they secured my hands to my sides and my ankles with invisible ropes.
Snarling and thrashing, Lore head-butted one of the guards.
Someone came up behind him and smacked him on the back of the head with the hilt of a sword.
He slumped to the carpet, and our mate bond went silent.
Now I understood Naveer's trap.
She hadn't just wanted the frostwilla.
She'd wanted us.
Chapter 38
Reyla
“Lore. Lore,” I cried out, tears ripping down my face. I strained to reach him, but I couldn’t move my arms or legs.
“Our queen would prefer to see you in the throne room,” the female guard said, her lips thinning as she glared down at Lore lying motionless on the floor.
“I don’t give a damn about your queen. Lore!” I wrenched against the restraints and tried to call power to lay waste to everything and everyone around me, but nothing came to my call.
The guard’s hand flicked to the others. “Take him.”
Two men wrenched Lore up off the ground.
He groaned.
Alive. At least he was alive.
“Lore.” My heart thrashed in my chest. “Lore!”
He turned his head to look my way, his gaze wavering before finally focusing on me. “I’m…alright.”
