My sword hums like he’s trying to decide if he should get involved. “Our wits are our weapons,” I declare. No need to wave my blade around every tempo. He can be a last resort. Hart snorts at my words. Well, he’s missing wit, so we couldn’t count on him.
The beautiful, dark-haired girl runs her teeth over her bottom lip. “Can you escort me to my grandmother’s? She is unwell, and I have fresh-baked bread and jam to deliver.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Hart snaps. “Your grandmother is already dead. The wolf ate her and is waiting for you in the remote cottage, where he will most likely eat you.”
Tears spring free from her eyes and spill down her cheeks. Ugh, she’s a crier, and she’s just become a victim of Hart’s harsh tongue. Harsh and skilled, but the latter is for me alone.
“I must see this for myself,” she whispers.
I scowl at Hart.Nice going, asshole. “Then go to your doom,” he growls.
I rub my forehead, knowing I won’t be able to live with myself if we send her to her death. This is why Gwyneth is always massaging her head. It hurts my brain knowing someone is making a stupid choice. I vow to make less of them.
“How far is it?”
“Daphne, no,” Theo says.
The girl throws her hand up in a random direction. “Two miles from here.”
Two miles? On foot? Is she kidding? Hart jumps off his horse and reaches out to smack her head. She crumples into his waiting arms before I can even utter one word of protest.
“What did you do?” I ask, my eyes wide at the lifeless body in his arms.
He throws her over his horse and shrugs. “You were about to go off on a side quest to save Red here. I took care of the problem.”
“By killing her?” I yell.
He shakes his head as he hooks his foot into the stirrup and launches himself over the back of his horse.
“Not dead, just unconscious,” Nash informs me. “He’s right. We don’t have time.”
A long sigh leaves my lips as Nash clucks to his horse. Damion leaps into a canter, the other horses keeping pace beside us as the trees whip past us at dizzying speeds. I stew in my thoughts, keeping my mouth shut to prevent speaking the stinging words that so desperately want to break free. How can they care for me like I’m precious, yet dismiss a girl in peril?
The genie appears next to us as we circle the center of the Hallows, startling me. “Oh good, you are nearly here.”
I frown at him. “What’s wrong?”
“The favored Charming has manipulated sweet Gwyneth into a mid-diurnal picnic.”
I narrow my gaze. “Manipulated how?”
Genie blushes. “There was some shouting and hand movements.”
Hand movements? “Where are they now?”
“In the gardens beyond the maze.”
That’s quite far out. I don’t like it. Charming has designs on my sister’s floof, and he isn’t getting the point. She’s not his, she’s mine—until a worthy man sweeps her off her feet.
“We’ll get the horses stabled and accompany you,” Nash reassures me as we enter the gates of the Hallowed Palace. How many accidental ways can one kill a prince? Would they even miss him? There are a dozen more waiting to take his place.Really, after five or six, who is going to do a headcount? All they would know is that the snarkiest and most obnoxious of the bunch is missing. Really, I’d be doing the kingdom a favor.
Hart drags the girl off his horse. “I’ll go put this somewhere safe and meet you back in our chambers.”
A sharp pain in my chest steals my breath at the sight of him cradling a beautiful girl. Jealousy is a stupid, irrational emotion. I know without a doubt that Hart isn’t planning on having his wicked way with a helpless girl.
Nash kisses my forehead. “I’m going to our chambers and then will meet you in the library. Try to not kill him—yet.”
I’m enjoying that “yet” far too much.
