A heavy fist pounded on the door, rattling it in its frame, and his beast uncoiled, preparing to hunt the intruder, to decimate them and burn their remains to ash.
Luka concentrated on Izzy. Her eyes were still unfocused, her lips pink and wet. “Are you sure you don’t want to fly away?” he murmured roughly.
“We’ll fly away when this is done.” Izzy pressed another lingering kiss to his mouth, and it took every ounce of self-control he had to step back. Soldiers were at his door, and he couldn’t risk them breaking it down. He reached for her breeches and helped her step into them.
No one else gets to see her like this ever again. Izzy is mine.
He wanted to howl. Izzy wasn’t his. They probably weren’t even going to survive the next day. But he didn’t have time tothink of that, to think of anything. The soldier outside his door pounded on it again.
I don’t want to do this,his beast muttered.
Luka grunted. Since Izzy had come back into his life, he’d been more in tune with his beast than ever. Opening the door was the last thing he wanted to do, but they had no choice.
He helped Izzy with her boots and then waited for her to right her bodice and pat down her hair. Then he ripped open the door, already snarling at whichever asshole was standing there… only to pause. The asshole was Cori. Her uniform was as pristine as always, but her expression was tight with worry.
Behind him, Izzy let out a soft breath of surprise, and he remembered how hurt she’d been by her friend’s betrayal. He gripped the door rather than slam it closed like he wanted to. Instead, he moved to block Cori from coming in. “What do you want?”
“Queen Danikha sent me,” Cori said. “She got your message. She wants to see you.”
Luka didn’t budge. “Why aren’t you investigating on the mountain?”
Cori ran a hand through her short hair. “We searched all around that part of the path, up and down the mountainside, and then backtracked through Naos in case someone saw something, but we didn’t find anything. We already reported back to Shane and the queen. Dashiell left to update Captain Lydia before the end of the day, and I stayed to see Iona. That’s when your messenger arrived.”
There wasn’t anything Luka could say to that. Shane and the queen outranked him. Cori and Dashiell had gone over his head, but he didn’t really care. A day ago, he’d been ready to sacrifice himself for Shane and the greater good. Now, had Izzy agreed, he would have picked her up and flown away.
He looked over his shoulder to meet Izzy’s concerned gaze. “What do you want to do?”
The pink had faded from her cheeks, leaving her looking tense and wan. She gave him the smallest smile he’d ever seen. “I guess we should do this.” She stepped up beside him. “Let’s go.”
Cori swallowed. “Izzy, I want to?—”
Izabel cut her off with a muttered, “It’s fine.”
Cori didn’t let it go. “No, I know?—”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Izabel snapped. “Not right now. Not when—” She looked at Luka and then away. “You were following orders. Now we have more orders to follow.”
There was a moment’s silence before Cori gave a reluctant nod and led them into the corridor. A small group of soldiers—not castle guards—was waiting, their expressions a mix of curiosity and professional disinterest. Luka ignored them as he took Izabel’s hand. Last time, she’d taken his hand; this time he claimed hers. He threaded his fingers through hers, holding her tightly. Her tiny smile spread, and along with it came the knowledge that there was very little he wouldn’t do to see her smile more, even if only for this short time.
Cori’s team marched beside them as they made their way to the queen’s meeting chamber, and Luka couldn’t help but wonder if they were there as shields or as prison wardens.
Don’t worry. I’ll destroy them if they bother Izzy.
Luka acknowledged his beast with a hum of agreement. Usually, he was infinitely patient with his duties, and annoyed with his beast’s melodrama. Not today. Today, he’d reached the end of that patience, and letting his drake take control for a couple of hours to demolish anyone who hurt Izabel had a definite appeal.
Thankfully, the soldiers stayed in the outer antechamber—cutting off his beast’s ruminations on whether leather armortasted like beef—when Luka, Izzy, and Cori let themselves into the queen’s receiving room.
Queen Danikha looked exhausted as she sat neatly on a low couch, Iona beside her. The princess spoke quietly but urgently, hands moving in elegant gesticulations. Shane stood separately, staring out the window toward the enclosed gardens. Aiden and Kai had set up a large slate against a wall, with small chalk notations about what they’d found. A quick glance showed very little progress. They’d worked with Ryland to interview everyone in the castle—all the guards, messengers, banquet guests, even the physiks. No one had seen anything. Cori and Dashiell hadn’t found anything on the mountain. Whoever their assassin was, it was as if they were invisible.
Or someone everyone knows and trusts.
Gods.
“Good, you’re here.” Queen Danikha gestured for them to gather at the cluster of sofas. “Sit, please.”
Luka had sat together with this group thousands of times in the years since he’d come to the castle as a child—first as Shane’s schoolfellow, then his friend. The queen had always treated him well, encouraging their friendship.
As an adult, he was deeply honored to be promoted to knight commander of the guard, to be responsible for the safety of the people who had taken him in and given him a home. When Queen Danikha gifted him with his first shadow-wave folded steel sword, it was the proudest day of his life.
