Fires of Chaos.
Izzy hummed her agreement with her beast. It was exactly why she’d avoided the feast. She hated to imagine how Cori felt about it all.
The castle rose ahead of them, nestled into the side of the Nabasberg. In sunlight, stone and steel sparkled in front of the majestic mountains, while the surrounding gardens scented the air with the earthy sweetness of water-blossoms and honeysuckle vines. But now, forbidding crags formed a looming guardian behind the high, torch-lit walls, and the wide marble staircase leading to the castle gates glowed hauntingly in the mist.
People hurried back and forth along the stairs—dancers, musicians, guests, all coming and going from the feast—butbefore she and Aiden reached them, he pulled her to a shadowy corner.
“Izzy.” He cleared his throat, looking embarrassed. “Would you mind closing your cloak and lifting your hood to cover your hair?”
She blinked at him. She’d lived in this castle for most of her life, and she’d never imagined sneaking into it.
“It wouldn’t make sense for you to come visitingafterthe feast, and we don’t want anyone to know we brought a healer into the castle. Shane gave me his ring to show. He seems to think the guards at the gate will assume….” His voice trailed off.
Izzy shook her head. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m sorry.” Aiden’s scales flickered across his too-pink cheeks. “It’ll make more sense when you’re there.”
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered. “They’re going to recognize me.”
“Please?”
Izzy huffed, but she did as he asked and wrapped herself tighter in her long cloak. She lifted her hood, keeping her head down and face in the shadows, before stepping back into the flow of guests.
They climbed the marble staircase side by side, finally reaching a row of soldiers standing in formation with a pair of massive, polished wrought-iron doors gleaming at their backs. Their mother-of-pearl inlay glittered in the flickering light like rippling drake wings. The doors were huge, heavy, opulent, and meant to be intimidating… and they offered the only access to the castle.
Aiden grinned at the stone-faced guards—although Izzy knew him well enough to see the stress beneath his smile—and murmured a few low words. Then he pulled a small leather pouch from his belt and took out a familiar ring of burnished gold set with onyx and ruby. Shane’s royal signet.
The guards glanced at her, then back at him, clearly not convinced. They would never just let a stranger into the castle, but they recognized Aiden. They knew he was a trusted friend of the royal family, and they definitely knew Shane’s ring.
Aiden whispered something more, and the guards chuckled.
I don’t like this.
Neither did Izzy. She resisted the urge to open her cloak, explain exactly who she was, and simply walk in.
What would Luka think if he saw this?Her beast continued.
Izzy shook her head at the question, not daring to whisper the obvious reply. Luka would think nothing at all. The guards, however, still weren’t persuaded. A heavily armed lieutenant with blonde hair tied back with a strip of leather, her immaculate armor gleaming in the torchlight, stepped closer, no doubt planning to interrogate her further.
Izzy took a breath, frantically trying to come up with a believable story, when a loud commotion drew the guards’ attention. A bearded man in a plum-red tunic with slashed sleeves revealing silver underlining stormed past, aggressively berating a young man in far simpler garments. “How could you lose a drum of that size? Do you even know what that drum was worth?” The bearded man jabbed a heavy finger at the trembling apprentice, even as the young man stammered and swore that it wasn’t his fault.
Two guards converged on the musicians, pulling them away from the more illustrious guests, and Izzy and Aiden shuffled forward. By the time the musicians were shushed and hurried through the outer bailey, a mixed group of minor nobles and Kwanam delegates had arrived from the marketplace. They’d obviously extended the evening’s entertainment with a barrel of something potent, and they pushed and laughed, demanding entry and reeking of spirits.
The guard sighed, obviously torn by her need to help her team. She took another long look at Shane’s ring and listened to Aiden explain his presence once more, and then she waved them through and turned her attention to the next set of castle guests.
Izzy let out a slow breath. Sneaking into the castle where she was perfectly welcome was madness.
I hope Shane has a good reason for this.
Izzy agreed silently as she strode beside Aiden. They hurried through the barbican, along the paved path through the outer bailey, and past the second set of guards at the inner bailey. Shane’s ring worked more easily the second time, and soon they were through.
Aiden led her down a long corridor, past more guards, through a series of heavy wooden doors into the barracks, all the way to the end, up three flights of stairs, and into the castle through the guard entrance. Finally—having taken the longest, least visible route to get there—they reached a part of the castle she knew very well. The corridor where the royal family held their meetings.
Mhoba wood doors lined the luxuriously carpeted corridor leading to comfortable offices and chambers, a library filled with history books and law tomes, a separate room for scribes and secretaries, and even a seating room for waiting visitors.
Aiden led her past all of those and finally stopped outside a door she hadn’t entered in years. Prince Shane’s personal office.
What in the Abyss was happening?
