Tessa
Iwhirled on my feet to find two more guards lurking in the corridor, their eyes dull and faded. Their lips were twisted into strange, eerie smiles that sent a spike of dread down my spine. This was it. The expression I’d seen from the storm fae who had trapped us in Itchen. And now two of them were here with bows drawn and arrows trained right on my face.
Heart pounding, I shoved Nellie behind me. “What are you doing? We’re your guests.”
“You’re in the corridors without permission,” the one on the left said in a vicious voice that sounded so inhuman, I shuddered. Unlike the guards who stood beside the doorway around the corner, these two were wearing very little armor. Their simple brown trousers were tucked into glossy leather boots, and only a leather vest covered their chests. The bracers on their wrists provided protection from their arrows, but they wouldn’t do a damn thing against Fenella’s little trick.
Unfortunately, Fenella would have to get behind them first.
“We need permission?” I asked.
“Tessa,” Kalen said in the same voice he’d used when Asher had threatened my life at the ball. He sounded like he was two seconds away from ripping their limbs off. “Get behind me.”
The one on the left, a fae man with mossy hair, sneered. “Take one step, and I will bury this arrow in your skull.”
My heart pulsed, and Nellie gripped the back of my tunic, hissing in my ear. Wetting my lips, I held up my hands. “Everyone stay calm. There’s just been a misunderstanding, that’s all. Look who we’re with. It’s Toryn, your prince. He was just showing us around the castle.”
“Owenis our prince,” the woman on the right said in a monotone voice, her eyes vacant and cold. “Toryn abandoned us.”
“You’re not supposed to be in the corridors,” the other one snapped, lifting his eyes in Toryn’s direction. “We’re taking you back to your rooms. Now.”
I swallowed. We clearly had no other choice. They’d sneaked up on us from behind and caught us unaware, and with the arrows trained on us, there was little way for us to fight back. Through my strange bond with Kalen, I reached out to sense his emotions or seek his thoughts. If only we could communicate with each other, if only we could make some kind ofplan, then perhaps we could outmaneuver these guards long enough for at least one of us to get to that locked door down the hall.
Of course, there were two more guards over there to deal with, too. Had they heard this commotion? Were they readying themselves for a fight? It was highly likely at this point.
This was not going well. At all.
Toryn moved past us and angled his body just in front of mine, forcing the guards to inch back a few steps. He stood tall and commanding, his shoulders thrown back and his chin held high. With a confidence and control that only a king could possess, he spoke to the guards before us in a deadly, threatening calm.
“I have a better idea.” His voice was as loud as the thunder booming against the walls. “I’ll take you to the queen and see what she thinks about you threatening the life of her son. Herheir. Because you serve me just as you do her.”
The guards frowned—the only crack in their inhuman expressions—and exchanged a quick glance. And then, the brown-haired fae on the left said, “We serve Owen and no one else.”
Toryn just smiled. “That’s a treasonous statement. Shall I repeat it to my mother for you?”
The guards exchanged another glance. And then to my surprise, they lowered their bows and took off down the hall, their boots slapping against the stone. They were at the end of the corridor and around the corner so quickly that it seemed as if the wind itself had carried them away.
Toryn chuckled and turned to face us, his eyes dancing with amusement. “Cowards.”
“How did you know?” Nellie asked, her hands still holding tight to the back of my shirt.
“That they’d run? They kept mentioning Owen, and they’re not dressed like my mother’s guards. Plus, they had an odd look in their eye. They smell odd, too, like…”
“Like lightning,” Kalen finished for him. “That look in their eyes, it’s what we saw from the storm fae in Itchen. There’s something not right with them.”
The smile on Toryn’s face dimmed. “It’s Owen. He’s always been…strange. I think it’s why Mother never handed him the crown, even after I left. She needs an heir, and she does not want it to be him. And truth be told, as much as I want to blame her, I can’t. Not when I know what he’s like.”
“Then just kill the bastard,” Fenella muttered.
“He’s mybrother,” Toryn said with a vehemence I’d rarely heard from him.
I glanced at Nellie, who hovered behind me, understanding his emotion far more than I could ever explain. My sister was a kind, beautiful soul, but even if she weren’t, even if she were as monstrous as Oberon himself, I could never harm her, much less be the one to end her life.
I would rip out my own heart before I’d pluck a single hair from her head.
“Come,” Toryn said, motioning toward the corridor just around the corner, where the guarded door sat waiting. “That took up precious time. We need to move quickly if we want to find out what’s behind that door.”
That was my cue to leave.
