Page 34 of This Is Not True Love’s Kiss

Lor was far ahead of Aoife now, down the stairs and disappearing through doors. Aoife was still in the same corridor where the council meeting had taken place, the distraction from Margaret slowing her down. The queen would never catch up to the king at this point.

Castle had a choice. It could meddle. It could help the queen on her mission to follow Lor, or it could do nothing at all.

By this point, Castle knew exactly where Lor was heading as the king descended into its depths. There was only one place he could be going. Toward a secret he’d been holding onto for a long time.

If Castle meddled, it could go badly. The queen could choose to do something that would hurt the king, that would almost guarantee no reconciliation.

But . . . that shift. Castle had felt it. So Castle made a choice, one it hoped it wouldn’t come to regret.

CHAPTER 17

Aoife

Following the king might amount to nothing, but I had a hunch he’d been in a hurry to get

somewhere, to do something.

I just didn’t know what.

He disappeared around the corner at the end of the long hallway, and I hurried after him, staying close to the walls, the white stone cool against my skin. I was light on my feet and able to stay quiet so he wouldn’t hear me. I turned the corner to see Lor descending a spiral set of stairs.

“Hi!” a voice said from beside me, and I jumped to see Margaret pop up in a painting.

I put a hand to my heart. “Margaret, must you do that?”

“Do what?” she asked from where she stood in front of a backdrop of rolling green hills.

“Pop up out of nowhere.”

She frowned, a slight wrinkle forming in her otherwise flawless pale skin. “Well, I don’t know any other way to appear, Your Majesty.”

The stairwell was empty now, Lor already gone.

“Oh! Your Majesty,” Margaret said as I kept walking, hopping from painting to painting to keep up with me. “Ceri extended an invitation. A wine and cheese night at the dress shop!”

“No,” I said. I’d gotten a few invitations from the Wolfgang members over the years, but I had no interest. It wasn’t that I was trying to be rude, but I suspected they were all attempting to sway me, to get me to see Lor in some different light. That they all had ulterior motives somehow. They didn’t want to spend time with me, not really. I had no interest in spending a night hearing all the wonderful things about Lorcan Wolfgang. I already knew how perfect he was. I didn’t need to hear more of it.

I approached the stairwell, hoping I’d still be able to find Lor and figure out what had him running from our meeting in such a hurry.

“Are you sure?” Margaret asked. “I believe Meera will be in attendance.”

“Good for Meera.” I stopped in front of the stairwell that spiraled downward. “If you’ll excuse me, Margaret, I’ve got somewhere to be.”

The painting’s face fell, and I regretted my sharp tone momentarily, but it was quickly forgotten as I stepped down onto the staircase, and it began shifting.

I whirled, but the corridor was no longer there as a stone wall unraveled behind me, blocking me.

“Where are you taking me, Castle?” I asked, frustration filling me.

Knowing Castle, it was shifting me far away from Lor. It had tried pushing us together before, and the results had been disastrous, so I doubted that it was helping me.

I slumped against the stairs as they twisted, stone crunching and flying over my head. Flashes of the blue sky and green canopies that surrounded Fairwitch Isle filled my view, quickly blocked by shifting white alabaster stone that whirled around. I stayed still, hands planted on my hips as I waited to see where Castle was sending me. Stairs formed, leading downward. I had no choice but to follow, so I took a tentative step, waiting for the next step to form, and the next, and the next.

Stone fell around me to form walls, but this stone wasn’t white. It was a dull grey. The dungeons.

A shiver ran up my spine as images of Castle locking me away were conjured in my mind. Maybe Castle had changed its mind, decided I was no longer fit to be its queen and Lor could rule all on his own. A cold sweat broke out over my skin. I’d been sent to the dungeons many times as a slave. Punishment for my loose tongue or rebellious nature. I was starved and sometimes beaten. I squeezed my eyes shut.

Castle wouldn’t do that to me.