Page 93 of Sworn to the Shadow Throne

Camrick’s gaze flicked back to me, more serious now. “We must hurry if we want to escape too much attention.”

He stepped toward the oak door just as the air shifted.

Pressure crept into my chest, dark and warm and unmistakable, accompanied by the faint scent of moss, cedar, and dark tea leaves. My next breath came out unsteady, my heartbeat erratic. The smell hit my nostrils and sixth sense with a sensation that felt like a remembered touch.

Owain.

Chapter 27

Owain

The scent of baking spices drifted from down the hallway. The urge to race toward her was so strong that my legs shook with the effort of not moving. I contented myself with simply filling my lungs with the scent as I hid in the shadows of an alcove, trying to hide the telltale shush of my magic anxiously swiping the stone floor at my feet.

Reina burst through the door to the hidden tunnel first. She stomped down the hallway, heading straight toward me.

“This is the exact opposite of staying away, Wain,” she snarled quietly.

It wasn’t choice; it was compulsion. Even if all I got was a glance of Lunette and more of her scent, I had to have it.

Yet that wasn’t the entire reason I was here. If even a single untrustworthy soul in the castle detected them, or if word of her reached the Assembly too soon, envoys with polite smiles and strict mandates of action would be dispatched. They’d done it to me at fourteen. Declared my magic “too volatile.” Demanded oversight, containment, as though I were something to be managed rather than a person.

Berian had wanted to give me to them. Only Reina’s intervention had saved me. And I was a prince. They wouldn’t hesitate to declare a grand magus of healing their asset.

I wanted her to be farther from their reach before that happened. So I had placed myself in the way, ready to intercept anyone who might come down the corridor with me as a distraction they couldn’t ignore.

Except Reina didn’t know everything going on with the Assembly yet, so I mustered only a pained grimace in response.

“Stay hidden,” she said huffily. “We’re taking her directly to Berian’s rooms. Arriving, taking in the city and the tunnel has already been a lot for her.”

The mere hint that Luna might be suffering in some way was enough to set me off. My eyes tingled with gathering magic, and the faint pressure forced them shut.

But not before Reina noticed. Her lips formed a thin line. “You will not become another problem I have to manage, Owain.”

“Does she have everything she needs?” I needed to do something, anything to feel connected to her.

Reina eyed me as if I were as transparent as I feared. “Lunette’s apartment is ready, as is her wardrobe,” she said evenly. “In the meantime, get whatever this is out of your system. The entire kingdom needs you stable—with her and Berian at the top of the list.”

“About that first part…” I said lightly. “I had her rooms moved. She’s in the princess’s apartment. To be near Berian.”

Reina made a strangled noise of frustration. “You mean near you!”

I dropped the pretense and lowered my voice even further. “If the Assembly tries to petition for oversight over a dangerous magic user, they cannot demand access to a royal residence without invoking the open censure of the crown.”

Reina looked torn between being proud of me and wanting to smack me again. “You expect them to be interested in her so quickly?”

I nodded. “You’ll understand when you see how powerful she is.”

The hourglass was already emptying. Somewhere in the Tir, a scribe was already sharpening his quill, just waiting for a name to send to our enemies.

“Fine,” Reina grumbled. She threw her hands in the air in a fit of pique. “Even if you have made at least one prudent move, you really are half-mad!”

There was no point denying that. As she demanded, I would give Lunette space, even if it was already proving to be one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I’d thought Reina had only wanted to scold me, but she lingered, body tense.

“You need to know,” Reina said, the sudden gravity in her voice snapping the tether on my attention. “Freuxcourt promised to cover it for another two days, but—” She paused, a flicker of regret clouding her expression before she even spoke. “Theresa is dead.”

The words landed in my chest with a hollow thud. I was empty from missing Lunette, and yet a colossal weight still pressed down to crush the hole in my chest.

My sister-in-law, my queen, was dead. The woman who’d endured council meetings and lavish banquets with a tight-lipped smile, who’d persevered through them and being with my brother for her love of Larethia, was gone. She’d deserved better than Berian gave her.