Page 82 of His Realm

“Which begs the question, why are you running? Shouldn’t whoever these men are see your seal and swear loyalty?”

“Not with Carice calling the shots. She hates me.”

He shook his head. “Don’t get excited, she hates everybody. But if you were carrying that many lies, you might ooze venom yourself.”

I glanced at him. “You know.”

He smirked. “Of course. So does Zev. We were both hiding in the walls in the king’s chambers when Carice confessed about her baby to Gideon.”

“Horrible,” I groaned, following him around a corner, taking a sharp left, walking through an espresso bar and then seeing the entrance to the palace. “And what were you doing in the wall?”

“Spying for the queen.”

This story was only getting worse. “And Zev?”

“Spying on Gideon, as usual. He hated him.”

“Zev hated Gideon?”

“Oh yes, without question.”

“Let’s go,” I said, and we started running, both of us sprinting toward the palace.

When Cirillo went down beside me, I shouldn’t have cared. I shouldn’t have stopped. I should have run on without concern for him. I could send people out afterward to find him. He wasn’t my friend; he was, in theory, my rival, but the farther I went, the worse I felt, until I slowed and doubled back, making up the ground.

The thing that flew at me came so fast; I wasn’t certain what it was until I suddenly couldn’t move anymore. When I looked down at my abdomen, only then did I see the dart. Glancing over at Cirillo, I saw a similar one in his back, right before my world went dark.

EIGHT

The shaking was annoying, and I was going to yell at Tiago because normally, he was the only one who woke me up in some annoying manner.

“Jason,” someone whispered.

I came awake fast and sat up. Instantly, I was sorry I had because my head felt like it was going to explode.

“Careful,” Cirillo said, easing me back down on the pillow, where I could breathe again. “Do you think you can open your eyes?”

I thought my eyes were open, so I concentrated and was surprised that it was harder than I thought it would be. But I’d been drugged before and understood what was happening, that my body was trying to rid itself of the effects.

Finally getting my eyes open, I reached under my shirt, checking to make sure Varic’s seal was still there, which it was. Then I focused on Cirillo and found him staring down at me with those opaque blue eyes of his.

“Oh thank God,” he exhaled sharply. “I couldn’t be here alone.”

“Here?”

“Yes. Here.”

I just woke up, and already he was on my nerves. “Where is here?”

“You know how you wanted to go to Ophir?” he said with forced cheerfulness. “Well, guess what, you’ve arrived.”

It was and wasn’t a surprise. I had thought Sorin understood that Varic and I were making the trip to help him and his people. Having seen Carice with him, though, I realized that perhaps there was a completely different agenda at work.

I couldn’t think about that now, or Varic, or that I was missing my wedding, again, and instead had to focus on what to do in the interim. Cirillo and I were in a medium-sized room with a blanket covering what was perhaps a window or an opening on one side, walls on two more, and what resembled a rolling barn door on the fourth.

“What is this?” I asked him, needing to sit up, pleased that the second time I did, even though I was still nauseous, it dissipated quickly and I was vertical. My head still hurt, but it no longer felt like it was going to explode.

“I think we’re in someone’s house,” Cirillo said, “and if you can get up, I will explain why I think so.”