“Go,” one of them said. “We’ll get him to safety.”
Cass hesitated for just a moment, but Henry murmured, “Go, lad.” His voice was rough from disuse, but his order was clear. Henry might not know what their plan was, but his eyes were on Miri. He understood they had come to right wrongs. He, above all others, lived by his vow. Miri felt tears well in her eyes, but Henry gave her a solemn nod. “There’s work to be done, Myrina. Show her you’ve the heart of a Lion.”
Miri batted away her tears as the sound of approaching boots echoed through the halls. She stepped forward to place a hand on his chest, heartsick at the feel of bone instead of thick muscle beneath her palm. “Thank you, Henry.” Fear nearly choked her words, but she had to ask. “What of Lettie? Where are they holding her?”
Henry’s brow drew together, something flashing in his gray eyes. “In the tower.” He glanced at Cass, confusion clear. “She’s in the tower with Nicholas.”
A door at the end of the corridor burst open, and half a dozen kingsmen rushed through, swords drawn.
“Go!” Cass shouted, ordering the group with Henry to take him to safety.
Henry’s words echoed through Miri’s thoughts, but the kingsmen were upon them, and all they could do was fight. There were only four left, Cass and Miri and two queensguard, as the other four rushed Henry to safety. A sword sliced through the air near Miri, barely missing a queensguard’s arm. They needed to get back into the passages, staying hidden on their route to avoid facing a larger group of kingsmen. Four was not enough.
Swords clashed, and bodies slid into heaps onto the tiled floor with hands pressed to wounds that could not be staunched. The kingsmen were trained soldiers, brutal in their onslaught, but they met their match in the agile queensguard. Soon, though winded and one bleeding, Miri and the queensguard had dispatched the last of the kingsmen.
They ran again, staggered by the surprise of finding Henry, and Miri’s heart seized in the sudden drowning fear within her chest. She stumbled, and Cass’s fingers dug into her shoulders as he dragged her into a darkened alcove. He stood at her back, holding her steady as he gestured at the other two queensguard. At Cass’s instruction, they crept forward with swords at the ready. Cass’s chest rose and fell evenly behind her, his jaw brushing her ear. She focused on his breathing, not allowing the fear to paralyze her further. Miri had watched her mother fight the kingsmen before she had died. Her mother had been under the sorcerer’s power—they had her blood—yet she had not been frozen in fear, because she had been a queen and the protections of the Storm Queen had saved her.
Fighting in the room beyond was joined by the muffled sound of a body falling on fabric as the tension released from Miri’s chest. The sorcerer was gone and, with it, his effect on her. She nodded, sword in her hand, and she and Cass rushed from the alcove to help fight the remaining kingsmen who had been the sorcerer’s guard.
They made their way through the castle, the route painfully familiar. Shadows darkened the stairwell, and they ducked into an alcove, weapons drawn and breath held until footsteps rushed past. As they came closer to the tower, Miri tried to keep her thoughts from what they might find and what the king had done to her sister in the years gone past or why he might want her in the keep so near him. To be certain, it was to make sure she was safe, out of the hands of the sorcerers, surely, something Miri should have thought of before. But a voice deep inside her whispered its doubts. Miri pressed them down, tightening her grip on her sword. Whatever had happened, whatever Nicholas had done, it would soon be over.
An explosion of sound came from a courtyard outside, but the bells had not yet begun to ring. Terric and the queensguard had made certain of it. Cass shoved a massive chest from in front of a library wall then made quick work of the panel beneath. Next, they went down a short set of wooden stairs and ran through the darkness between the castle walls. The queensguard behind Miri held a torch, its flickering light catching on the block walls and the outline of Cass before her. He turned down another passage, and the way became narrower. They froze outside the panel of wood that was their escape, listening for sounds of movement beyond. They were so close to the tower, so close to the worst of the kings and the man who held her mother’s blood. She was finally close to finding Lettie, after so many lost years.
Cass glanced at Miri, and she did her best to convey she was well and that she had the emotion and the tingling dread under control. She wasn’t certain if she was telling the truth, but she had no choice about it. There was no going back.
He slid the panel free, and they slipped into a sizable bedroom with no evidence of recent use. Beyond its small sitting room would be a door to the corridor that could take them to the castle keep. Cass gave a glance to the men behind them, obviously asking if they were well and truly ready for the sprint through the remaining rooms, for that fight that was to come. At their nods, the lot of them moved forward and came into a sitting room that was entirely bare of furniture. Cass froze near the doorway, his gaze roaming the space. There were signs the room had been charred, though no scent of smoke or hint of ash remained. It had been burned long before, no doubt, but the room had not been repaired. His wary gaze met Miri’s. They both knew it had been years since they’d last explored the castle and that any number of things could have changed. Nicholas had been strict about visitors. No one was allowed to set foot in the keep, aside from a small number of servants who’d been locked inside, unable to leave because they had access to his secrets.
It was why none of the queensguard knew much of what had happened inside. Nicholas had been the cleverest and kept himself the most secure. Miri had never wanted a man dead more in her life. Cass gave her one final look before opening the door to the corridor—then an explosion knocked them back into the room.
* * *
Cass’s bodyrolled over Miri, knocking her onto the stone as they were pelted with bits of block and ash. Miri’s chest went tight with the approach of a sorcerer, and she realized the explosion had come not from them but from kingsmen. It was powder, not magic. The sound of clashing swords broke through the room, and one of their queensguard landed solidly on the floor beside Miri and Cass. Before her ears had stopped ringing, Cass was on his feet, and Miri stood behind him despite the dread building in her chest threatening to drown her. She raised her sword to fend off a blow, but a blast of energy slammed into her, knocking her again onto the floor. It was a sorcerer and too many kingsmen. They rushed forward, swords clashing, bursts of power cracking through the room and over Miri’s skin like lightning. Another queensguard’s body fell beside her.
As Cass turned to find Miri, his sword flashed, but it was far too late. The kingsmen descended. Miri was frozen by blood magic, her sword limp in her hand, and Cass was outnumbered twenty to one.
He fought on, but it was only moments before Miri and Cass were bound, defenseless, and prepared to be dragged through the castle. The sorcerer’s blood ran over Cass’s blade. He had not been able to fight them all, but he’d done what he could to free Miri from the magic’s hold on her. Blood poured from a wound on his shoulder, a gash on his forehead, and another along his leg. He’d nearly died trying to prevent her capture, and two of his brethren already had.
They had failed—after everything. Cass would be tortured and killed. Lettie would be bled out at the hands of the king. The realm would be lost.
The kingsmen dragged them through the corridors, and Miri realized they were being taken not to the square to be hanged or to the cells to wait. They were going to the tower. The king knew who Miri was. Cass swore and struggled against the soldiers, knocking two from their feet before being subdued by two more. A kingsman slammed his sword hilt into Cass’s jaw and was repaid with a fight only that much fiercer. He was outnumbered, and the kingsmen were gathering through the halls. More and more kept coming, and there was less that they could do.
Cass wrenched in their hold, his gaze finding Miri, and she winced at the torment she saw in his eyes. It could only get worse. She gave him a small nod before she was jerked forward again, through a massive arching doorway that led to the tower keep—to the king on his throne.
Chapter 31
Miri was shoved to her knees at the base of the polished steps before her mother’s throne, Cass beside her. She didn’t know whether Nicholas meant to gloat or if he only wanted to witness her death in person. She couldn’t defeat him from her knees, but that did not stop her from glaring up at the man with a promise in her eyes.
“Princess Myrina,” Nicholas said with a purr. He wore a rich, dark-red, velvet-trimmed suit, a golden crown, and a jeweled chain draped over his shoulders. He seemed to have barely aged. He was the same man in her nightmares, unchanged by years on the throne.
Miri spat. Blood splattered across the steps before her, but none of it was hers.
Nicholas chuckled. “The little Lion still has bite.”
Panic was tight in Miri’s chest, but the sorcerers had not approached from the back of the hall. She had no idea what was stopping them from closing the distance but was grateful she could manage any movement at all. “You have broken the laws of blood. You betrayed the one true queen.”
The king glanced at the kingsman beside Miri, and the man’s fist cracked across her jaw. In response, Cass smashed his head into one of the men holding him but was shoved back down in a violent struggle that only left him bleeding more.
The king sighed. “I see you’ve brought a bloodsworn with you. One of Henry’s little brats.” His finger waved above the arms of the throne, and his tone bored, he said, “Kill him.”
