I put my hand on Krew’s back and snuggled back into the covers. One of the scars on his back was thicker than the rest, and that was always the one I tended to reach for to trail my fingers along. I was just about back asleep when I heard a weird clank of a noise.
I listened, trying to figure out what I was hearing. Worried about flare ups, some of the Enchanted had agreed to keep watch over the forest for the night. I must have been hearing the commotion of all the people still in the meadow below us.
I snuggled into Krew, wrapping the sheets tighter around my nightgown. I was so exhausted I couldn’t even think straight.
Minutes later, I jolted awake to a louder clanking noise followed by another shortly after. My left arm was glowing brightly. While my right was cold. I tried to move it away from the cold, but the cold moved with it. Barely. I couldn’t move my arm.
I sat upright and saw the dark outlines of multiple men in the darkness.
And my arm wasn’t just cold, there was a gauntlet on it.
CHAPTER43
Iimmediately sent magic out of my free hand at the men I saw, two grunting as they smashed into one another and the wall. I turned my attention back to the gauntlet, and that was when out of nowhere, another man slammed into me, pinning my shoulders to the bed. I thought my left shoulder was going to tear off entirely, and my other shoulder was already bearing a heavy weight, making it extremely hard to move at all. Another gauntlet was slammed around my free hand, effectively cutting off my magic.
I thought or foolishly hoped for the briefest of moments that since I was immune to another Enchanted’s magic, maybe I would be immune to the gauntlets too. But as my magic was flaring with no outlet, no way out to help me, I realized I was not. The gauntlets worked on my magic just like any other Enchanted. The gauntlets themselves weren’t magic, they just restricted it.
I looked to my left to see around numerous dark shapes that Krew had also woken, and already had one arm in a gauntlet as well. I felt his panic mirroring my own, as he noticed I was already wearing two gauntlets. It was still so dark the only light in the entire room was the navy magic sprawling across Krew’s left side, my legs glowing a bright silver, and flashes of the Enchanted’s magic before us as they struggled to contain us. While only a few men were needed to get the gauntlets on me, even more were needed for Krew. It felt like there was an entire army of men in the room with us.
I tried to move my fingertips, trying to send my magic out to help his by habit before realizing I couldn’t do a thing. Tearing my eyes away from Krew to look down at myself, I saw the skin at my shoulders and chest was glowing brightly, and my legs were glowing, but just after my shoulders, my magic faded, and my skin was clear. Even just pulling myself up to sit under the weight of the gauntlets was excruciating.
Seeing me wrestle under the weight of the gauntlets, I felt Krew’s immediate rage.
Krew tossed three men at a wall before I had time to blink. As I tried to move my legs under me to get off the bed, I felt a prick of cold steel at my neck. Another Enchanted snapped his fingers and an orange hue lightened the room like a torch hovering at the man’s finger.
“Move, and I cut her,” the voice threatened.
I begged through our bond,Don’t listen to him. You’re stronger than he is even in one gauntlet.
Krew pulled his magic to the surface of his skin, his shirtless chest glowing more on the side without the gauntlet than the one with it, but then the man pressed the dagger into my skin. A small bead of blood ran down the length of my neck and onto my chest.
Krew hesitated as he saw it, and in that brief moment another two men attacked out of the darkness. Grunts and groans filled the space and I couldn’t see what was happening on the other side of the bed, but I knew when I felt Krew’s wince of pain they were successful in getting the second gauntlet on him.
“Let’s go, Your Highnesses,” the man with the dagger at my throat said.
I’m sure Father is just wanting to scold us and teach us a lesson,Krew sent me.Try to stay calm, love. Stay calm and we will talk ourselves out of whatever this is. Keir or Owen will save us.He paused.But I will kill the man who made you bleed.
Through the bond I felt the intensity behind his words. They were not mere words, or even a promise, they were a resolute truth.
My magic was there, my anger only increasing it. And yet there was no outlet. No way I could use it to get us out of this. It was one thing to be helpless and not understand the level of helplessness you found yourself in. It was another entirely to have a powerful well of magic within you, a way to save yourself, and no possible way to use it.
The king’s guards attached a chain to my gauntlets, another to Krew’s, and without delay, started walking us toward the door. I felt a flicker of hope. Krew always had two-night guards outside his door. They would come to our defense.
But as the door swung open, there were two bodies slumped in pools of blood. One was Romero. Krew and I had both really liked Romero.
I closed my eyes. They were dead. These men had killed them first. When I had first woken and heard a noise I presumed to have come from the meadow, it was actually these men being murdered. I had been right there in Krew’s wing and hadn’t trusted my magic. I could’ve helped. I should have woken Krew and then we both could have done something rather than just sleep while they were murdered right outside our door. But I had just gone right back to sleep and not bothered to do a thing.
No part of this is your fault,Krew reminded me.
I should have known.
We were both on the brink of burnout last night.Krew and I exchanged a glance in the hallway light.And now we know what the fire was for.
To wear us out?
Exactly, love. Be ready for anything.
This day. I knew in my gutthiswas the day we had all been dreading and striving for. This was the day we would take down the king or die trying. And starting it off in gauntlets didn’t exactly bode well for us.
