Cenek’s eyes roamed the scroll. Head still down, he looked sharply at me, then back to the paper.
Fuck.
“This is your wife?” Cenek said, unraveling the scroll enough to show me a bounty note. Under the emblem of the Rivean king, my sketch took up one side. Maren’s, the other.
I flicked my eyes across the drawings, then leisurely slid them away to gaze somewhere out the window, trying to think.
Across from me, Cenek chuckled. “Perhaps he doesn’t speak Rivean.”
“This says he does.” Kazimir pointed to a line on the scroll. “Says he wears a royal Calderian ring and has two tattoos, island patterns on one shoulder and a Cressian coat of arms on his forearm.”
Cenek motioned with his chin. “Let’s see.”
Kazimir came around my side, reaching for my hands. I shoved my shoulder into his fucking Rivean throat. He stumbled away, eyes already watering with the force of my blow, but before I could strike him again, more of them came through the door.
The stone wall hit my cheekbone as they threw me against it hard enough to make me bite my fucking tongue. I wrenched sideways, but there had to be seven or eight of them on me, elbows and knees carving into my back and legs, pinning me flat. My sleeves tugged at my wrists as someone rolled them up along my Cressian tattoo.
Behind me, Kazimir coughed, but Cenek’s voice rang smoothly in my ear. “Where’s the Calderian princess?”
The seaside fortress offered no air circulation. I tried to push back, but they held me tight, my jaw throbbing from its sudden acquaintance with the fucking sopping wall. Slick under my skin, it was as though this Aalto-damned prison sweated from the agony of having to house the bastards.
“We left her in the market,” Kazimir said.
Cenek flipped my sleeve down. “Pity.”
“But she’s here.”
I froze. A chill entered my veins.
“Here?” Cenek asked.
“In the parley chamber. With Marik.”
The way he said it put my teeth on edge. Amused—almost fucking gleeful.
“Oh?” Cenek asked. He must have motioned for the men holding me to turn me around. They grasped my arms and yanked me back. With the extra space to move, I kicked the legs out from the nearest one, sending him to the floor before they rammed my spine into the place my chest had just vacated, anchoring me once more.
I spat, the glob landing on the floor, tinged pink with my blood.
Through clenched jaws, I seethed at them, but Cenek barely offered me a second glance. He raised a brow at Kazimir, indicating for him to continue. The man shrugged. “I don’t think he’ll feel the need to use his own hand tonight,” he said, then looked at me. “I hadn’t had a good look at her until just now. IthoughtI recognized you from somewhere when you entered the market. But she—” He tapped the scroll with his index finger. “She’s unforgettable.”
A growl came from somewhere in my throat. “If you let him fucking touch her—”
“Oh, they’ve been at it for at least three minutes now.” Kazimir smiled as he massaged his ugly Adam’s apple, red from my shoulder’s impact. “I’d say he’s done more than touch.”
Molten anger rolled through my limbs, flooding my veins. It swirled in me like a sudden vortex, sucking in every thought and spitting it out mangled and raw. “Then, he’s a dead man.”
“Care to see?” Cenek said, rolling up the scroll and tossing it on the desk. The harsh captain who had tried to bait me into bribing him had left. He practically vibrated with excitement. “Not everyday we have the honor of accommodating the carnal needs of a princess.”
“She came dressed for the occasion.” Kazimir sighed, straightening his sleeves. “Molested me with her eyes just outside this room. I imagine such a woman goes to bed unsatisfied each night. Maybe she could make use of the entire guard.”
Kazimir caught my eyes, and I wondered what sound his fucking skull might make against the hard surface of the grounds below were I to throw him from the window. He grinned; I could almost taste his blood.
A male scream came from down the hall, turning all of our heads in unison.
I smiled back at Kazimir. “I think she can take care of herself.”
19
