Page 197 of Settle Down, Princess

I started moving then, faster, my feet a blur over the marble floor. Desi kept pace with me, shooting me a wild grin, but then we were forced to come to a skidding stop. Guards came lumbering up the stairs, swords drawn, but before they could engage us, knives buried themselves in the vulnerable points of their armour, forcing them to drop their weapons with a clatter as they fell to the floor.

When Selene snatched the daggers back and stood over her fallen enemies, she looked like a lioness, bloodied of teeth and claw. It should’ve been a moment of victory for us, because beyond the balustrade I saw them fighting. Silas fought with balletic grace, spinning out of the reach of those that struck out at him, throwing his knives with perfect precision to drop each enemy. Roan roared with each great sweep of his sword, the blade slamming into multiple guards, sending them staggering back. And Arik? He and Creed were like two peas in a pod, the snarl on his human face identical to Creed’s wolf’s jaws. They tore through guards like butter, allowing me to smile just a little as my heart soared.

We couldn’t just be allowed to enjoy those small victories, could we? I hadn’t rushed into this fight, hadn’t entered the city. I had done everything right this time, hadn’t I? I was content to watch my mates fight their way towards me, ready for them to sweep all three of us from this place and to safety until…

Selene went rigid, her eyes wide and then losing focus as she dropped into a dead faint. Desi let out a cry, but she quickly followed suit. I spun around to find a triumphant looking Giselle standing there, a blow pipe in her hands.

“Thought you were going to scurry free, little mouse?” she asked and that was enough to have me backing away sharply, but not fast enough. “I wouldn’t try.” She plucked another dart from her garter and then smiled. “Or you could. You only have to be breathing for what comes next.”

“You’ve lost, Giselle,” I said. “The guards are falling like flies and—” I was interrupted by a host of howls as yet more wolf shifters converged on the palace. “And it’s only a matter of time before you and Magnus fall too.”

“All the more reason to grab a bargaining chip then, isn’t it?”

Would I have been able to move this fast if I wasn’t corralled, contained by my upbringing? Would I be able to grind my fingers into Giselle’s flesh, like she did mine now, and drag her into a nearby room? I wanted to fight, to kick, to scream, something, but what I saw inside the room silenced me. The sickeningly sweet scent of rotting flesh hit me first, then the low mesmeric hum of flies. A girl with bright gold hair lay on the ground, a familiar ring of bruises around her neck making clear the cause of her demise.

“That one?” Giselle hauled me past the dead body. “Silly girl. Didn’t follow the directive someone sent about not sending any more girls to work in the palace. Needed money, she said. Had a mother at home that needed medicine, so she came to the palace during the day, thinking she could sneak in and make some beds, get good coin before the festivities began. Magnus woke up and saw all that pretty blonde hair and well…” She shot me a sharp smile. “You know what happened.

I did. There was no training I could call upon, just instincts that had me raising my foot, only to send it slamming down on the top of hers, my hand shooting up, the heel of it about to slam right into her nose, but while I managed to stamp her foot, Giselle was well used to this kind of abuse. She snarled at me as she caught my hand with one of hers, then used the other to slap me with all of her strength.

The world went white, the noise beyond drowned out by a high pitched ringing. While I struggled to stay on my feet, she struck like a viper, grabbing both of my hands and then lashing them together with something before staring down at me as the world came rushing back.

“You—!”

I started to shriek, my whole body sucking in a breath before she slapped a hand over my mouth.

“You’ll shut the fuck up if you want to live, or so help me, I’ll break your pretty little neck here and now.” Her smile reasserted itself. “Wouldn’t that be awful? Poor Prince Arik finally gets some balls and starts a revolution, but his wife to be, his mate…”

Her gaze grew keener as it slid down the side of my face, her eyes widening when she saw the bite there.

“You just bought yourself a few more minutes on this earth, bitch,” she said. “A fated mate who dies after she’s bonded herself to her pack takes the men with her into death. I need to get you to Magnus now.”

Why was I so damn weak? Why had the women in Stormare made such a virtue of it, because digging my heels in, fighting my bonds, just earned me another slap, then another. Blood ran freely from my nose, but I was dragged anyway through a door that was cleverly inset into the wall, its presence only detectable by someone who knew it was there. She popped the door and jerked me through it before shutting it behind us.

“Jessalyn…?” I heard my name called beyond the door. “Jess…?”

I sucked in a breath, ready to answer them, but that’s when Giselle’s hand shot out, not to shut my mouth, but to cut off all available air. My reply was little more than a strangled croak as I stiffened. It knew we needed air desperately and that someone was stealing that away from us, my whole body jerking, twisting in her grip, but my hands were bound firmly behind my back. I was helpless, that was clear and when I went limp in her hands she nodded in recognition. I couldn’t cry out, not as she tugged me down the hidden corridor, because I was too busy sucking in breaths greedily, right up until I ended here.

“Giselle?”

The king looked up from where he was standing with two harried looking guards.

“Now Lady Giselle is here, perhaps we can make our escape, Sire?” one guard said, trying to sound calm, but failing.

“Why would we leave?” Giselle shoved me in front of her like some sort of prize and the king’s eyes lit up at the sight of me. “You bought your way out of one war with that other highborn bitch Arik wanted? Imagine what you can get for his fated mate?”

Chapter 111

Roan

“Jessalyn!”

Creed-Wolf’s voice echoed throughout the whole palace, alerting our mate to his presence, so I followed hard on his footsteps, figuring he’d know where to go. Guards tried to stop us progressing, thinking that just four of us were no match for their number, but as more and more of them fell to our swords, littering the ground, those that remained started to re-examine their assumptions. I grinned as I lunged forward, watching the idiots clatter backwards and then bolt off into the palace, but not for long. Creed shouted our mate’s name continuously, his nose working as he scaled the stairs.

When we stumbled into the room, I thought I knew what had happened. The stink of death assaulted me far more viciously than the king’s lax guards had. I saw a gleam of golden hair, heard the buzz of flies and then sucked in a great lungful of foetid air. “No…” I whispered, staggering closer to the very still woman lying on the floor. Was this what Arik had gone through when he found Ariel? If it was, I owed him a beer or two. I had cuts all over my arms and chest, some with blood still running, but none of them hurt more than this, to come stumbling before the dead body of…

“It’s not Jess.”

Silas dropped down to his knees, hands hovering as he sought to do something, anything, about the poor girl’s state. Her face had turned blue with death, but her throat… It was a mass of sickening bruises, each one feeling like a punch to the gut until I blinked and saw someone else.

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