Page 17 of A Storm Rises

His hand shot to the spot where Avalynn Stromm had touched him. The connection sent a wave of something inside of him he hadn’t felt before and wasn’t expecting. But anger quickly erased all that.

Rubbing her away, he squeezed his hands together as he marched out of the receiving room. Her father had challenged him, his witch had compelled him, and the princess had warned him.

He sensed a pressure so strong it might have shattered every bone in his hands. Stinging pulses shot through his arms. He would have sent those pulses into the king’s face if he could’ve.

How dare his Highness! In front of everyone, the king ordered that witch to spell him and drag him to the back of the line. And how dare that wretched Princess Avalynn! She threatened him? Please. As if she or her father could have kept him down. And to think that Rhyka thought he would in any way be linked to her. Never in an eon would that happen.

He swung his arms as he crossed the vestibule floor. The widened eyes of the doormen spotted him. They scrambled into place. Uh-uh-uh… With a series of grunts, they heaved the thick and dense palace doors open.

Verona hissed behind him. “Mateo, stop.” Her padded boots struck the floor in short strides. “Now.”

He wasn’t stopping. If she had the key to victory in the hunt, he would have kept going. He needed to exit that cursed place no matter who or what followed.

The cool night air soothed his face like a refreshing splash after a hard run. The comforting scents of earth and fauna erased the palace’s garish and powdery perfumes. Where the crushed granite met the grass, he stopped. The nearly full orange moon filled the night sky and lit up the grounds with a radiant glow.

Verona caught up to him. “Have you lost your mind?” Quick bursts of vapor billowed from her mouth. “Challenging the king like that?”

“He had it coming.” The High King had no right to order his witch to compel him like that.

“Maybe so. But we are who we are—Sublanders.” She rubbed her forehead as if they had no choice. “We have to play our role until you get in that hunt.” She leaned in and whispered, “They will remove you before it starts if you pull a trick like that again.” Her eyebrows raised the length of her forehead. “Or send you to the dungeons. You are lucky that witch did not end you on the spot.”

Rhyka drew near, her presence adding another level of frustration. “Foolish boy.”

“I am no fool. I am mad. You are afraid of them, but I am not.” Lady Verona had her limitations as the steward of the Sublands, but he did not have those same binds. “They have no power over me except that which I give them.” As long as Mateo drew breath, no Stromm would ever wield power over any child of Manny Vela.

“Enough with that,” Rhyka warned. “What did Princess Avalynn say to you?”

“Nothing important.” Her perfectly formed lips, the color of red rose petals, sprang to mind. He pushed the visual aside.

Rhyka clutched his arm. “What did she say?” The witch shook him as if he were a child.

He jerked his arm away. “All the princess said was ‘you will not win anything.’”

Lady Verona exchanged glances with Rhyka. She squinted and then whispered, “The Stromms are up to something.”

“With Raelor’s aid, no less,” Rhyka replied.

Mateo opened his palms. “Of course, they are up to something. First, Engrendorn was the hunter, and now the Stromm heir is? How does that even make sense?” The Stromms played by their own rules.

Lady Verona looked at Rhyka. “We will find out.”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t even matter.” His father and sister needed those healing seeds, so did little Poppy, and so did the rest of the Sublands. He was not going to let them down. “They can cheat all they want. But they still have to release those foxes. And when they do, they will figure out a thing or two about me…like I do not lose.”

“Ahem, excuse me, honored guests?” It was the petite woman who had ushered them into the receiving room.

Lady Verona faced the maidservant while Mateo composed himself.

The maiden tipped her head. “I am Maid Nia, your assigned attendant while you are at the palace. I would be honored to show you to your rooms. That is, if you are finished with the evening’s festivities. Your things have already been delivered.”

“That would be splendid.” Lady Verona nodded. “Thank you.”

Maid Nia motioned with her arm. “I will lead you around the exterior of the palace to the guest rooms at the rear. It is a shorter walk this way.” She took a step. “Please, follow me.”

Despite the bright moon illuminating the gravel pathway, lighted orbs dotted the path. Round. Shimmery. Hazy around the edges. “We don’t have these in the Sublands,” Mateo muttered, as if the glowing spheres could hear him. “How do they work?”

“The magic of our gnomes,” Maid Nia explained. “They maintain the grounds and the orbs, both outside and inside the palace.”

Mateo studied the shrubs and trees lining the path. “Are the gnomes here now?”

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