Page 79 of The Prince's Curse

“I don’t want to hurt you, Benjin,” he growled. “But I will if you leave me no other choice. Stop this foolishness at once!”

Setting his shoulders, Benjin raised hands crackling with runeflame and shook his head. “Sorry. I don’t take orders from a traitor.”

Dexil clenched his jaw and raised his hand to ready a spell. Nothing happened. Blinking in confusion, he glanced down. His eyes widened when he realized his back foot had crossed over the threshold into Benjin’s cell…and its antimagic wards.

Before the Grand Magus could move, Haldric was there, yanking him off balance. “This is for my father!” he shouted, slamming a fist into Dexil’s face.

Dexil staggered, crying out, and Haldric shoved him back to collide with a pair of bloodied rebels in hot pursuit. Then, he dove for the door, tumbling past the threshold. With another weave of runeflame, Benjin yanked the door shut behind Haldric right as the rebels slammed into the other side.

Stepping back, Haldric raised his hand and channeled runeflame to fuse the lock mechanism together. Muffled thumps and shouts resounded from the other side.

“That should hold them well enough for now,” Haldric said. He hurried to his aunt’s side and knelt beside her, puffing out a relieved breath. “Looks like Dexil used some sort of sleeping Compulsion on her. We’re lucky he didn’t kill her outright. Perhaps he intended to once he’d dealt with me. As it is, she’ll be out like a light for another couple hours without magic to wake her.”

Benjin stared at the sealed cell door, unable to parse his flurry of emotions. “For all his faults, Dexil really didn’t want to harm anyone if he could avoid it. He hesitated to hurt you right up until the last.”

Haldric grimaced. “Perhaps not. But that doesn’t excuse his actions. What he did to my father…and what he tried to do to me.”

“No. I suppose it doesn’t.” Benjin glanced down the empty corridor. “We’re alone here for now, but what about the rest of the palace? Do you think there’s a chance the guards will win?”

Haldric frowned, appearing thoughtful. “When my aunt and I came here, the palace was mostly deserted. We saw no sign of Marshal Fendrel nor the royal guards.” His gaze lingered on his aunt, his eyes widening in sudden understanding. “As you said, Dexil sought to minimize casualties. Perhaps he used similar sorcery on them—something to preemptively remove them from the fight.”

Benjin bit his lip and nodded. That made sense. “In that case, we should grab your aunt and flee. Perhaps there are other supporters you can raise in Revesole—men loyal to the Crown you can use to retake the palace.”

Haldric hesitated before setting his jaw. Rising from beside his aunt, he squared his shoulders, every bit of him the visage of a defiant ruler.

“My father is dead. That means I’m the king, and as king, I refuse to abandon my people. Whether I wanted it or not, this ismycastle now, and I intend to defend it.” Doubt crept over his expression as he glanced at Benjin. “But that doesn’t mean you have any obligation to follow me. You’re free to—”

Benjin stepped forward, shutting him up with a firm kiss. “Don’t be an idiot,” he said, pulling back and clasping Haldric’s shoulder. “Of course I’ll stay and help. With two mages working in tandem and their leader imprisoned, those rebels won’t know what hit them.”

Haldric fixed him with a grateful smile, then moved to grab his sword where it lay in the hall. “Right, then. Let’s go reclaim my palace.”

thirty

Haldric

“Behind you!” Haldric shouted.He raised his free hand, but before he could muster a spell, Benjin had already spun and unleashed a blast of force that sent the pair of rebels sneaking up on him flying backward.

Haldric lowered his hand and focused back on his own duel, allowing himself a brief smile at the burst of pride that warmed his chest. Benjin certainly had a knack for Evocations. Even without proper mastery or technique, he could conjure blasts of force quicker than any mage Haldric had ever seen.

Easily parrying an unpracticed sword swing from a woman barely older than he was, Haldric dodged another rebel’s overenthusiastic thrust and swiped his sword low. An icy Evocation leaked from his enchanted blade, freezing both rebels’ feet to the stone floor.

A tinge of regret pierced him as they flailed and cried out, struggling to free themselves. These people were no trained fighters. Most of the rebels he and Benjin had encountered hadclearly never even handled a weapon before. They were simply people down on their luck, desperate for any promise of change.

And Dexil gave them that.

Shoving down his hesitation, Haldric dropped both of them with clean strikes, doing his best to make them nonlethal. If the treacherous Grand Magus could be bothered to minimize casualties, then Void take Haldric if he didn’t do the same.

His skirmish finished, Haldric turned back to Benjin and found the apprentice rising from the unconscious bodies of the other attackers.

Benjin flashed him a weary grin. “All clear.”

Haldric gave the corridor a quick scan and nodded. The hallway was secured—though how long that would last, he couldn’t say.

This was the fourth rebel patrol they’d encountered since they’d left the dungeons. And while they’d made quick work of them thanks to their restored magic and the element of surprise, exhaustion was beginning to weigh on Haldric. From Benjin’s drooping eyes and shoulders, Haldric could tell he felt the same.

It had been a grueling few hours. Regaining his lost memories, his father’s death, Dexil’s betrayal, his reunion with Benjin…all of it rattled around Haldric’s skull, threatening to drag him down and overwhelm him.

But he couldn’t let it. There’d be time enough to sort through today’s events and try to make sense of it all later. For now, he had Benjin at his side and a battle to win. That was more than enough to keep him going.

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