Page 125 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses

“Your Highness!”

Vanya was pale as she hurried up to us with dark circles ringing her eyes. But more than her obvious exhaustion was the urgency radiating from her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. Had something happened at her donation today? Maybe it had taken too much from her. “Are you okay?”

“The king is looking for you,” she told Rydian.

From somewhere deep in the castle, a roar sounded. The sheer volume and rage it held boomed painfully in my ears. Vanya winced, and her urgency turned to fear.

“What’s happened?” Rydian asked.

“Two Obsidians were caught on the castle grounds,” she said quietly. “He blames Callan and the guard for letting themget this far.” She hesitated before telling him, “He blames you.”

Rydian cursed. “Where’s my brother?” he asked her.

“Already inside,” Vanya said.

The roar came again, followed by something shattering. The sounds came from the throne room, which should’ve been too far away to hear it so clearly. Duron’s temper was fueled by his power, though. And he was clearly unleashing both without restraint.

“Take Aurelia to her room,” Rydian told Vanya.

“We’ll have to pass by the throne room to get there,” Vanya said, voice trembling. “If he sees her?—”

“Take her through the passageway,” Rydian told her. “Beneath.”

Vanya nodded as if the word alone explained everything.

“Wait,” I said when Rydian started to walk away. “What will he do to you?”

A range of emotions passed over Rydian’s expression. Hatred. Disgust. Resignation. “His worst,” he said simply. “Now, go. And don’t come out until Callan comes to get you.”

Callan. Right. Because it wouldn’t be Rydian. It couldn’t ever be Rydian.

I watched him stride, unflinching, toward the throne room.

Vanya tugged at me to follow her. “This way,” she whispered urgently, her eyes darting around as if she was half-afraid the king would jump out at us. “Hurry.”

She led me away from the throne room down a hallway that displayed portraits of past kings and queens. None of them looked much friendlier than Duron. Through the open doors we passed, I glimpsed a sitting room and a music room before Vanya led us through a door and into a room that seemed to be nothing but storage. Furniture covered in whitecloths sat dusty and forgotten. In the light that streamed through the window, dust motes danced in the air.

Vanya led me across the room and over to another painting of a long-dead fae ruler. She reached for the gilded frame and pulled it away from the wall. It swung open like a door, and when I saw the hole cut into the wall behind it, I realized that was exactly what it was.

“Come.”

She stepped through the opening, and I followed, heart pounding. I glanced back over my shoulder, half-expecting one of Duron’s guards to appear at any moment, but the room behind us remained empty.

Vanya pressed a tiny button on the wall, and the painting swung shut, clicking softly as it latched.

The tunnel was cold, damp. The smell of earth hung in the air like something ancient and forgotten. My breath came too fast. I forced it to slow, trying to calm my racing heart—and the dark magic that woke inside me.

I couldn’t afford to panic now.

The passageway twisted down through the bowels of the castle—narrow and winding. As we trekked our way up the other side, another roar sounded, but it was muted inside the walls of the tunnel. Still, I tensed to think what might be happening in that throne room now.

“What do you think the king will do?” I asked.

Vanya glanced back at me, her expression tight. “The king is unpredictable when he’s angry.”

“Will he hurt them?”

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