Page 190 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

I sheathe my sword, lock my door with Kat behind it, praying desperately that she will not become a casualty of this horrible night. Then I break into a run, following the sound of shouting, until I come upon the scene.

Two Nothril guards have a man on his knees, his face concealed by an ivy mask. His wrists are chained behind him, one of the guard’s long blades resting against his neck.

“Prince Rahk!” cries one of the guards. “Is this not your quarry?”

I crouch before the man and rip his mask off. Beneath are a pair of round spectacles. He wears suspenders over a crisp white shirt. His expression is usually so blank, so focused, that to see him staring at me with some potent emotion in his gaze is startling.The human tailor of Valehaven.

This is not the Ivy Mask.

He’s the distraction while the true Ivy Mask gets away with the Nothril captives. “Put him in the dungeon. I’ll deal with him later,” I order to the guards, shoving the mask into my pocket and getting to my feet.

I return at once to my quarters, shutting the doors behind me. “Kat, I need you to tell me the wording of that bargain and as best of a description of the fae that—”

The chambers are empty. Traces of her scent lingers, but not enough to indicate her presence.

“Kat!” I rush from room to room, but there is no sign of her. I grab the back of my neck, barely restraining my roar of her name. Did she leave? Or did someone take her?

There’s no second scent. No sign of struggle.

I follow her scent to the servants’ entrance. At once, my memory flashes back to the slave girl who I found crawling under my bed. I fling open the door. The damp chill carries the decaying scent of humanity.

There, halfway down what is visible of the tunnel, is a single glass slipper.

I shut my eyes, and it is like my entire life collapses on itself.

Because I finally see what has been staring at me for far too long.

I turn toward my weapon rack and grimly exchange my swords for a bow and a quiver of arrows. Then I duck my head and step into the tunnel. A few strides, and I’ve scooped up Kat’s slipper. I bring it to my nose.

Glass does not hold scent well. But there is just enough still lingering that I pick up my trail.

I let out a deep exhale. I hope to the stars that I am wrong. “You’d better run fast, wife.”

Chapter 62

Kat

“Theytookthetailor?”I demand. I whirl on my heel, looking back toward the Nothril palace I just escaped from. When someone shouted that they’d caught the Ivy Mask, I did not know what they could have meant. But now, as I check my pockets a third time for my mask, it hits me. Tailor slipped my mask from me when he gave me the glamour. Did he intend to get caught? All the slaves are here, waiting to flee. I want to go back, to try to save the tailor, but to do so would be to risk these people.

“If they put him in the dungeon, there is no getting him out,” says one of the men. “We’ve got to leave, or we’ll all be killed.”

With a growl on my lips, I launch onto the Path. “Follow me very closely so you don’t step off the Path!”

We start off at a fast pace. I wish we could sprint, but I cannot ask that of the entire group. The woman who was serving at Mirror Tide follows close at my heels. She speaks for the first time: “The Path is the glowing yellow thing we are on?”

My head whips to her. “You can see it?”

She nods hesitantly. In all my time, I’ve never had anyone who could see the Paths. I cannot see them well myself.

My mind starts working, turning over this development as we move fast. What if . . .?

This is my last raid. Rahk will pursue the moment he finds me gone from his chamber. There is only one thing I need to do left in my life, and that is get these eleven people out of Faerie.

I have the prickling sense that if I don’t peel off from the group, we’ll all be cornered.

I stop abruptly and point to the woman whose name I never learned. “Follow her on the Path until you reach the edge of Faerie. Nothing can hurt you so long as you stay on the Path. You will end up in a valley. If you cut across it and keep going, you will reach a city. In the city, there is a large cathedral. You cannot miss it. Someone is there with provisions for your journey. Now hurry!”

The woman grabs my elbow. “Why aren’t you coming with us?”

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