Page 418 of Warlords, Witches & Wolves

Chapter 26

The first day Rose didn't visit him, Boris wasn't worried. Something at the castle must have kept her, he told himself. While she might not be the lady of these lands – that title belonged to her mother, he'd come to understand – she would still have some responsibilities, even if she ran away from them and into the forest most days.

She would come to visit him when she could.

But then he almost ran into Igor on one of the game trails, managing to hide just in time. Yes, it was definitely his traitorous squire and not Rose in boys' garb. Boris did his best to avoid the boy, and not lead him to the cave where he kept the sack of jewels, but everywhere he went, the boy seemed to appear.

Why wouldn't the former squire leave him alone?

Fuming, Boris set a trap for the boy – a pit trap, like the one Rose had fallen into. He baited it with a particularly ugly jewel fashioned out of gold so blackened with age it no longer glittered like it was supposed to. Igor coveted this particular piece as much as any of the prettier ones, but it would not draw the eye of anyone else.

It didn't even draw Igor's eye for several days, during which Rose was conspicuously absent. Had Igor somehow driven her away?

Perhaps the boy had attacked her, and fear had kept her at home.

No. Rose the Red, powerful witch that she was, feared nothing and no one. If she didn't fear him, she definitely wouldn't be frightened by a boy smaller than she was.

Unless he'd somehow surprised her, and she was hurt…

Boris's heart constricted in his chest at the thought of her lying unconscious and wounded, as she had by his fire that first day they'd met.

If Igor had hurt her, he'd kill the boy.

A shout, followed by the thump of something falling, told him his trap had finally ensnared the boy.

The trap would hold him while Boris went up to the castle to see if Rose was all right.

He had only to see her, to know she was safe, and he could return.

If she was injured…

Then the boy would be right here, stuck in the trap, to answer for his crimes.

Boris nodded, then headed up to the village.

---