Page 56 of Dead Crown
It had to be the one he’d seen in portraits of King Reesing. Elswere had described it too. Jaki hurried to the bedroom because a living person was more important at the moment. The bedroom door was locked too, and it gave under a couple of good kicks.
Lumi was on the bed with his back to the door, and his tail was limp. Jaki rushed to the side.
“Lumi?! Dear Elira…” He crawled up on the bed.
Bruises had blossomed all over Lumi’s body, and dried blood marked his face. Blood had crusted on his wrist, trapped in a shackle. The chain secured to the headboard had kept him from going anywhere. Jaki felt his neck to find he still had a pulse. Tivar had savagely beaten him and simply left him there.
For a moment, Jaki saw red. He didn’t think Lumi was kept in great condition, but he almost couldn’t believe Tivar had gone off to the whorehouse while his “pet” had lain there, naked, bloody, and unconscious. He hadn’t even healed him.
Lumi's stomach was swollen, and the skin was a bit loose. A few faint, pinkish lines marked his sides, and his pecs were larger too. Jaki had never seen anyone’s body shortly after birth. Still, he could guess why he looked like that.
“Fuck,” he mumbled.
If the baby hadn’t lived or had been a girl, Tivar would have been enraged enough to beat Lumi and blame him for the failure.
Chapter Twelve
Wetness and warmth touched Lumi’s face, and something was covering his body.
“Shh. It’s okay.”
Where was Jacqueline? Why did the voice sound so familiar? It wasn’t Tivar. When he opened his eyes, he knew he had to be hallucinating because there was no way Prince Jaki was there and cleaning off his face.
“Do you recognize me? Lumi?”
Lumi’s left eye was swollen, and his lip protested when he tried to speak. “Yeah…”
“I’m going to get you out of here. Once you’re cleaned up a bit, I’ll put clothes on you, and I’ll get you far away from here. I have a glamor, so nobody knows who I really am. I’ll take you right out.”
Lumi dumbly watched Jaki take a bowl from the bed and drop a red-smeared cloth into it before he went into the privy room. He couldn't leave, and he needed Jacqueline.
He realized the shackle was gone from his wrist, and he stared at the raw flesh from when he’d tried to pull his hand out when he couldn’t get it loose from the headboard. The collar around his neck was gone. He’d grown so used to the feel of it again that the absence was strange.
If everything was real, and Jaki was there…Tivar had left. Or he was dead. Either way, Lumi wanted his daughter, and nothing was going to keep her from him. Not even Jaki.
His limbs protested as he pushed away the blanket and forced himself to stand. His legs shook, and his skull throbbed as he made his way to the door. Jaki must have been refreshing the water and cleaning the rag since water came from a pipe inthe wall over the tub in the privy room. The noise faded as he stumbled into the sitting room.
Besides the privy, it was the first time he’d been out of the bedroom in months. Servants always had a back passage, and Tivar said he’d given Jacqueline to a servant. What if he was lying, and he’d killed her? Or what if the servant was cruel to her? The mere idea was sickening. If she was sick or hurt…
Lumi wobbled down the hall and took a left. The back area was that way, or he was pretty sure it was if his logic was correct. Tivar had never taken him to the servant’s back passage during his short time as a “pleasure slave.”
It was hard to think beyond getting his daughter, but he was right. The back passage was lit with dimmer lanterns so one wouldn’t trip on the stairs, and he clutched onto the wall as he stepped down.
“Lumi!”
The shout was faint, and he tried to hurry. Nobody was taking his daughter away again. Jaki would probably hate her. Lumi didn’t give a fuck. She was his, and Jaki wasn’t keeping them apart.
“Lumi!”
When he made it down the first flight and into a narrow hallway, a woman came from a room, paused, and screamed at the sight of a naked man who looked like he’d gotten the shit beaten out of him.
“Where is she?” yelled Lumi. “Where’s Jacqueline?”
The woman turned and tried to hurry back into the room. He lunged and managed to grab her arm.
“Get off! Let go!” She beat his hand.
“I want my daughter! Where is she?”
