Page 98 of The Curse of a Kingdom
Arkimedes stood very still for a few heartbeats before he prowled to the door. Pausing in front of it, he looked back at Nava; the intensity in his gaze mirrored the turbulent feelings coming down the bond, making her nauseated.
He cracked the door and peeked through the hole, then without another word, he opened it fully. Fael stood in the doorframe, wearing his customary copped armor, holding his helmet in the crook of his arm.
Fael raised a bushy brow when his eyes met hers. “Well, now I know why I couldn’t find her.”
Arkimedes moved back into the room with no welcoming words. “Were you the one who opened her room?”
“Yes, I was worried something had happened, especially after what went on during dinner with the king.”
“Sorry, Fael, I didn’t mean to worry you,” Nava said with a tilt of a smile, and the fae’s golden eyes landed on Devon, then back on her, tracking down her body, catching the change of outfit.
“You are helping them escape?” Fael entered the room, his wings swaying with each step as his gaze traveled again over each of them, reaching Arkimedes last.
Nava paused and tightened her fingers around the fabric of her pants. Her shoulders tensed as the air crackled with tension.
Arkimedes shrugged off his black jacket and tossed it over the bed. “You recommended I do, a week ago if I remember correctly.”
Nava’s mouth fell open wide.
Fael crossed his arms over his chest with a wary expression. “Yet you were determined to keep them here. What has changed?”
Besides the king paralyzing her in front of everyone earlier?
Arkimedes's aura thickened enough that she was able to see it, the scent of magic spiking in the air. “What changed was I didn’t know I was taken from a home I shared with her.” His voice dropped lower. “I thought I had to save my brother from being under her spell. Turns out the one enchanted is me. You could have told me, yet you chose to leave me in the dark.”
Fael’s frown softened, his posture tensing at Arkimedes’s tone. Devon, who sat on the edge of one of the chairs by the fireplace, stood and crossed the room with his iconic lazy steps, as if expecting a show at any moment. However, Nava could feel that Arkimedes’s emotions didn’t match his tone. He was calm enough; if anything, a tinge of panic started to burn in the middle of it.
He was acting angry, though he wasn’t. Plans were forming inside that head of his, and that alone gave her pause.
“I swore I would follow you, my prince. But I can’t defy a direct command from the king himself. His magic prevents me from doing so.”
“Did he force you to swear your allegiance to me when I arrived to this kingdom? To make me feel like I had someone to trust?” Arkimedes’s calculated moves were that of a predator. He opened his shirt with swift fingers, revealing light golden skin over muscle. Unlike the last time she had seen him, his ribs were bruised and his skin red. Had he been burned earlier in the forest but hadn’t gotten around to seeing a healer?
She found herself taking a step toward him, her mind clawing at empty spots of memories where the potion for burns used to be. Arkimedes lifted his hand and a new, clean shirt flew out of the closet to his hand, making her gasp.
Show-off.No one else in the room cared about the flying garment or the lack of clothing.
“I swore to follow you ‘till the end eleven years ago because I, like everyone in this kingdom, feared for our future. I wanted you to stay then—or to return to us ofyour own free will.” Fael’s sincere tone shook at the end with pent-up emotion. “I was forced to come the day we took you, and I remembered her, which is why I offered to get them out of here.”
Fael had told Nava earlier in the day that there was no future for her and Ark here, so she didn’t expect the man to be trying to help her get out earlier.
The fae’s chin pointed to Nava, who was already halfway toward Arkimedes. What the hell was she doing? She had no way of healing his wounds without a potion, even if she wanted to. Yet sheneededto press her palms against his skin. To heal.
Maybe Fael had been right and she had been dropped on her head at some point.
“After what happened today with the dress—and what followed in the room with my father—I have to take them out of here to a safe place until the Zorren threat is removed and I’m able to talk with the king and not fear their safety.”
“But he will follow the bracelets’ trail,” Fael protested. “Are you leaving us in the middle of this attack? What about the king’s health? It ties to the health of this castle . . .”
Guilt churned in her gut like a festering disease. Had she been hoping Arkimedes would do that this whole time when these people were so desperate?
Arkimedes’s eyes met hers. “I have to get the keys and then take them away. I’ll be back after they are out of the city.”
Out of the city? She’d thought he’d said the place they were going to was inside the city, but hidden. So he wasn’t telling Fael about the Society’s safe house. This gave her snippets of how far his trust went. Still, she was not understanding where all of this was going.
Devon brought his hand to his chin, scratching it as he followed the conversation with interest. Had he figured out what was happening? It would be extra annoying if he had, especially since she had a direct tap to Arkimedes’s strongest feelings and all she was getting now was calm expectation, with a healthy dose of worry.
“I can get the keys for you, sir. Let me do this to mend what I have done. The king will believe it was me who let them go. I have been vocal about how wrong it was that we took you that way from the island. You won’t have to answer for this or lose whatever memories you have just regained.”
