Page 5 of MidKnight
“I haven’t decided if I’m staying—” I said.
Ryan shook his head. “Queen Isla’s always been a vulture. You don’t want to leave her alone here. She’ll take every scrap she can. You’re staying.”
I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes. “Excuse me, good knight, I must have misheard. It sounded like you were giving me orders.”
Ryan stepped into my personal space, completely unintimidated by the fact that I was his queen. He dragged his index finger slowly over my jaw and gently pushed my chin until my head was tilted back enough to meet his eyes. “Oh, I’ll make you stay. I’ll make you do many, many things.”
“Queen.” I tried to trump him.
It didn’t work. His finger trailed down my neck, sending shivers down my spine and making my toes curl. The finger started to dip below the collar of my dress. But he teased me, playing with just the edge. “I’m sorry. What was that? I couldn’t hear.”
“I said …”
He chuckled as he pinched a nipple through my dress and I lost my trail of thought again.
“Dammit!” I smacked his hand away and took a step back.
He went to the bell pull and yanked it. “I’ll get a messenger sent down to one of my marshals.”
I shook my head. I was angry. But not at him. I was angry at the situation. And anger was better than all the other shite emotions running through me. So, I ran with it. “Well, you wouldn’t be the first to tell me what to do this morning. Jorad doesn’t want me to leave either.” My ire might spare Ryan, but it left no quarter for Jorad or Queen Isla. Or for the villain who’d started all of this. My eyes flew to Abbas. Quinn had just slung the sorry sack of skin over his shoulders.
I clenched my teeth. I couldn’t wait for the moment I could smash in the scoundrel’s face.
Ryan’s tone grew gentle as he watched me scowl at Abbas. “We’ll find Avia. One of my scouts said he saw something in the sky to the south. He wasn’t sure what it was, it was too far away, but possibly the dragon.”
“The south?” I exchanged a confused look with Connor, who leaned against the wall near the door. “But, wouldn’t they take her into Cheryn? To the north?”
Ryan gave a shrug.
“Isla’s arriving on flying bears,” I added. “Could that be what they saw?”
“Rasle’s west. So, unlikely. And this thing was headed away, not toward the capital.”
I opened my mouth to ask more about what exactly Ryan’s scouts had seen, but before I could get out a word, the door swung open, nearly smacking Connor in the face.
“I figured it out!” Cerena limped in, carrying a giant leather-bound book. Her hair was a wild silver dandelion, a frizzed halo around her head. It didn’t look like my new castle mage had slept. Her black dress was covered in grime. She looked nearly as bad as Abbas, who’d been in the dungeons.
Cerena slammed the book on the table, startling Declan out of his calculations. A bluebird swooped into the room behind her and settled on a chair back. I hadn’t realized she’d had a familiar. Then again, I’d only ever visited her cottage briefly before.
Connor closed the door again and we all turned to face Cerena.
“He shouldn’t have been able to order that dragon to attack you!” she rasped.
My eyes automatically went to Abbas. Quinn had stopped walking toward the spelled passageway the second Cerena had smashed through the door. Abbas drooped limply over my knight’s shoulder. The chain on the prisoner’s neck trailed onto the floor.
“I’ve checked that damn parchment and that damn spell six times,” Cerena said. I could tell she was about to start a rant, but a cough interrupted her, and her shoulders shook as she covered her mouth. Connor got her a glass of water, which she downed, before clearing her throat and continuing, “Sorry. That engagement document was done right. That betrayal spell works. I tested it.”
I didn’t ask how. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. The spell made those who betrayed Evaness explode. I kept my eyes on her face and off her dress, suddenly suspicious of the grime on it.
Declan took a step forward, head tilted in interest, notebook in his hand forgotten. “Well, if the spell wasn’t faulty, how did Abbas get around it?”
Cerena’s eyes gleamed. She pointed a gnarled finger at the man Quinn carried. “Thatisn’tAbbas.”
Chapter Two
My mind was a shipwreck. Cerena’s words were monster waves. They smashed apart everything I’d thought I’d known. I couldn’t breathe. I lost all sense of direction. I felt dizzy. I staggered backward a step. Ryan was there in an instant. He caught me before I could fall, wrapping his thick arms securely around me. He noticed my cuts and used his pink healing magic to seal the wounds caused by my peace magic.
I hardly noticed what he did. I was still stuck on what Cerena had said. “What?” my voice was breathless as I looked at my mage.
