Page 34 of Framed in Florals (The Emerald Realm 3)

I held his glare with my own, then stomped once more while screaming as hard as I could into my gag. If they were going to kill me, they would have done so already—or, at least, that was what I tried to convince myself.

“You! Shut her up!” one of the other men commanded to the enchanter.

With an irritated growl, he scurried over to me and flashed a dagger in front of my eyes. My body stiffened for a moment as I recognized it to be the same blade from the night of the ball. The memory of his attempted attack swept my courage away for a moment. I looked at Camille out of the corner of my vision once more, trying to gather all the bravery I required to help her.

The man raised the dagger to my neck. “I’ve had enough of your games. This is your last warning,” he seethed, taunting me with the blade.

It looked like he was trying to intimidate me, while simultaneously keeping me unharmed. He gently brushed the blade up my neck and to the side of my cheek, attempting to frighten me with its silver glint. To his credit, it definitely worked. I was no trained assassin or spy, so despite feeling confident that he wouldn’t hurt me, I still quivered at the feel of the steel’s edge. When he noticed my fear, a villainous smile crept up his face, followed by a low chuckle.

His amusement sent a rush of anger through me, nullifying the terror within. How dare he laugh at a time like this!?His laughter distracted him for a moment, and he let the blade linger against where the gag was secured across my jaw. In an instant, an idea flashed into my mind. Before I could think it over, I leaned my face into the side of his blade. The sharp edge instantly severed half-way through the gag, while simultaneously slicing a shallow cut into my cheek. I ignored the sharp sting as I took advantage of the lessened tension of the gag and spit it out of my mouth.

The enchanter’s eyes went wild as he tried to comprehend what had just occurred. Before he could process my actions, I let out a deafening scream. Every eye turned to me as the entire caravan pulled to a stop. I sucked in a breath to scream again, but the enchanter’s hand clamped over my mouth before I could.

“What part of ‘shut her up’ did you not understand!?” one of the men roared.

“The blasted wench shoved her face into my blade!” the enchanter hissed. “How in the realms was I supposed to predict that!?”

The group began bickering amongst themselves, and I took the opportunity to bite down on the enchanter’s hand. He yelped in pain as he pulled away, and I noticed that his hand was red with the blood from my scratch.

Instead of screaming, I used my opportunity to speak. “Let me help Camille!” I shouted defiantly.

The men quieted for a moment. I thought it was due to my demand, but it was the entrance of another presence that had caused the eerie silence. The dark-eyed man—the younger man who had stabbed the king—approached me with a disdainful look.

“You’re hardly in the position to be making requests, little Daisy,” the man said coolly, his dark glare sending shivers down my spine.

I mustered all the confidence I could as I matched his stare. “You need me alive, do you not? Likely to take the fall for your crimes.”

His eyes narrowed. “What I may, or may not need you for, is not your concern. You should consider yourself lucky that the only blood you have lost thus far has been caused by your own actions. My plans can work just as easily with your corpse, so if you want to try something cute, be my guest.” His smooth voice held a daunting quality to it as his perfect teeth spread into a devilish grin.

“But, Your Highness…” the enchanter whispered behind his boss, “if she dies, then…”

My eyes widened at the man’s words. At the same time, his boss turned back and stabbed him in the heart. I shrieked in both terror and shock as the man crumpled lifelessly to the floor. The action happened so quickly, I had barely even taken a breath between the man’s final words and his fatal fall. The dark-eyed murderer quickly looked back at me, a new flash of panic staining his previously collected expression. The enchanter died because he let a valuable piece of information slip, but I had caught it before the man could silence him.

“Your Highness?” I questioned shakily, my adrenaline still racing after watching a second man die in the last day. “You’re clearly not from Drancos or Isalla, and Sybettal no longer has a royal lineage… You’re one of the three princes from Ashbourne, aren’t you?” I let my thoughts spill out before I could even consider containing them.

The foreign prince’s face raged with fury as he closed the distance between us. “It would seem that you have sealed your fate, dear Daisy,” he hissed in my ear. He was so close to me that I could almost feel the heat of his anger seething off him.

“You see, I was going to let you live,” he continued, a sadistic smile now spanning his face. “We were going to dump you and your friend here at the edge of the woods, then alert the guard of your location. I figured by the time they arrived, the little bar rat would be freshly deceased, and you would have a second murder to add to your trial. But now that you know my little secret…” he placed his fingers lightly around my throat, and while he didn’t squeeze, the threat was clear, “I suppose we’ll have to make a change of plans.”

He placed the slightest pressure on my throat, just enough to block my airway, then released it only a moment later. I gasped, despite it being a short suffocation. The prince darted his eyes over to the dead enchanter and the barely conscious Camille.

“Dump those two,” the prince commanded sharply. “We’re going to have a change in destination, and we’ll need to make haste. The dead weight will only slow us down, so just toss them out the back.”

“No!” I gasped. “Please, I beg of you. At least drop Camille off in a town. She’s too senseless to remember anything you’ve said, and she was already planning to run before you caught us. She won’t say a word; just give her a chance to live. I beg of you.” I knew I sounded desperate, but I couldn’t help but plead.

“Why should I bother?” the prince scoffed. “She may not cause me any harm, but what benefit do I gain in sparing her life? It seems to me that she does me the most good by lying on the side of the road.” His berating tone stirred up a fire in me, summoning a fresh lie into my mind.

“If you don’t leave her with a doctor, then I can promise you won’t ever make it out of this kingdom.” I forced every bit of ferocity I felt into my lie, but the prince only rolled his eyes. I glared at him intensely. “You may know me as Daisy, but do you know my real name? Do you know what connections I possess? What power my family holds?”

That got his attention. He remained straight-faced, but I noticed the slightest twitch in his eye.

“How do you think I received an invitation to the ball in the first place?” I smirked. “I certainly didn’t have to sneak in like you all did.” I played my voice up a little more pompously, hoping with every ounce of my being that my demeanor appeared confident.

The prince gritted his teeth. “To which family do you stem from, dearest Daisy?”

Got him.

“I will tell you,afterCamille is safely deposited at a village with a proper doctor,” I bartered boldly. “If you know my family’s name, then perhaps you’ll have enough time to spin more rumors of their involvement or even silence them. I can at least admit that they don’t care much for me, hence why I had to attend the ball alone and unseen. However, I am very valuable to them, since I can easily affect their standing in court. They will gladly fight with all their wealth to clear their names if your plan succeeds.”

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