Page 41 of Courting Envy
Everything was wrong right now. Lucien was gone and Reon and I had utterly failed at the one thing he had asked of us. There was nothing good about this situation and it burned that I couldn't have been the one to save her.
At least, not this time. She would still need help, and I was determined to aid her.
I stuck to the shadows, moving from the wall and along the floor, slipping under the feet of the treasonous idiots who had encroached upon this place. Then I splintered myself, sending a whisper toward Reon while I kept my main focus on Ragnar and Rava. I had to track their movements. Had to know where he was taking her.
My whisper fled, faster than sound, lips pressed against Reon's ear as he stormed down the corridor towards the fighting.
"Ragnar has her. Go to the portal, tell Lucien we need him."
Reon stopped in his tracks, thick tail coiling around him. "Kyveli?"
"Yes, go! Don't get trapped in the melee, we need our Prince."
He nodded once and turned back the way he'd come from, passing the bodies of the fallen and barking orders to the guardians who remained. I let my whisper drop back into the shadows, leaving it to catch up to me when it could.
Ragnar moved deeper into the castle rather than out of it, and I pushed through walls and hid in pillars, trying to fathom where in Envy he could be taking them. A small retinue of his followers trailed behind them. With so many enemies present there was no way I could intercept. Dammit.
Ragnar paused outside a chamber door, deep in the bowels of the castle. I'd never been this far down before; and I thought I'd been everywhere. I pushed ahead, wanting to peer inside the room before he got her there. To try and fathom what we might be up against.
The chamber was round, and somehow, there was a tower within it, reaching all the way to the sky. I couldn't figure out where it exited, but I could see the glimmer of light above. There were circles within circles in the room, and right in the middle, a chair with straps.
This was not good.
Whatever he had planned, he was going to do it against her will. I would fucking kill him if he hurt her.
I had to get Lucien, now. Whether he liked it or not, we'd have to work together to save Rava from whatever this maniac had planned. It seemed like finally Ragnar had decided it was time to make his move and claim the circle as his own.
And I had a feeling that he didn’t care whether Rava was alive or dead in order to achieve it.
Chapter twenty-six
Lucien
Ifeltthetaintof the human world stripped away from me as I stepped through the portal back to Envy. Rava’s sister had been suffering, but the potions I’d been able to slip into her body while the nurse was out of the room had started working instantly. I’d hovered in the shadows to be sure, and the flush of color, the way she’d opened her eyes and looked directly at me, as though she knew I was there made me convinced that she was going to be okay.
She was so like Rava in appearance but the feel of her was entirely different.
I’d been happy to get out of there; desperate to make it back to my queen.
As much as I enjoyed time on Earth in general, there was nothing as good as coming home. I sucked in a deep breath of the swamp and readied my wings before a voice stopped me in my tracks.
"My Lord."
Reon. What was he doing here?
I looked around and found him standing stiffly by the portal entrance, and beside him was the shadow woman.
"Things are bad," Kyveli said.
I snapped my gaze around, trying to see if Rava was hiding behind their bodies. But she wasn't here, I could sense the absence of her. Nonetheless I spun in a circle, my eyes desperate for a glance of her.
"Where is my Queen?" I demanded, spinning back to face them.
Reon's jaw worked, but it was Kyveli who stepped forward and spoke.
"I think this whole thing with her sister was a ploy, Lucien." She threw a hand toward the portal. "Ragnar stormed the castle once you were gone, and he has her now. I followed him to a chamber deep in the castle. He told her that he knows how to break the curse."
I clenched my jaw so hard that it was only pure luck my teeth didn't snap.
