Tower of Tempest: A Steamy Fantasy Romance (Stolen Crowns Book 3)

Chapter 3

Two months. It had been two months since I’d left my home and journeyed to find the woman that plagued my dreams. The woman I didn’t know. The woman who made me feel like I was going insane. If I closed my eyes right now, I could see her: that long brown hair, those stark green eyes, the freckles that dotted her nose and cheeks—and the fear in her eyes as she screamed from the tower where she was trapped.

Two months of long treks, cold nights, meager meals.

“Can you stop breathing so loudly?” Leoni said from behind me.

“Oh, sorry that my basic bodily functions are annoying you,” Driscoll shot back.

And two months of them. The companions I didn’t ask for. The ones my older sister insisted I take with me. I’d never know how she survived her own journey with these two, stuck with them for months on a pirate ship. Out of everything I’d faced thus far, they’d been my greatest challenge. I’d be having a strong word with Gabby when I saw her again. If I saw her again.

I ignored them both, striding through the forest with purpose. Thin trees surrounded us, tall and willowy, bark gray, white, and brown. Canopies stretched overhead, leaves thin and spindly, the trees like the shape of a cone. My breath puffed out in front of me, and despite the sun, the air was chilly.

I closed my eyes again, just for a second, picturing her, focusing on her, on my goal of finding her.

“You don’t breathe like a normal person,” Leoni said, then did an imitation of Driscoll’s breathing, which to her credit, sounded like a hog with respiratory issues, and also to her credit, was pretty accurate.

The lovely image in my mind burst like a bubble, two annoying faces replacing it. One pale and feminine with red freckles and red-gold hair, the other with brown skin and even darker hair, coiled tight in rings, a sarcastic word ready at the tip of his tongue.

I stopped, turning and planting my hands on my hips. “Driscoll, you do breathe rather loud,” I announced, and his mouth dropped open. “Leoni, he’s right. It’s really not his fault. You don’t hear me complaining about how loudly you chew your food, do you?”

She gasped, brows drawing into a crease.

Driscoll turned wide eyes on her. “You do!” He pointed at her. “Yes, you chew very loudly. And you moan sometimes, like you’re having an intimate moment with your food. What is that about?”

Leoni shoved him.

Well, this hadn’t been my intention. Now they’d never stop arguing.

I held up my hands. “We all have faults. Except me. I don’t have any. Clearly.” I shot them my most charming smile.

At that, both of them turned their glares right toward me.

“You don’t have any faults?” Leoni asked, head tilting upward, and her bun bobbing with the movement. She started ticking her fingers off. “How about the fact that you make jokes at inappropriate times, that you’re arrogant, a shameless flirt, and that you don’t take anything seriously?”

Driscoll tugged at his coiled black hair, which had grown out the last few months—something I had to hear about daily. Apparently, he’d never gone this long without a trip to the barber. “Leoni, don’t forget he also has mommy—and daddy—issues.”

Ouch. That last one actually stung. Still, my plan worked like bait on a hook. Now they’d bond over their mutual dislike of me.

I smiled, turning and continuing on my way, Driscoll’s words echoing in my mind.

“I don’t have mommy issues,” I said over my shoulder. “You must be confusing me with my sister. Or maybe even my brother.”

“No, all three of you have mommy issues,” Leoni called back, both of them falling behind.

I stepped over a log, frowning.

“I don’t know why you and your siblings let her bother you so much,” Leoni said. “Gabrielle spent years afraid of telling her what she really wanted for her life. Mal lied about his relationship with the sea princess, and you, well... I haven’t figured out yet exactly how your mother has damaged you, but I’m sure I will.”

“Good luck,” I said. “I don’t even know how she’s damaged me, but you’re probably right. My mother tends to have that effect on pretty much everyone she comes in contact with.”

They had it wrong, though. I wasn’t the one who had the issues with my mom, or my father—before he’d passed away. Gabby and my parents had always butted heads, and I’d always played the mediator, helping mend the fractures in their relationship. I was probably the only reason Gabby and my mother still even had any semblance of relationship, especially now that Gabby had chosen to relinquish her crown and gallivant off with her pirate lord. Then Mal had chosen to fall in love with someone my mother didn’t approve of, especially not when that someone would be the future queen of Apolis. I sighed. Another reason I needed to find this woman in the tower and get back home. My family needed me. Mother and Mal probably weren’t even speaking at this point.

“So what are the odds this woman is real?” Driscoll asked Leoni as if I couldn’t hear him. “Because we’ve been following the prince for two months now, and I’m starting to think he might be losing it. Actually, I’ve been thinking that for a long time now. This is just the first time I’ve said it out loud.”

“Just let him get this out of his system, and we’ll be on our way back home,” Leoni said, also loud enough so that I could hear.

Get the woman out of my system. Like she was an itch I needed to scratch. Maybe she was. I wouldn’t know until I found her and figured out why she was infiltrating my damn dreams. I wasn’t making her up. I knew she was real.

“Oh.” Driscoll snapped his fingers. “And you also have a big head.”

“What?” I asked.

“We were talking about your faults,” Driscoll said.

Leoni huffed. “I said that already.”

“You said he’s arrogant.”

“It’s the same thing!”

Here we went again.

Driscoll ducked under a branch, while Leoni walked straight under it, her gaze sweeping the forest floor. “Isn’t it strange we haven’t seen anyone in this forest? It’s so empty.”

I patted a tree, the bark rough under my hand. “Well, there’s not a lot of game to hunt. And this forest isn’t near any major village. Also, I heard it was cursed.” I turned and walked backward, a grin spreading across my face. “If you’re lonely, I could always announce my presence to the sky court. Tell all the ladies the famous playboy prince is here. The forest’ll be brimming with them faster than you can blink.” I spread my arms wide.

Leoni stared, horrified by my words.

Driscoll pointed at me. “Is your head growing?” He looked at Leoni. “Is his head growing? Yes, yes, it is, in fact, reaching new levels of bigheadedness. I thought I was vain.”

He was. Very.

I laughed. Worked again. They were so shocked they forgot they were in the middle of an argument. I’d developed many tactics to stop the bickering between them over the last few months. To keep the peace.

“I was joking,” I said, spinning forward. “Mostly.”

“The ladies do love him,” Leoni said.

“What about you?” Driscoll asked, his voice full of mischief. “You ever have a crush on the playboy prince? A fantasy about him sweeping you up in those big strong arms?”

Leoni pushed a wayward branch aside as she marched forward. “I don’t have fantasies like that.”

Driscoll looked horrified. “Then what kind of fantasies do you have?”

“None of your business,” she said.

“Challenge accepted,” Driscoll responded.

Oh, spirits below.

“That was not a challenge!” Leoni said, her short legs pumping faster, presumably to get away from Driscoll, but he easily caught up with her.

“It was.” Driscoll raised his pert nose in the air. “Before the end of this journey, I’m going to figure out what gets the captain of the guard all hot and bothered.”

Leoni huffed. “Good luck, you strange, strange man.”

“So you don’t have fantasies about big strong princes like Prince Lochlan,” Driscoll muttered. “Good to know.”

“He’s my best friend’s younger brother.” Leoni snorted. “I grew up with him, Gabby, and Mal. They’re all like my annoying siblings.”

“Gabby and Mal are annoying,” I corrected. “I’m the cool and fun older brother.”

“We’re the same age,” Leoni said.

At least she hadn’t disagreed about the cool or fun part. But she was right: we were both twenty-eight years old.

I had no idea why Gabby thought it would be a good idea for Leoni and Driscoll to help me with this mission. Leoni was feisty, I’d give her that, but she barely reached my chest. She’d been Gabby’s captain of the guard, until Gabby decided to abandon her duties and run off on a pirate ship. Or sail off, more accurately. Leoni decided to come with me on this mission to prove herself, to prove she wasn’t just good enough to be Gabby’s captain of the guard, but that maybe she could be mine. I hated to break it to her, but I had no need of a captain of the guard. She’d chosen to protect the wrong brother. It was my little brother, Mal, who would ascend to king now that Gabby had given up her crown. Hopefully I’d be back in time for his coronation.

And Driscoll, well, Driscoll liked to talk. A lot. About himself, mainly. Also about others. I’d heard every piece of gossip the earth court had to offer. Other than running his mouth, I wasn’t sure what Driscoll could offer.

Gabby had promised they’d be an asset, but I had yet to see how that was true.

The woman’s face flashed in my mind again. Once I found her, whoever she was, hopefully they didn’t scare her off with their constant chatter.

Not when I desperately needed her help. I glanced down under my tunic at the fatal blue lines stretching toward my heart. I didn’t know how, but I had a feeling this woman was the key to helping me, that she and I were somehow linked.

I would save her from this tower, and she’d save me in return from this damn curse. Then I could go home, and everything could go back to normal.

Driscoll ran to catch up to me. “Hey, do you see that? Up ahead!”

I squinted. Light streamed through the trees, bright and beckoning. Adrenaline began pumping at the sight. I broke into a run, jumping over logs and stray branches, darting through trees.

“Ugh, not running,” Driscoll muttered. “I hate running.”

“I’ll race you,” Leoni taunted.

“You’re the size of a mouse,” Driscoll retorted. “I’m pretty sure I can beat you.”

“Well, let’s find out, then.”

They were bickering. Again.

But this time, I didn’t have the energy to distract them. My excitement grew as I ran closer to the light. We were almost out of this forest, and whatever was on the other side, it would lead me to her. I was sure of it. Instinct had led me on this entire journey. An eerie gut feeling I’d never had before in my life that pulled at me, told me where to go. It had led us this far, but I couldn’t understand why. Why all of this felt familiar. Why I knew the way here. Just another reason this woman and I had to be linked.

I arrived at the edge of the forest and stopped suddenly. Leoni bumped into me.

“Sorry,” she said quickly.

Driscoll’s heavy breathing filled the silence as he finally caught up to us.

“I win,” Leoni said gleefully, and he shoved her, then stilled as he took in the sight before us.

“Whoa,” he said, eyes wide.

A meadow spread out, golden under the warm sun, wildflowers sprouting from the ground, so tall they rose to my chest and over Leoni’s tight bun. Mountains rose in the distance, green and jagged. And the tower. The tower from my dreams. There it stood: gray stone, round, and shooting toward the sky, so tall clouds ringed it like a halo. From here I could see the single window at the top.

Leoni sucked in a breath. “It’s... real. You aren’t crazy.”

“Thank you,” I said drily.

“Well, he might still be crazy. He is related to Gabrielle.”

Leoni tipped her head, her round cheeks like two apples as she laughed. “Touché.”

I stared at the tower in fascination and horror. It was a marvel to behold, so tall and foreboding, but... was she really trapped up there? How did she survive? My pulse spiked. What if she hadn’t survived? I’d been dreaming of her for months, the same dream almost every night: the woman’s face in a window, gazing out from the top of a tall tower, screaming for help.

Leoni and Driscoll stood among the wildflowers now, both of them waiting for me.

I followed behind them, and we pushed our way through the meadow and toward the tower. Toward her. My hand hovered over the sword sheathed at my side, ready for any threat that might surprise us.

“Are we sure about this plan?” Leoni’s voice snapped me from my thoughts.

“Yes, we are,” I said, not wanting to have this conversation again.

I understood that Leoni was in a difficult position: she was the former captain of the guard, sworn to protect me, to uphold her vows as a guard of the royal prince. She had rules to follow. Rules she took very seriously. Too seriously. Including that she should never allow me to put myself in any kind of danger.

“It’s just a tower, Leoni,” I said, keeping my tone light and easy in a way I’d perfected over the years. “I don’t think a tower is going to pose a threat to me, and I think I can handle this woman.”

Whoever she was.

Leoni huffed but didn’t argue. Thank the spirits.

“So you’ll grow the vine,” I said to Driscoll.

His face turned stony.

I peered at Leoni, sending her a questioning look.

She rolled her eyes. “He prefers beanstalk.”

“Because that’s what it is. There’s a difference, you know.”

“Okay.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Beanstalk. You’ll be able to grow one to get me up to the top?”

Driscoll studied the tower, then nodded.

I prayed to Spirit Water this woman was alive, that she was okay. I didn’t understand how she survived in a tower, how she got food, how she kept from going insane. The thought chilled me. Maybe she wasn’t sane, which would be a whole other obstacle. Either way, I’d find out soon enough.

I’m coming, I thought. Just hold on a little longer. I’m coming for you.