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

Chapter 22

My head pounded as light seared into the room, far, far too bright.

“Please close the curtains,” I muttered, massaging my temples, not even knowing whom I was speaking to.

“Well, looks like someone had a fun night,” Driscoll said.

Not the voice I wanted to hear. I slowly sat up, both Driscoll and Leoni frowning down at me. Not the faces I wanted to see either. I glanced around the room, looking for Poppy.

“Where is she?” Leoni asked, an edge to her voice.

“I imagine she’s in the bath chamber, cursing you and your voice.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Do you have to speak so loudly?”

“I’m speaking in a perfectly normal tone,” Leoni said. “And she’s not in the bath chamber. We already checked.”

The words cleared the remaining fog from my head, and I sat up straighter. “What are you talking about?”

Driscoll stepped forward. “Let me help,” he said to Leoni. “I speak hungover. Specialize in it, actually.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Poppy. Missing.”

Leoni rolled her eyes. “How much did you drink last night?”

I shot to my feet, ignoring the hammering in my head. “She’s missing? Did you look for signs of a break-in?”

Spirits below. What had I been thinking, getting so drunk like that? Bits and pieces of the night flashed in my mind, but I couldn’t even remember what had happened. Conversation, laughter, flirting. So much flirting. A kiss, maybe? I shook my head. No. There was not enough wine in the world that would make me forget a kiss with Poppy.

I searched the room, but it was nothing like two days prior, everything in order.

“What about the lock?” I asked, nodding to it. “Was it broken? Any signs of an intruder?” I ran over, inspecting the silver lock, but nothing was amiss. It didn’t look like it had been tampered with at all.

“The door wasn’t locked,” Driscoll said.

“And surely if someone kidnapped Poppy from this room, you would’ve woken up,” Leoni said. “I mean, really, how much did you drink?”

Driscoll gestured to the three and a half empty bottles of wine on the floor. “I think we have our answer.”

Leoni turned wide, horrified eyes on me, and I flinched. “You were supposed to be guarding her! That was the entire point of keeping her in her room. Against her will, might I add.”

Oh, fuck. I’d really messed this up. Now Poppy was gone.

I sank onto the edge of the bed. “It was Poppy’s idea. She was so mad at me for locking her in this room. She wanted to drink, so I figured why not? Keep her occupied and not angry with me. Win, win.”

Leoni groaned and sank her head into her hands. “Not everyone has to like you, Prince Lochlan. Sometimes people are going to get mad at you for things you do.”

Driscoll lifted one of the empty bottles, studying it. “To be fair, I would’ve been angry too if I were her. I mean she spent her entire life trapped in a tower, then finally gets free, and this schmuck over here traps her again.”

My jaw ticked.

“And by schmuck,” Driscoll said, “I mean our most wonderful and kind prince.” He cleared his throat, setting the bottle down on a small table.

Bloody waters. I hadn’t even thought of it like that. I was just trying to protect her, keep her safe, and in the process I’d taken away her freedom. Even if I was only planning on keeping her there for a day or two while we planned our next move—I couldn’t imagine how that must’ve made her feel.

“I’m an idiot,” I said.

Driscoll ran a hand over his coiled black hair. “I thought schmuck was better, but idiot works well, too, actually.”

Leoni stalked around the room, checking behind curtains, under the bed, lifting pillows. “I’m not seeing any evidence of a kidnapping.”

I blew out a breath. “Did you find any information out yesterday? Anything at all about her gran, about who might be looking for her?”

Leoni and Driscoll shot uneasy glances at each other.

An icy cold gathered at the base of my spine. “What?”

“We found something, and it isn’t great,” Leoni said.

I could barely swallow. “Go on.”

“We think it might have been the royal guard who broke into her room the other day. We overheard patrons saying they saw a royal guard here, and they speculated that he was meeting a mistress. They said he went to the third floor and were combing through all the possible guests he might’ve been here to see. Some of them mentioned the pretty brown-haired maiden as a possibility.”

My blood ran cold. “What could the royal guard want with Poppy? Do you think they know about her gran, think Poppy is somehow in league with her?”

Spirits below, what had that old woman done that was so terrible both the sky court and the shadow court were after her?

Leoni shrugged helplessly. “The good news is you’re the prince of Apolis. You have an established relationship with the king and queen of Valoris. You can request an audience with them, explain this is all a big mistake.”

I started pacing. “I don’t have an established relationship with them. My sister does. My mother does.”

My father did. Before he died. And Mal would certainly be reaching out soon as his coronation approached.

“Still, you’re royalty,” Leoni said. “They won’t deny you an audience.”

“Are we sure that’s who kidnapped Poppy, though?” Driscoll asked. “Are we sure she even was kidnapped?”

I stopped. “What do you mean?”

Driscoll gestured to the room. “Personally, I have a hard time believing someone came in here and took her while you were sleeping. She would’ve fought. There would be signs of a struggle. Think about what she did to you in her tower.”

He was right.

Leoni wrinkled her nose. “Did you say it was Poppy’s idea to drink?” She shook her head. “I haven’t seen her take a single drink of liquor on our entire journey.”

“Me neither,” Driscoll said. “When we invited her the other day, she declined. And I brought out a flask one night, and she sniffed it and nearly gagged.” He shrugged. “More for me, so I wasn’t offended.”

My brows furrowed, and a memory of the night before surfaced: me asking her how she handled her liquor so well. Her smiling and saying I’d drunk most of it. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“I think she may have wanted to get me drunk,” I said, voice resigned.

“I think you’re right.” Leoni stared into Poppy’s open wardrobe. “Her clothes are gone, her cloak is gone, her boots are gone. Do you think if she’d been kidnapped, she would’ve had time to grab all her things?”

I groaned. “She left on purpose. She wanted me to get drunk so she could sneak out.”

I’d played right into her plan. Poppy was smart, I’d give her that. But now she was also in danger. Exposed. Alone.

“So what do we do?” I asked.

“We leave,” Leoni said, chest puffing out.

“We find her.” I moved toward the door, but Leoni stepped in front of me, blocking my path.

“I like her. I do. She’s wonderful and smart and kind, but...” She bit her lip.

I stepped back. “You’re saying we should just go to Sorrengard and forget about her? Absolutely not.”

Driscoll sighed. “I don’t like to get in the middle of these things—” He paused. “Okay, that’s a lie. I absolutely do. But I think shorty might be right.”

I looked down at my opened shirt, the blue lines inching just a little farther, now dipping in between my pecs. “It’s only been a few months since I escaped the shadow court.”

Leoni shook her head. “You don’t know how long it takes before those blue lines reach your heart. We can’t keep taking that risk. Let’s get your shadow and then we can find Poppy, and you can do whatever you wish.”

My jaw locked. “Unless she’s dead by then. Or the shadow king has taken her. No, no, I’m not leaving here without her.”

Leoni threw out her arms. “Prince Lochlan, she clearly doesn’t want our help! She ran away. From us. From you.”

I stepped back at those last words like I’d been sucker punched. I’d always been the one to run away. Now that I was on the receiving end of it, I didn’t like it.

“I don’t think Leoni meant it exactly like that,” Driscoll said.

Leoni’s face softened. “There are plenty of women out there, and they adore you. If you’re finally feeling ready to explore a relationship, do it with one of them. Not someone who is emotionally scarred and having an identity crisis. She needs to heal. She needs to find herself. And you need to give her the space to do so.”

“A relationship?” I scoffed. “That is not—you are so far off—” I stopped, taking a breath and gathering my thoughts. “That’s not what this is about. I know that my shadow is with her gran. I feel it in my gut. And I also know that my best chance at finding my shadow is her.”

Leoni raised her brows. “That’s it? Are you sure that’s it?”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Driscoll muttered.

“Yes, it is.” I balled my fists, wanting them to stop questioning me, especially when my head was pounding and my stomach turning. “I need some food. And water. And preferably a bath.”

“In that order?” Driscoll sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose. “Because maybe the bath should come first.”

Leoni elbowed him.

“Oh, like that’s the worst thing he’s heard after everything you just said,” Driscoll whispered.

“He can hear you,” Leoni said through gritted teeth. She looked at me. “As a royal guard of Apolis, I swore an oath to protect you, your parents, your sister, and your brother. Even if that means protecting you from yourself. We can’t stay here any longer.”

I ground my teeth so hard they hurt. I hated what she was saying. I hated even more that she was right. I was being a fool. Poppy had run away. The message couldn’t be clearer. She didn’t want my help. I’d done what I set out to do. I’d found her. I’d rescued her from that tower. A snort escaped my mouth. No. No, she’d rescued me. Either way, going and dying while chasing after some woman who wanted nothing to do with me wouldn’t exactly be a fitting end.

It felt like a knife twisting in my heart, but I finally nodded. “Let me bathe. Then we can eat and discuss our next steps.”

Relief washed over Leoni’s face, and she and Driscoll turned and left the room.

I stood there a moment longer, staring down at the ashes in the hearth, remembering how Poppy had sat there just last night, laughing and talking with me while she’d been planning to run the entire time. She’d let me go, and now I needed to do the same.