Chapter 36
We walked into the castle without Saestra.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Driscoll asked as his head swiveled back and forth. “Because I am not made for prison. Although I do have a prison fantasy about being arrested by a sexy guard and taken right up against the prison walls?—”
“You’re not going to prison,” I said quickly, not sure I believed my own words.
“And if you were going to prison, a guard would never do something so unprofessional,” Leoni added.
“That’s why it’s called a fantasy.” Driscoll scoffed. “Honestly, do you have a sexy bone in your body?”
She raised her nose. “I’m focusing on my career, thank you. Nothing wrong with that.”
Driscoll put his hand over his mouth like he was telling her a secret. “You can still have fantasies about prison guards railing you even if you’re career driven.”
“Halt!” a guard yelled from the end of the hallway, running toward us, her black wings fanning out behind her.
Driscoll swallowed. “I’m really starting to regret this. Are you sure Saestra is on our side?”
I kept my gaze fastened on the guard. “No, but it’s too late for doubts now.”
The guard slowed when she realized we weren’t trying to get away. She eyed us as she held her palm out, wind picking up and pushing the three of us together.
“Princess, we’ve been looking for you everywhere,” she said, then frowned. “Who are these two?”
“Just take us to Erasmus and we’ll explain everything.” I struggled as Driscoll and Leoni pressed closer to either side of me.
The guard brought up her other hand and sliced it across her body, the wind now constricting like a rope, pinning all of us together. “I’m not under orders to take you to Erasmus.”
Driscoll whimpered.
I blinked several times. That had been the entire plan. To be taken to Erasmus, to use his relationship with my mother, with me, to get him to listen and help us while Saestra gathered the other guards and distracted them so we could get away. “Then where are we being taken, exactly?”
The guard didn’t say, shoving us forward, all of us struggling against the wind that wound around our arms and sides. We followed her as we ascended staircase after staircase, marching through towers and over glass bridges. None of us spoke, everyone lost in our own dark thoughts until we finally stopped in front of a tall tower that led straight to the sky prisons.
“Please,” I said to the guard. “This is all a big misunderstanding.”
But she paid me no mind, shoving us forward and up the spiral stairs that wound around the inside of the tower. My legs ached, a stitch forming in my side as we climbed the stairs and arrived at the top, in front of the single door that led to the cages.
No. No, no, no.
“No funny business.” The guard pointed out the window to the glass walkways that stretched out toward the cages. Below the walkway was the flattened rooftop with sharp spikes sticking out from it. “Or you’ll end up down there.”
“That is not the kind of impaling I’m here for,” Driscoll muttered.
The guard opened the door, and wind blasted through.
“How do I get into these situations?” Driscoll asked, while Leoni’s lips had flattened into a thin line.
The guard bent down and grabbed a chain that was attached to a long metal pole that ran along the walkway, hooking it to her belt. This was beginning to feel like déjà vu. I’d already been here, done this, a week ago. I wasn’t supposed to be back where I’d started.
“Well, this is terrifying,” Driscoll said. “Completely ruined my prison fantasy.”
The guard paid us no mind, grabbing me and shoving me onto the walkway, Driscoll and Leoni forced to come with me since the wind magic bound us all together. My feet stumbled on the walkway, unsteady with the wind rushing past us. I thought I heard Driscoll let out a whimper.
The guard kept hold of my thick wool dress, a fistful of it in her hand, though I doubted that would save us should the wind become too overpowering and push us right off the edge of the walkway. Prisoners from the hanging cages peered at us curiously, some coming to a stand to stare, others staying in their seated positions.
By some miracle, we made it across the walkway without any of us falling to our deaths, and the guard quickly unlocked the cage and shoved us inside. I’d been so busy staring at the cages, all the prisoners, the terrifying spikes below us, that I hadn’t realized whose cage we were now standing in until my gaze landed on the prince of the water court.