Briar
AFTER OUR MOMENT IN THE FOREST, MAEZ SEEMED TO DISappear. I didn’t even know if she was still in the castle or if she’d left me there. The magic still flowed easily through the house—food, warm baths, clean clothes, as if a bunch of invisible maids had been tending to the place—but Maez was gone.
I wondered if I’d spooked her. Did she fear that moment we kissed as much as it excited me?
She was like a wild animal, one whose power had been threatened, and now she fled from me, and I wondered if she was afraid she’d lose more of that dark magic to me.
It’s what I’d hoped for—that I could spool her back into herself and away from the darkness.
It seemed her Wolf form was a conduit for that change. I wondered if she’d never shift again.
I sat on the settee with my head in my hands, losing all manner of hope when she didn’t return one day and then the next. I couldn’t just bake and read and pretend everything was normal. I didn’t want to be cooped up in a castle alone.
When I heard the rustling sound of movement, hope reignited in me.
Maez had finally returned. But when I lifted my head, I saw six soldiers spilling from the stairwell and fanning out over the room.
My heart leapt into my throat as I spotted their fawn leathers, inky black buckles, and the bursting suns carved onto their hammered bronze armor.
Onyx Wolves.
I shot to my feet, eyes widening with alertness as I held up my hands. They didn’t even try to hide their approach, knowing I was outnumbered.
“What is happening?” My frenzied voice trembled as the soldiers circled me.
“Where is the sorceress?” the head one, judging by the crest of his helmet, asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.” My eyes darted between the six of them. They had curving metal blades, scythe-like, that I was certain were sharp enough to cut my head clean from my body.
“Well then, we’ll just be taking you,” he said, lifting his blade to point it at me. “The Crimson Princess. Her mate.” His eyes scanned up and down my body with a hunger that made my stomach curdle. “You will make an excellent little piece of bait to lure the beast back out of hiding.”
“No.”
“No?” He balked. “You might be a royal, girl, but this isn’t a negotiation.”
My lip curled and I wondered if I could take on six soldiers on my own.
I bet Calla could. I bet they were fierce enough to take on ten times the number.
But I was given only the basics of fight training.
I was taught how to use my wits and looks to get what I wanted.
And I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to charm my way out of this one.
“Let’s go,” the head solder said, beckoning me with his sword. When I didn’t move, he smiled. “Or we could do this the hard way?”
It was clear which one he preferred.
My mind spiderwebbed out, thinking of every possibility. I had three exits from this room—four, if I counted the window. It was a steep fall, but we’d just had a snowstorm, and as long as the powder wasn’t too iced over, I could make it . . .
Too risky. I’d just as likely impale myself on an icicle as I would escape.
The upper stairwell led to a long hallway where these soldiers would probably outpace me before I could lock a door behind me. The stairwell the soldiers came up was narrow and twisting and currently blocked by a hulking soldier. If I could lure them away . . .
No, that would have to be the backup plan.
The best option was the bathing chamber to my left. I could lock the door and then climb out the window. The soldiers would certainly be able to knock the door down, but it would give me enough time to escape.
I licked my lips and swallowed, knowing this could end very badly for me, knowing the Briar before would’ve bowed her head and played the part of a good little puppy in order to be treated more kindly by her new captors.
But I was done being a puppet, let alone a puppy.
What had it ever got me? First Nero, then Evres, now the Onyx pack wanted me for their own plans—first as a bride and now as bait.
No more.
“Let’s go,” the head soldier said again as his comrades at my back pressed in closer. I looked to the grand stairwell. “Don’t,” he warned.
The guard behind me was almost within reaching distance now.
I smiled at him, the sickliest, sweetest smile. “I won’t,” I said with a pout. Then I did what I thought Maez would do in this situation—something brave, and bold, and cheeky.
I winked.
He paused, uncertain, while I whirled, kicking the closest soldier square between the legs.
When I feigned to the right, the rest of the soldiers all went in the same direction to head me off even as I sprinted to the left.
I just managed to skirt past their grasping hands and out of the circle of their blades, my blood pumping so hard I could feel it pulsing behind my eyes.
I made it to the chamber and slammed the door, barring it with the surprisingly sturdy lock before whirling to the window, the wood behind me thundering under the pummeling fists.
I raced to the window. From here, I could drop down to the balcony below, and from there, I could climb down the frozen trellis into the snow and make a dash for the forest in my furs. Once I shifted, there’s no way they could outrun me. I just needed to beat them to the ground.
I climbed out of the window too hastily and my foot slipped on the icy balcony.
I went tumbling sideways, cracking my ribs onto the frozen stone and scrambling to cling on.
My cheek slammed hard into the railing, and amazingly I didn’t topple over the side.
I tasted the copper tang of blood in my mouth as my chest heaved. Each breath stabbed into me.
I’ll heal if I can shift.
If, if, if . . .
I heard the door above me give way and the soldiers spilled into the bathing chamber above.
Shit.
I scrambled to the trellis, my body screaming at me as the soldiers shouted orders to one another from up above. I just had to get down, just had to shift and I’d heal and be fine. Three more steps and I’d jump, even if it was too high, the shift would make me survive the fall . . .
A hand grabbed the back of my dress and roughly yanked me upward.
I screamed, losing my grip on the trellis.
I dangled by the fabric of my dress, the thin fabric ripping.
That sound was my savior, letting me focus.
I tucked my chin in, lifting my arms, lace scraping against my skin as I fell out of the dress and plummeted to the snow below.
I thanked all the Gods that I had been right about the fresh powder. I stumbled, disoriented, to my feet in nothing but a thin cream slip. The world spun, a voice shouting in my mind to shift, but I couldn’t control my limbs. I was tackled to the side before I could regain my senses.
Snow seared across my raw skin.
“I got her!” a soldier shouted as he scrambled on top of me and pinned me into the snow.
I scratched at his face, feral, as he laughed.
I couldn’t buck him. He didn’t even bother to grab my wrists or restrain me, just used his weight to hold me down so tightly I couldn’t take a deep breath, already tough because of the injury to my ribs.
He crossed his arms, a smug expression on his face as he arched a brow at me.
“What now, Crimson Princess?” he mocked, wiggling on top of me and squeezing the air from my lungs. “Go on, shift. I dare you.” With each laugh it compressed my stomach more, the ice crunching and snow groaning beneath us. I bared my teeth at him, and he chuckled. “What are you going to do?”
“Show you why there’s crimson in my name,” I gasped out.
Confused, he didn’t perceive the threat.
Fast as a striking ostekke, I grabbed the lowest knife from the bandolier that crossed his chest and lifted up to drive it into the side of his neck.
I twisted, raking the blade in an unclean cut across his throat until rivers of steaming blood poured down on me.
His hand flew to his throat, grasping and choking on his own blood. He toppled sideways, shifting into his Wolf form, trying to save himself, but the wound was fatal.
I kept a white-knuckled grip on the knife as I pushed up from the snow. Heaving, I prepared for more attackers, but there were none. Someone slowly clapped from behind me, the sound eerily jovial amidst the carnage.
I turned to see her standing there—Maez.
Her eyes were so filled with violent green I couldn’t see their true color anymore as they darted to look at the five decapitated bodies circling her. I hadn’t even heard their deaths, so quick, so silent.
Her gaze dipped down to my slip, coated in steaming blood. “Crimson Princess indeed,” she mused, something akin to pride in her voice. A thrill ran through me at the look in her eyes. “You fight well, mate. I didn’t know there was bloodlust in you.”
I turned and stared at the dead Wolf in the snow—the one I had killed.
I had killed.
And she’d called me mate for it.
“The Onyx Wolves have made their move, it seems. They’re taking Taigos,” Maez said. “I can’t stay here anymore.”
All the blood drained from my face. “What?” Taigos couldn’t fall to the hands of the Onyx Wolves; Calla needed them as allies or, at least, not as staunch enemies. How could the Golden Court manage to wage a war against the rest of the entire continent?
Maez’s eyes narrowed at me. “Do you want to stay here or come with me?”
It struck me that even now she was giving me a choice.
But in my letter, I’d told Calla not to come for me, which meant I was safer by Maez’s side, and after that kiss in the forest, I wasn’t giving up on her, either.
I eyed the dead soldiers ringed around her.
She might be the key to Olmdere’s salvation, too.
I met that flickering green gaze. “With you,” I breathed.
Maez blinked at me and oh the hundreds of warring emotions I saw in just one blink. One split second that told me so much. She seemed relieved and heartbroken and terrified that I still wanted to go with her.
But instead Maez just extended out a hand zipping with green static to me. “Then it’s time to go, Princess. We’ve got a detour to make on our way.”