Chapter 4 Jace
JACE
Zadyn steps through the door of the ramshackle apartment, holding it open for us to pass.
“It’s not much, but I’m barely ever here anyway.”
The single room contains a bedroll, a sack of supplies, a small wooden table, and a fireplace full of ash.
“What is all this?” I mutter, stepping around the maps and drawings carelessly strewn across the floor.
Zadyn pours out some water for the three of us. “Research.”
My eyes drift over the charcoal renderings of Castle Illona. Detailed aerial views, depictions from various angles.
He’s been here for over a week, and this is what he has to show for it?
“Please tell me you’ve done more than doodle since you arrived here.”
He turns to me, leaning against the kitchen counter.
“No doubt more than you’ve done sitting in your ivory tower this last week.” He extends a glass to Mar, a smug look on his face as he holds eye contact with me.
He’s not wrong. Being Hand of the King does not suit me. I’m used to action and battle, not patience and politicizing. When Derek commanded me to stay in Aegar after Serena was taken, it nearly killed me. Zadyn, unbound by title, left that very night.
I don’t think I’ve ever envied him more.
“How did you get here so fast?”
“It seems Marideth has been holding out on us.” I give her a pointed look as she slides into one of the worn wooden chairs. Zadyn glances between us.
“I’m a Blueblood,” she says offhandedly. “Do you have anything to eat here? I’m starving.”
Zadyn’s eyes round, his brows leaping toward his hairline as he grapples for words. “Can we maybe…unpack that a little?”
Mar lifts her glass to her mouth and chugs while Zadyn waits, the unmistakable look of shock plastered across his face. She makes a loud, satisfied sound and wipes her mouth on the back of her hand.
“I forgot how thirsty magic makes you.” Fixing her cool eyes on Zadyn, she starts, “I defected from my coven nearly two centuries ago and never looked back. No one knew except Dover. And Serena,” she adds. “I told her a few days before she was taken.”
“How did you retain your magic?” Zadyn crosses to the table, bracing his hands on the empty chair.
“I found a loophole. When I left, I buried a part of it in here.” She lifts her hand, flashing him the delicate moonstone ring encircling her third finger. Now that I think of it, I’ve never seen her without it.
“I could only get away with keeping a sliver, and I haven’t touched it in years. I didn’t want to risk being tracked and traced back to the clan.”
“So you can siphon off that ring?” Zadyn asks. She nods, twirling it mindlessly around her finger.
“I did a scrying and saw Serena chained up in what looked like a dungeon. I water walked us here.” She stretches her long legs out, leaning forward to massage her calves.
“We ended up on the southern beaches two days ago. We’ve been heading toward the castle ever since,” Dover says from her side.
“Judging by the lack of Blackblood here, I’m guessing whatever you’ve been attempting since you arrived hasn’t been successful.” I toss a nod at Zadyn, not intending for the bite in my words.
I’ve never been his greatest fan. Partly because for a familiar, I’ve witnessed him make a lot of stupid choices when it comes to Serena’s well-being. And partly because in her eyes he can do no wrong.
“I’ve been trying to figure out the best extraction strategy.”
He runs a hand through his chestnut-colored hair and bends to scoop up a stack of parchment. I move closer as he spreads them on the table, noticing the darkened circles around his eyes, the unkempt stubble on his chin and jaw. He’s clearly slept about as much as I have in the last week.
“I’ve never seen wards so tight. There’s absolutely no way to get in unless we do it on foot. And even that presents its own set of issues.”
“Those creatures,” I mutter, sifting through the sketches.
“The Stryga.” Zadyn palms the table as we study his work. “He could have an army of them waiting on the other side of those walls.”
Grotesque images of the mangled, half-male, half-beasts flood my mind. Their snarling jaws wet with innocent blood, the curved horns protruding from their lupine skulls, their taloned claws wrapping around Serena’s limp form as they disappeared from the hall.
“Dover, you live at the castle. Maybe you can offer some insight,” Zadyn says.
“I haven’t lived there in years. Kai and I reside at his estate in Malfa. It’s been decades since we’ve even visited.”
Helpful.
“Has there been any activity there?” I ask, falling back on my military instincts.
Zadyn shakes his head. “They have an illusion over the entire perimeter. I haven’t seen a single soul from overhead in the days I’ve been scouting.”
“No one? Not even going in and out?”
“Not one.”
“Fuck,” I mutter, turning to pace around the dim room.
Keep it together and think. There has to be a way.
“I could try to water walk us in,” Mar suggests, but Zadyn shakes his head.
“Doing so would set off the alarms. So would using any kind of magic to force entry.”
“We should have brought the dragon,” she says, crestfallen.
“If we had, she would have sensed Serena in danger and would have obliterated the entire castle and everyone in it. We need to do this cleanly, with the smallest amount of bloodshed possible,” Zadyn cautions, eyeing each of us.
“Derek is sending troops, but it will take too long for them to arrive,” I add.
He had begged me to wait for them, insisting I would need backup. But I don’t think he realized that the rage I have burning inside of me would fuel me with the power of fifty soldiers.
“Let’s avoid starting a war at all costs. We do that on Vod soil, and we doom ourselves. If we do this right, we can get her out. The four of us.”
“Someone has to leave eventually,” Dover adds. “That could give us the opening we need.”
“We don’t have time to keep waiting,” I snarl, my patience slipping. “It’s been nearly ten days. We can’t just sit here twiddling our thumbs while she—”
“Jace.”
My name coming from Zadyn’s mouth has my attention snapping to him.
“I know. Believe me, I know.”
And I do. Because I’ve seen the way he looks at Serena. It’s more than how a familiar looks at their bonded.
It’s the same way I look at her.
We eat quickly outside a small tavern below Zadyn’s flat. The sky above us is a deep red, as if it too is bleeding without her.
I set the pewter mug down and look at the others. “I want to go by the castle and see it for myself.”
Zadyn’s eyes shift to me. “Tomorrow. You won’t see anything at night. Besides, all of you need rest.”
“You need rest. You look like shit.” I make a face, which he returns with a tight, sardonic smirk.
“Likewise.”
Folding my arms over my chest, I say, “And what are we supposed to do in the meantime? I didn’t come here to hurry up and wait. I came to get her back.”
Zadyn glances between the three of us. “Actually, there is something we can do.”
I quirk a brow, slightly intrigued.
Tossing a few coins onto the table, he stands and starts down the cobbled road.
We trail him through the maze of crowded city streets until we reach a busy bazaar.
He stops before one of the vendors—an old fae with a glass eye and hair like silver string—seated behind a table full of polished apples.
Zadyn pulls a few silvers from his pocket and drops them into her waiting hands. Chills skitter down my back as she assesses each of us with that singular gray eye. She rises with eerie grace and turns toward the sandstone building behind her. After two raps on the door, it creaks open.
We follow Zadyn inside past the old crone, but as I step through the threshold, her bony hand reaches out to grasp my arm with a grip surprisingly strong for someone so frail-looking.
That eye sears me as she croaks, “King of fools, king of bastards. You are no king. Do not test the Fates.”
What in hell?
I blink and wrench my arm away. Too stunned to respond, I simply stare as she retreats to her post to sift through Zadyn’s payment.
“Jace?” Marideth calls a few feet ahead.
I catch up, struggling to shake off the strange encounter as we make our way down a soft, candle-lit hall.
Red brocade curtains line the narrow passage into a parlor of sinful decadence. I take in the velvet-lined booths and daybeds scattered around the room. The low light and the litany of done-up females in heavy makeup and revealing gowns.
I turn to Zadyn, rage bubbling beneath my skin. “You brought us to a whorehouse?”
I’m going to kill him. The fucking nerve of him to be seeking pleasure at a time like this. When there is everything to lose.
The moment I snatch up his collar, a sweet voice interrupts.
“Zadyn?”
We both turn to see a slight, brown-haired fae with dark bronzed skin and sea-blue eyes watching us.
“Ilayna,” Zadyn breathes. I release him and take a step back.
“I didn’t expect you back so soon,” she says. She reminds me of Sorscha, with the doe eyes and long lashes. The kind of person you feel instantly protective of.
“Things are urgent.”
“You brought friends.” She nods, glancing at the rest of us as a few females make their way past, eyeing us up with contrived thirst. “Maybe we should speak privately.”
We follow the young courtesan through the ornate, if not tacky halls, the whole place reeking of perfume and expensive sex. She closes us inside an empty bedroom and gestures to the small sitting area across from the silk-dressed bed.
“Who are you?” I demand, refusing to sit.
“Please excuse my friend,” Zadyn apologizes on my behalf. “Ilayna, this is Marideth, Dover, and Jace. Everyone, this is Ilayna. She’s been helping me since I arrived.”
Hmm. I’ll bet she has. “Helping you what?” I mutter.
Mar slaps my arm. “Be nice.”
Zadyn fixes me with a warning look and turns back to the stranger.
“Helping me infiltrate the castle.”