Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Lucian
An hour.
An entire hour I’ve been searching this godforsaken place, and still nothing. No trace of her beyond the lingering stench that makes my wolf want to claw its way out of my skin.
I pace the empty inn room like a caged animal. The bed sits unmade, sheets tangled from where we slept. The window hangs open, curtains fluttering in the evening breeze. Everything exactly as I left it when the bewitched inn owner lured me downstairs with her glazed eyes and honeyed words.
“Astra!” I roar for what feels like the hundredth time, though I know it’s useless. She’s not here. She hasn’t been here for over an hour.
The thick, cloying, unfamiliar magical scent clings to everything. It coats the back of my throat like oil, making me want to retch. Whoever did this was powerful. Professional. They knew exactly what they were doing.
I’ve torn through every inch of this place. The bathroom, the closet, under the bed. I’ve searched the entire inn grounds, following every possible escape route. I’ve questioned every person within a five-mile radius, using enough royal authority to make grown men tremble.
Nothing.
My mate is gone, and I have no idea where to even begin looking.
The sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs makes me whirl toward the door. Seth bursts in without knocking, his face grim, with a man I don’t recognize beside him. The stranger is thin, pale, with the kind of sharp features that undeniably mark him as a witch.
“Where is she?” Seth demands, taking in the destruction I’ve wreaked in my search.
“Gone.” The word comes out as a growl. “Someone took her.”
The witch steps forward, his nostrils flaring as he breathes deeply. His eyes flutter closed in concentration, and when they open again, they’re worried.
“Magic was definitely used here,” he says, his voice carrying the educated accent of someone trained at the Royal Tower. “Powerful magic. But...”
“But what?” I snap.
He shakes his head slowly, genuine confusion creasing his features. “This signature doesn’t belong to any witch registered with the Royal Tower.”
My blood goes cold. Every practicing witch in the kingdom is required by royal decree to register their magical signature with the Tower. It has been law for over two centuries, designed to prevent exactly this kind of unauthorized magical activity.
“That’s impossible,” Seth says. “Every witch—”
“Every legal witch,” the man corrects him, his pale face growing even more ashen. “Whoever cast this magic is working privately. Unregistered. And that means...”
“A noble family.” The words taste like poison on my tongue. “Only noble families recruit private witches.”
It’s an illegal practice, technically forbidden by royal law, but everyone knows it happens. The great houses have always bent rules to their advantage, including keeping magical practitioners off the official records for their personal purposes.
Seth’s face hardens. “It hasn’t even been a day since I warned you about Lady Zari.”
“You think it’s her?”
“Her family is the only one that has openly kept witches in their employ for generations,” my friend says grimly. “The other noble families have their own magical practitioners, but your people have been watching them. You had their signatures catalogued, didn’t you?”
I nod and turn to the witch, who says reluctantly, “I’ve studied the magical signatures of every witch known to serve the major houses. This doesn’t match any of them.”
It’s true, then. If it’s not any of the families we’ve been monitoring, if it’s not any registered witch, then there’s only one remaining option.
“The Tashina house it is, then.”
The witch’s face goes white. Seth curses under his breath.
Lady Zari’s family. My supposed betrothed. The woman who has been sending increasingly desperate letters, making increasingly bold demands for my attention and affection.
Rage explodes through me like wildfire, so intense that the windows of the inn room rattle. Both Seth and the witch take an involuntary step backward.
“She took my mate.” My voice doesn’t sound human anymore. My wolf is too close to the surface, my canines extending, claws bursting from my fingertips. “That pathetic, spoiled bitch took my mate!”
“Lucian—”
“She had me trapped downstairs,” I snarl, the memory flooding back clearly now.
The inn owner’s glazed expression. The strange compulsion that pulled me down those rickety stairs.
The musty basement where shadows seemed to move on their own.
“Some kind of binding spell. I could barely think, couldn’t shift.
By the time I broke free, they were already gone. ”
I was helpless while someone took Astra. The thought makes me want to tear this entire building apart with my bare hands.
“How did you finally break free?” the witch asks, his professional curiosity overriding his obvious fear of my temper.
“I don’t know. Something snapped. Like a chain breaking. And all of a sudden, I could think clearly again.”
The witch nods thoughtfully. “That makes sense. Binding spells require constant magical energy to maintain. If the caster had to leave suddenly to transport your mate, the spell would have weakened significantly. Eventually, it would snap entirely.”
“How long between when they took her and when you broke free?” Seth asks.
I think back, trying to piece together the timeline through the haze of magical confusion. “Maybe twenty minutes. Half an hour at most. But what about Astra? How long do we have before they do something to her?” I demand.
The witch looks uncertain. “It depends on what they want with her. If it’s just to use her as leverage against you—”
“They won’t hurt her immediately,” Seth interrupts him. “She’s more valuable alive. But Lucian, if this is really the Tashina family, if Lady Zari is behind this...”
He doesn’t need to finish. I’ve always dismissed Zari as nothing more than an annoying, spoiled girl who can’t take a hint. But this—abducting my mate, using illegal magic, orchestrating something this elaborate and dangerous...
Maybe I’ve been underestimating her all along. And I’ve been rejecting her advances for months…
“I’m returning to the capital at once.”
“Lucian, think about this—”
“I am thinking.” My voice is deadly quiet now, the explosive rage settling into something far more treacherous. “Every minute we waste here is another minute my mate is in their hands. Open a portal,” I order the witch. “Now.”
He nods quickly and steps into the center of the room. His hands begin to weave through the air, fingers tracing intricate patterns as golden light sparks between his palms. The magic builds for several seconds before suddenly flaring bright—and then, burning out completely.
The witch yelps, stumbling backward as smoke rises from his singed fingertips. “What the hell?”
“Try again.” My voice is ice.
He attempts the spell once more, more cautiously now. The same thing happens—golden light builds, then burns away to nothing. This time, the magical backlash drops the witch to his knees, clutching his hands to his chest.
“I can’t.” He looks up at me with genuine fear. “Something’s blocking me.”
Seth’s face darkens. “That’s impossible. We just arrived through a portal twenty minutes ago.”
The witch closes his eyes, his breathing deep and measured. When he opens them again, they’re pure white—no iris, no pupil, just blank, milky orbs that give me the chills.
“Wards,” he whispers, his voice distant and strange. “Massive wards. They stretch for miles in every direction, covering towns all around us.”
Seth takes a step forward. “What kind of wards?”
“Anti-sorcery barriers. They prevent anyone from practicing magic within their boundaries.” The witch blinks twice, and his eyes return to their normal, murky brown. “Somebody cast them after we arrived. The wards are designed to trap us here.”
This isn’t random. This isn’t some coincidence. Someone knew I would search for Astra. Someone planned for this exact scenario.
“Zari.” Her name comes out as a snarl.
If that spoiled bitch really is behind this, then she’s far more treacherous than I ever gave her credit for. She didn’t merely take my mate; she anticipated my response and prepared for it.
“How do we get out of here, then?” Seth demands.
The witch looks uncertain. “We’ll have to travel to where the wards are weakest. Maybe a couple hours on foot, toward the eastern border of the kingdom. I should be able to create a portal there.”
Hours. Hours that Astra is in their hands, terrified and alone. Hours that Zari, that pathetic excuse for a woman, thinks she can manipulate me through my mate.
“Let’s move.” The command cracks through the air like a whip.
We leave the inn room, and I don’t bother looking back. I never want to see this place again—the place where I failed to protect my mate. Nothing matters except getting to Astra.
The evening air is cool against my skin, but it does nothing to calm the rage burning in my chest. As we start toward the tree line, I can feel my control slipping. The careful mask I wear, the one of the composed prince everyone expects, is cracking.
“Lucian,” Seth’s voice comes from behind me. “We need to think about this strategically. If it really is the Tashina family, rushing in without a plan—”
“There is no strategy.” My words come out flat, final. “There is only getting my mate back. And punishing whoever is responsible.”
“And then what? You can’t just tear a member of one of the most powerful noble families in the kingdom into pieces. Not without consequences.”
I stop walking. Seth and the witch nearly collide with me as I turn to them, and whatever they see in my face makes them both flinch.
“Watch me.”
The words sound soft. Conversational. But they carry the weight of a royal decree. This isn’t bravado or empty posturing. This is the promise of a future king who has the power to make good on every threat.