Chapter 38 Trew #2
The sweet scent of her still clung to me as I left the ward. It stayed in my lungs and in my blood as I strode through the dimly lit corridors.
Several people called out my name, a clerk holding a parchment, a guard eager to give me a report. I didn’t slow, only lifted my hand and told them I’d attend to them later. Then the only sound was my boots pounding the stone, the soft crackle of my magic in the air.
The southern cells lay deep in the castle’s gut, down two flights of narrow stairs and behind a set of iron-banded doors that only opened to my magic and that of a few trusted guards. The corridor beyond smelled of cold stone and the faint tang of fear.
Four guards straightened when I approached Maddox’s cell.
One stiffened, his gaze meeting mine. “Sire—”
I didn’t break stride. My magic brushed them aside like a gust of wind, strong enough to make them step backward.
The heavy door creaked open under my hand. Maddox sat on a low bench against the far wall, his shoulders hunched, his hair shadowing his eyes. He looked up when I entered, and the flicker in his gaze looked too much like satisfaction.
Until he saw my face.
I shut the door behind me. The lock clicked, sealing us inside.
“You’re alive,” I said, projecting a calm I didn’t feel. “Do you know why?”
Maddox’s mouth twisted. “Because you need me to fight the Skathe.”
I stepped closer, my shadow dragging across the floor to his boots. “The only reason you’re breathing is because she wouldn’t let me kill you.”
The words landed as I’d intended.
His smirk faltered, confusion knitting his brow before he looked away.
“You poisoned her.” The heat of my magic hung thick enough in the air I could taste it. “Then you sat there and watched her falter. You wanted to torture her.”
His jaw tightened. “It was a joke.”
“A joke,” I growled, moving until my boots ground against the front of his. “Look at me.”
Reluctantly, he raised his eyes.
“I want you to understand something, Maddox.” My voice dropped until it scraped across the room. “You’ve been spared this once. It will never happen again. If you so much as look at her with anything but respect, I’ll know. And I’ll end you before you take another breath.”
The air pressed inward, my magic curling around him in invisible claws. His breathing quickened, the tendons in his neck standing out as I compressed his windpipe.
“Do we understand each other?” My voice was a coffin lid sealing shut.
He could not swallow. It was all he could do to squeak out a word. “Yes.”
I stepped back, loosening my hold on his throat enough for him to draw in a breath. “Good.”
With a jerk of my magic, I yanked him off the bunk and flung him against the wall. He hit hard, though I wished he’d hit harder, and toppled to the ground, groaning.
Pivoting, I opened the door and left without a backward glance.
Striding through the halls, I went to my chambers and bathed quickly, dressing in a clean tunic and pants. I returned to the healer’s ward, pushing through the doorway and taking the hall to the open room, only to find Isi’s bed vacant and made up with pristine white linens.
The space where she should be felt colder than any wasteland wind. My magic snarled in my veins, a beast scenting blood.
“Ah, there you are.” Meren looked me up and down, a twinkle in her eyes. “You’re looking marginally improved.”
“I don’t have time for that.”
“So much for trying to carry on a pleasant conversation with my king.”
“Where. Is. She?” I snapped.
“I could tell you she was bathing, but she insisted she could handle that herself.”
I peered around. “Where is your bathing chamber?”
Her hand lifted. “Through there, but you won’t find her in one of our tubs. She was doing well enough to leave. Actually, she was doing well enough she insisted on leaving. I believe she went to her own chambers.”
“Her own chambers,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Alone?” I roared.
She blinked fast. “One of my assistants went with her.”
“Fully armed?”
All color fled her face. “No one would—”
“She was poisoned!”
Her eyebrows lifted, and she wiggled her neck, loosening her spine.
I was much taller, so she had to tilt her head back to meet my eyes.
“I knew your mother, King Trewyn. We were good friends. You can stomp around this castle all you choose, except here, in my domain. Go to her chambers and stop bothering me.” Her smile softened her words.
“I’m happy for you, Trew. Your mother and father would be as well. ”
“Thank you,” I said gruffly, my shoulders curling forward. “And thank you for taking good care of Isi.”
“She has lovely eyes. I’ve seen that color before.”
My breath caught.
“Of course, I won’t say a thing about it to anyone,” she added. “Your parents would still be proud.”
“After what happened?”
“Of course. Her mother was an amazing woman.”
With a nod, I left and took the stairs fast to Isi’s room, lifting my hand and rapping hard on her door.
No one answered, despite my waiting.
I knocked again.
Thunder cracked overhead, followed by a bright surge of lightning. The storm must be overhead.
She whimpered inside the room.
Fuck, someone was hurting her.
I unlocked the room and flung myself inside, finding Isi sitting on her bed, her hair damp tendrils around her shoulders, her face full of terror.