Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
EMORY
D riscoll whipped around. “The murder of your husband?” he whispered. “That might’ve been worth mentioning!”
Leoni held out her hand and water appeared in a ball that hovered over her palm, spinning and forming into handcuffs. “Is that true?” she asked with a deadly calm, all business now. “Because if you murdered your husband, I will have to arrest you. I’m the captain of the guard for the princess of the sky court. I can’t aid and abet a criminal.”
“Yes, so you’ve mentioned,” I said. “Many times.”
“Except your princess also ordered you to find Emory and send her to get the bolt.” Driscoll stroked his chin. “That’s quite a moral conundrum.”
The banging on the door made us all jump again. “If you don’t let me in, I will use force!” Ice crackled around the seams of the door, spreading like a web over it.
“I didn’t murder my husband,” I said quickly, hand going to the scarf and unwrapping it from my neck, revealing the bruises.
Leoni’s eyes widened, and sympathy flashed in them.
“I was defending myself and he... I think he might have had a heart attack. I didn’t do anything to him, though. I swear.”
“Except run away after he died?” Driscoll pointed out.
I wrapped the scarf back around my neck. “Okay, smart-ass. Yes, I did do that, but I was scared. In shock. I wasn’t thinking clearly. So I came here.”
“And brought the frost guards upon us,” Leoni hissed, any sympathy I’d seen now gone again as she scowled, the bun on her head making her look even more severe.
“I’m about to break down this door and arrest all three of you!” the guard shouted, the door now a wall of shimmering ice as his magic encapsulated it.
“Just a minute!” Driscoll called. “I’m... naked and need to get dressed.”
The guard scoffed. “Seriously?”
Driscoll’s words must have had some impact because he didn’t come barging into the room. Not yet anyway.
“Okay,” Driscoll whispered. “We have two options: we either turn her in or we all escape out that window.” He pointed at the window behind us.
Leoni groaned.
Driscoll shot me a pitying look. “Like I said, it’s a bit of a moral conundrum for her. She really hates to break the rules and has been breaking more of them recently than she’d like, which I think is giving her an identity crisis?—”
“Will you shut up?” Leoni massaged her temples.
My heart hammered. If they decided to turn me in, I’d have to fight them and run. Not ideal. It would be much easier if I had their help escaping this situation.
Leoni’s eyes rolled upward as she thought through the options.
“I’m coming in on the count of three. I suggest you back away from the door to avoid getting impaled with ice shards!” the guard shouted.
“Leoni,” Driscoll urged.
“One!”
The water cuffs still hovered over Leoni’s palm as she stared at me.
“Two!”
“I really don’t want to be impaled by ice. I don’t want to be impaled by anything.” Driscoll’s smile turned wicked. “Unless it’s a big, stiff?—”
“Three!”
The door shattered into a million ice shards, all of them flying through the air. Leoni grabbed my arm and wrenched me backward. I shook from her grasp and scooped up my chest as the three of us bolted toward the window. She shoved it open, and without warning, pushed me right through the opening.
My stomach leapt to my throat as I careened through the air, clutching the chest, not enough time to form a plan while my body was in a free fall.
“Why would you just shove her like that?” Driscoll yelled.
“I didn’t exactly have a choice,” Leoni shouted back. “I figured she’d drop the chest!”
Not on my life. Not when doing so could break it. Although not doing so could break me.
I barreled toward the ground and stared in horror as it came alarmingly close. Something thin snaked around my waist, yanking me right before I made impact.
I peeked one eye open, realizing a vine was holding me. I shot a look above me to see Driscoll commanding the vine, using his earth magic.
I breathed heavy, my pulse still thundering, blood roaring in my ears while my stomach slowly lowered back in place. The guard stuck his head out the window as the vine dropped me the short distance to the ground, Leoni and Driscoll shimmying down behind me.
“Halt!” the guard shouted from above. “In the name of Queen Larissa, ruler of the frost court?—”
Leoni grabbed my arm again and yanked me forward as I stared. The guard held out his palm, summoning daggers of ice that he shot directly at us.
Leoni twisted her wrist, a wall of water rising up behind us that the shards hit, making them dissolve.
“Run!” Leoni yelled while I stared shell-shocked, gaze shifting between the wall of water and my new companions, unable to believe this was happening. Everything had fallen apart so quickly .
Leoni let out a frustrated grunt and, for the third time, snatched my arm and pulled me forward.
I stumbled after her while still clutching the chest as passersby stared.
“Don’t let them get away!” the guard shouted from somewhere behind us.
He knew my husband was dead. Thought I murdered him. I was in major, major trouble.
I tugged my arm free from Leoni’s grasp and pumped my legs.
“Finally.” Driscoll dodged a man pushing his wooden cart full of steaming cider. “I was starting to think she didn’t know what ‘run’ meant.”
A loud crash sounded behind us, and I turned my head to see Leoni’s wall of water tumbling down, drenching anyone in its vicinity, steam rising from the victims’ bodies as they lay in the snow. Women and children shrieked and dove out of the way, and the guard’s head had disappeared from the window of the inn. I really hoped he was alone. We might be able to dodge him yet.
I whirled in a spin to avoid a man using his magic to clear away the snow on the road. “Sorry!” I yelled behind me, following Driscoll and Leoni as they hurried down the street.
The snow was slushy and wet under the rising sun, and soon the street would be cleared away for the day.
“We need to get off the main road,” I called ahead as they continued to run.
“Any suggestions?” Driscoll asked. “Because in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re not exactly from around here.”
Before I could reply, four guards emerged from alleyways into the street in front of us, slowing us to a stop.
“We have to go back,” I said, mind racing through our options, any places we could duck into and hide. I spun, cloak whipping behind me, and ran right into the guard who’d been in our window.
His pale blond hair gleamed under the silver helmet all guards in the frost court wore. “Going somewhere?” he asked.
I stumbled back, Leoni and Driscoll now at my side.
“How do I get myself into these messes?” Driscoll whined. “Sure, I’ll come to the frost court. No problem. We’ll just find Emory and then be on our way.” He rolled his eyes. “Spoiler alert: we’re never just ‘on our way.’”
“Shut up,” Leoni said out the side of her mouth.
The guard in front of us stepped closer, ice crackling from his hand and forming a long sword that he raised up and pointed at my neck. The icy tip pushed into my skin.
“I didn’t kill my husband,” I said.
He reached out, and I was afraid he was going to grab the chest, but instead, he yanked the blue bracelet off my wrist, the one that every citizen of Fyriad had, that we used to buy things. There went all my access to our money.
He shoved the bracelet in his pocket.
“I’m innocent,” I insisted.
He cocked a brow. “Really? Because it looks like your husband died and you ran.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Yes, it looked exactly like that. And there were no witnesses to back up my side of the story.
His eyes dipped to the chest I clutched tight to me. “Not only that, but you stole items when you ran. Valuables belonging to your husband?” His lip curled. “Disgusting behavior for a lady of the frost court, for a valued ambassador’s wife.”
“These are not my husband’s,” I snapped, tightening my hold on the chest, on my most precious artifacts.
“Can you just let go of that thing?” Driscoll whispered. “We’ll get you a new chest. Fill it with new trinkets.”
I shot him a glare, stubbornness rising in me. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Okay, I had. But I hadn’t done what they thought I’d done. And I wouldn’t bow down to this man and his intimidation tactics, not like I always had with my husband. Smiling and pretending like everything was okay while I was dying inside.
I raised my chin. “I’m innocent, and I will not go quietly.”
Driscoll sighed. “Perfect.”
“Well, then there’s only one thing left to do.” The guard raised his other hand, ice shackles forming that floated toward my hands.
“Sir,” Leoni said, stepping forward. “I’m Leoni Andora, captain of the guard for Princess Poppy of the sky court.”
The guard paused, the shackles pausing as well, hovering between his outstretched hand and me.
“I just want to say that as a fellow royal guard, I have the utmost respect for you, so please don’t take this personally.”
His blond brows furrowed. “Take what personally?”
I twisted my head to see the other guards shoot each other unsure looks, and Leoni sighed heavily.
“This,” she said right before shoving out her hands, water shooting in a stream straight into the guard’s chest. He flew back with force, his ice magic shattering over his body as he hit the ground.
Driscoll’s mouth dropped open.
“I just assaulted another guard,” Leoni said in a panicked voice, spinning and glancing at Driscoll. “Well, what are you waiting for? Help me!”
He jumped as the other guards closed in around us, and my pulse spiked. I wanted to help them, but... I looked down at the chest cradled in my arms. My artifacts. Everything I’d spent years collecting. Still, I couldn’t let Leoni and Driscoll do all the work, not when they were risking their lives for me. I crouched to gently set the chest down in the snow when a voice rang out in the now-empty street, everyone peering out from behind the safety of their windows and doors.
“Stop!” A man marched down the street.
Everybody whipped around to look at the man, no one moving as we watched him striding toward us.
My mouth dropped open.
His black boots kicked up tufts of snow behind him, and his long black coat billowed in the wind.
Spirits below. It was him. Maverick Von Lucas. And he was looking directly at me.