17. A New Wrinkle
~ VOSKI ~
I slipped into the Fyrehold castle via a little-used servants’ entrance on the northern side. It opposed the main steps and was too far from the kitchen for regular use.
My heart thrummed in my chest, and pain sang through my ribs.
I was only miles from Grace and the dragons, but I’d fought my body the entire trip, as if muscle and bone separated under my skin, pulling free in an attempt to return to her.
I deny it! I reject it! I will not be bound!
There was only a whisper of Kham’s disapproval in the bond—he could reach other dragons at great distance, but while our range was a mile wider than most dragon-human pairs, we were beyond our limit now.
I gritted my teeth as I slipped into one of the dark, narrow, servants’ stairways to climb to the second level, following my instincts, and the giggles of two maids, one of whom had had an eye for Gil since we’d arrived.
But when I reached an empty corridor and gripped a corner to lean slowly around it, I realized my hands were trembling, and cursed under my breath.
The pain in my chest was unsettling on its own, but it added to a barrage of questions in my head that I hadn’t battled for years.
If Grace could sneak up on me, had my senses failed me? Was it perhaps not that she was so skilled, but that I had somehow—by denying the bond—removed God’s favor? Did my gifts now abandon me?
I couldn’t remember a room I’d entered without cataloguing every corner and movement in a breath. Couldn’t fathom what it must feel like to my brothers to stand in a doorway and be at ease.
The only time in my life I could describe my senses as quiet, was flying with Kham on a clear day—miles from any other living creature. Where none could approach without being visible for long minutes before they reached us.
That was why Grace’s appearance unsettled me. While I hadn’t hidden my passage, I’d scanned my surrounds at every moment and never sensed so much as a hint of human attention. Yet, she’d had eyes on me for hours?
A bolt of genuine fear shot through my chest, right alongside the painful pang of my heart because I’d left the dragons—and Grace.
But in the same moment, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and my senses sounded the alarm.
I sank into the shadows between candles in the narrow, dark hallway, and smiled.
Gil—wearing full leathers, including his hood—slipped out of one of the doorways ahead, looking left and right, before turning up the corridor away from me.
I shifted my weight, about to follow, when the door swung open and a feminine voice whispered his name.
Gil stopped and turned back, a smile on his face.
I froze, unable to move if I wanted to remain unnoticed in the darkness. I was forced to watch him trot back two steps, pull the woman to him and kiss her deeply.
“You need to sleep,” he chided her quietly.
“So do you!”
“The dragons help. I’ll be fine.”
The dragons help. I smirked. It was the line he used any time he wanted to impress a woman.
While I’d stayed in the shadows and pretended to be a servant, we’d revealed Gil and his Furyknight status earlier, so he could accompany Bren to formal events, in an attempt to unnerve one of the men we’d been pursuing. Gil had a presence that could be unsettling.
“Will you return tonight?” she whispered, her hands dwarfed where she gripped his upper arms.
Grace’s hand, so small and fine in mine when I pulled her up, onto Kham’s back—
My stomach twisted uncomfortably and my chest panged again. It was an effort not to clear my throat and reveal myself.
“I’ll try,” he muttered. Then, to my shock, he touched her chin and smiled before he kissed her, then turned her around and sent her back into the room with a pat on her ass. She giggled, but he pulled the door closed behind her, then darted back down the corridor.
I was in pursuit in moments, grinning at his back.
I waited until he hesitated at an intersection of corridors, looking left and right, before I leaned into his ear. “What must a lady do to earn a smile like that?” I whispered in falsetto, chuckling when Gil leaped a foot into the air and whirled, before cursing at me.
“What the fuck, Vos! I told you, not when we’re working!”
I flashed him a grin, then started walking. He gaped for a moment, then hurried to fall in step with me, both of us striding quickly, but silently, and watching for unseen eyes.
“Where the hell have you been?” he murmured as he frowned over his shoulder to look for listeners.
“Long story, none of it good. But we can’t talk here.”
He nodded and we both picked up our pace. Then he sniffed and turned to look at me, his upper lip curled back from his teeth. “You stink.”
“I know. I need a bath, a change, food, and information.”
His expression became grim, but he tipped his head at a stairwell and I followed him without a word.
Moments later we were out of the castle and walking briskly along the pebbled road to the stables where I’d bunked since we arrived. There was no one nearby so we could talk easily, though we watched in every direction.
“You’re growing complacent, keeping a routine,” I chided him quietly, but without heat in my voice. “I shouldn’t have been able to find you so easily. I only checked there because you weren’t at the stables and you met her last week in the afternoons.”
“It’s only by God’s grace that you caught me.
I hadn’t visited Emily since you left. But…
God, Voski, I was leaving tonight. I thought they’d killed you all,” he said darkly.
“There’s been no word—of anyone. Lord Hanson’s prowling the corridors like a wolf.
Ruin’s gone as well. Lady Grace disappeared the following night, and—”
“She was with me.”
Gil’s brows shot up and he snapped his head to look at me. “You took her?”
“Of course not. She followed me and…” I trailed off, frowning, because I hadn’t realized until that moment that I’d have to tell him, but for a moment I scrambled for a way to tell the truth without telling all of it. “She’s not what she appears,” I said darkly.
Gil’s eyes narrowed. “An agent for the crown, or—”
“I’m not sure. I don’t believe so. But she is far from innocent,” I said dryly, then had to stop myself, squirming, as thoughts of her brought a new wave of thrill and pain in my chest.
“What do you mean, she followed you? Where did you lead her? Did she have something to do with Donavyn’s disappearance?”
My lips twisted in distaste, but a quick glance around revealed no one close enough to overhear. There was no legitimate reason not to tell him. “She followed me. I didn’t catch her at it until I’d almost reached the dragons.”
“What?!”
Gil’s shock was gratifying. All my brothers knew that I was virtually impossible to catch off-guard.
I rolled my shoulders to loosen my neck and try to ease the tightness in my chest. “It’s a long story, like I said, but the end result is: she was Chosen by a feral dragon, then Kham mated her female.”
“Wait, what?!” Gil actually stopped walking and turned to face me, catching my arm. “Is this a joke?”
“I wish it was,” I muttered with a warning look. I was still his wing leader. “We’ve been stuck out in the forest while the dragons mated. Kham wouldn’t consider leaving her. I was trapped.”
Gil’s brows drew down. “She trapped you? Is she—”
“No, no,” I hurried to reassure him. “We couldn’t leave because of the dragons and—look it’s been a shitshow.
One day I’ll tell you the whole story. But right now, I need to know if you’ve uncovered anything about Donavyn, and what is being said about her disappearance. Did anyone associate that with me?”
Gil shook his head. “I haven’t heard you or your description mentioned at all. Ruin’s the only one who might have known you were here and he’s been gone since Donavyn disappeared. Did… did he kill him?” Gil asked, dropping his voice despite our isolation.
“I pray not,” I replied grimly. “But I couldn’t find out before a feral dragon mated mine, and a noblewoman who can’t ride was bonded to her. I was hoping you’d made more progress than I had.”
We stared at each other. He looked as grim as I felt.
“We have to go back,” I said, because it was my job to make the call.
Gil’s lips tightened. “There might still be—”
“It’s been a week. Either he’s dead, in which case Bren needs to know, and the herd will be in pieces. Or he’s not, and we need help to find him.”
Gil brightened. “Was Kham worried about Kgosi? Did he sense anything that would indicate—”
“No, but if Kgosi’s out of his range, he wouldn’t.
And we don’t know. Kham thinks he went south.
There was a… a migration, or something, he said.
Wild dragons across the whole kingdom flocking and flying south.
But he didn’t see Kgosi, or link with him.
He only remembered that in the wake of everything else that happened.
We’ve been a little distracted,” I said, almost laughing at the depth of the understatement.
Gil didn’t miss my dry tone. “And Grace is alive?”
“More than alive, she’s fucking kicking,” I muttered, clawing a hand through my hair to cover the flinch because when he mentioned her name, my chest panged again.
Then I caught his wary gaze. “What is it? Did you learn something about her? I don’t trust her, but I can’t yet prove that she’s lying—”
“You need to get her out of here—don’t let anyone see her.”
I frowned. “I already planned to take her to Vosgaarde—the dragons insist—but why?”
“The nobles think she ran away, either alone, or with a man, because all of her things and servants remain. She just disappeared.”
That made no sense. “Why would nobles believe she had run? Surely they’d suspect kidnapping for ransom, or—”
“No. Apparently she’s been betrothed to some older lord, and she’s not excited about it.
She was supposed to return home and marry him.
He’s sending messages to the king.” Gil leaned in.
“He’s accused her parents of hiding her away so they can pretend they have nothing to do with it, and keep the dowry. ”
My heart dropped to my toes. Pure, undeniable panic clanged through me.
But Gil wasn’t finished. “The whole court is gossiping about it, Vos. It’s the best scandal in years.
Emily’s a lady’s maid. She said it’s all they talk about.
If Grace was truly chosen, get her out of here.
If anyone sees her, they’re going to drag her off to this lord’s estate. Her dragon will defend her and—”
“Kham will lose his mind and fight to protect them both,” I finished faintly, a pit in my stomach.
And not just Kham, a quiet, inner voice offered.
I swallowed hard.
“The court thinks she ran away because she’s scared of the lord.
They haven’t made any connection with you.
It’s better if everyone keeps believing that.
No one’s going to look for her in Vosgaarde.
They think she’s hiding in the city. Get her out of here, Vos.
Get her to the Keep and Acknowledged by the herd.
Once she’s a Flameborne, she’s protected.
Unless she doesn’t want to train as a Furyknight? ”
I nodded, but I barely heard him over the thought screaming in my head.
Get her to safety. Now.