Chapter 27
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
HAVEN
The innkeeper led me to a room just big enough for a narrow four-poster bed and a nightstand. The floorboards creaked under our feet, and I caught the scent of something sweet that almost hid a musky odor. “My wife made you a mug of hot chocolate.”
He’d somehow convinced a woman to marry him? “That was kind. My thanks to you both.”
“Try it.” He nodded to a mug sitting next to a single candle on the table by the bed.
Chocolate was expensive. Rare. And it gave me hives.
I brought the cup to my lips and pretended to sip. “Delicious. I’ll drink the rest when I’m in bed.”
He backed toward the doorway with a leering smile on his round face. “I wish you a pleasant night.”
I held on to the mug, allowing it to warm my cold hands. The tiny room had no fireplace to ward off the night’s chill. Through the thin walls, I could hear muffled laughter from the common room and the scrape of chairs across wooden floors.
Without thinking, I brought the warm drink to my lips and breathed its scent. I smelled chocolate, sugar, cream, and something else. Poison? No, not poison. But something.
I set the mug on the table and perched on the thin mattress. Since when could I detect drugs? Was my magic reacting to the wyvern’s venom? Learning new tricks? More importantly, why had the innkeeper added something to my drink?
I could go to Grayson. Tell him about the drugs in the chocolate.
But Grayson, with a disbelieving sneer on his handsome face, would ask how I’d detected it.
Only a handful of people in the entire kingdom could detect foreign substances in food and drink.
Those people spent their days with the king’s family or high-ranking nobles.
Protected. Valued. No woman with such a rare skill would allow herself to be taken as a shield.
Pierce might believe me, but would he take my side? He hadn’t at dinner. Flynn would say something lewd. Teal? He’d give me a warm smile before letting Grayson have his way.
I was on my own.
I stood, and the bed rattled. Metal hitting metal. The sound was sharp in the small space, like a warning bell.
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I searched.
I found the cuffs tucked between the meager mattress and the bed frame. Cuffs for my wrists. Cuffs for my ankles.
For a moment, I was back in the gymnasium with my arms shackled as Drake’s whip cut into my back. Agony held me in its grasp. My heart raced. My mouth dried. I struggled for breath.
I wasn’t there. I was not there. I focused on the bedroom’s tiny window and the cool air seeping into the tiny room.
Drake and Carron couldn’t hurt me. Not here.
But another man could.
With sickening clarity, the pieces fell into place. The drugged chocolate to make me compliant. The restraints to keep me helpless. The innkeeper’s gloating smile when Grayson ordered me to come with him.
I squared my shoulders. I’d die before I let that happen. I needed a plan. How long did I have before he returned?
I called on the wyvern’s venom and melted the cuffs into mangled bits of metal.
Then I opened the window wider and poured out the drugged chocolate.
After a moment’s thought, I arranged the pillows beneath the sheets and covered them with the single, scratchy blanket.
Only then did I settle into the corner farthest from the door.