51. Hearts Entwined
~ VOSKI ~
I’d worn my simplest black leathers, my softest and quietest boots. And even though few in this castle had ever seen my face, I might be recognized by some servants. I wrapped a scarf around my face to hide everything but my eyes, just in case.
Grace was a bubbling pot. I had no doubt she’d be bouncing on her toes if we were face to face, and I could hardly wait to see it.
But she wasn’t alone, so I had to take care.
Thank God, her connection was far stronger than we’d enjoyed before.
I didn’t know how our separation had helped her, but I was immensely grateful to hear her, even if our range was still shorter than we enjoyed with our dragons.
‘…I’m housed in the royal wing—the residential wing. We’re housed like family. I don’t understand it, but they greeted us personally and ushered us here.’
‘And he’s housed with you?’ I almost punched the wall of the secret passage as I slipped through the castle as silently and quickly as I could, following the link, and her guidance, to draw ever closer.
‘No, but he’s very close. Please, be careful. I’m sure he’s watching for anyone trying to help me—and probably has servants doing the same when we aren’t in chambers.’
‘He won’t see me coming.’
There was a pause, during which I climbed a set of stairs to the next level in the castle.
She’d assured me that they would return to the rooms soon.
I needed to intercept her in the quieter, residential wing.
There were too many eyes where the nobles gathered.
Too many chances for someone to recognize me, or catch sight of us.
‘Grace… dear god, it’s so good to hear your voice. I am so sorry—’
‘Hush. You’re here. I can’t… Voski, I’m…’ She trailed off as if afraid to speak and my heart clenched.
‘Has he hurt you? Touched you? I’ll kill him—’
‘No! No. I just… I don’t have words. I’ve been reaching for you every night. Trying to find you. Trying to find this. I’m so glad you’re here.’
I nodded and swallowed hard. ‘I won’t leave Fyrehold until I take you with me,’ I assured her. ‘We have a plan.’
‘Voski, I can’t just leave. If I disappear he’s going to make the king ruin my parents. They won’t survive it. And then he’ll hunt me down again. But, don’t worry, I have a plan.’
A burst of rage lit up my chest. I wanted to scream that her people shouldn’t receive an ounce of compassion after putting her in this position. But I could feel her fragility, her worry about angering me—which made me sick—and her deep-seated fear of the retribution of these men.
‘We have a plan to free you in a way that won’t impact them,’ I assured her. ‘Don’t worry. Don’t give any energy to that. Just hold onto the bond. I’m here, Grace. And I won’t leave the kingdom without you. I swear.’
Between her directions, and my knowledge of the castle, I was able to position myself in the walls of the corridor where she’d been housed.
She was right. She’d been given rooms just two hallways away from the royals’ personal chambers.
A breathless honor, though the implications were terrifying.
But I couldn’t think straight enough to parse out what it could mean, and I wouldn’t until I’d touched her again.
My sneaky little mate faked lightheadedness, and was led out of the gathering downstairs, warning me that she’d be in the rooms within moments.
The doors on this floor all looked the same, which meant the image of her chamber position wasn’t entirely clear.
So, I lay in wait in the walls. A passage ran the length of this hallway, though on the opposite side of the hallway from the rooms. Peepholes here and there allowed a view of the corridor, and if any stepped into the alcoves, I’d be able to hear even whispers.
Once I knew where she was, I would find the way in.
‘Have you checked the room for passages, or hiding spaces?’ I knew she’d grown familiar with the castle, just as I had, in her previous visit.
But she sighed in my head. ‘This room has none. I’m certain it’s intentional.
Apparently, my father warned Breckon about my penchant for adventures.
I’m sure he asked them to put me in a room with no escape.
He places guards at the door each night and—’ There was something else there, something that pressed on her chest, but before I could ask, shadows moved at the end of the hallway.
And then I caught my first glimpse of her in two weeks, and my heart soared and crashed in the same breath.
She was stunning in a deep, sea-blue gown that framed her cleavage and collarbones so perfectly I ached to run a finger along the seam, to touch the warm skin there. To taste it. To taste her. Her hair coiled elegantly at her nape and she walked with her chin high, beaming. Eyes sparkling.
Yet, at her side, that pig of a man, resplendent in full, formal dinner dress.
Dressed like this it was easy to see, his middle had thickened somewhat with age, but he remained strong and upright in his posture.
He was older than Donavyn, the gray speckling through, and thickening to wings at his temples.
But he was a sour, pompous ass, and at the sight of him my hands twitched to close on his throat.
“What a smile you offer this evening. To what do we owe this brightening?” he asked drolly.
Grace didn’t even look at him, her eyes scanning the wall near where I stood, because she could sense my presence, but not my precise location.
“I did as you asked—I gave them a blissfully happy bride-to-be. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
They stopped at the door halfway down the hallway, and I watched carefully as Breckon opened the door for her.
Grace gave one, short glance over her shoulder, her eyes almost meeting mine in the peephole, but she grimaced at something Breckon muttered, then disappeared behind the door that he closed firmly, while no less than four guards, who’d followed in their wake, positioned themselves in the hallway.
One either side of the door, and two a few feet ahead, blocking access to it by any but the servants.
One woman, a maid, appeared moments later and was allowed entry. But the men immediately closed ranks again the moment she disappeared inside.
Fuck. Fuck.
‘Grace…’
Just saying her name was cooling water on a burn.
‘The guards. I know,’ she sent in a quiet sigh.
‘They follow me everywhere. Even to meet the queen this morning. I can’t escape them without putting my parents in danger.
And he’d know. The moment one of them disappeared or there was any disruption—I have no doubt they’ve been ordered to watch for you. Please, don’t do anything risky.’
It took long moments to give her the words I knew she needed to hear.
The very words I’d need from her, if our roles were reversed.
‘I won’t do anything stupid.’ I felt the relief wash through her, along with a new surge of love and gratitude.
I had to be careful only to send her my returning love, not the simmer of anger and frustration that now burned behind my ribs.
I needed to see her. To touch her. To speak. To kiss. To have her.
But that fucker was still inside with her and…
‘Grace what is he doing in there?!’ I paced silently inside the wall like a caged lion. ‘It’s scandalous that he even entered your bedchamber. What’s he doing?’
That quaver appeared in her heart again—the crackle of fear. Of me. My disapproval.
‘His rooms adjoin mine. He takes great pleasure each night in entering his chamber through mine, to make people talk. He hasn’t touched me, Voski. Not like that. You have my word. I wouldn’t let him.’
‘I know you wouldn’t—I worried he’d force you. If he tried… Grace, I’ll take out the guards and have him at the tip of my blade in a breath. You know that, right?’
‘Yes. But please, don’t do anything. It’s all for show. There are rumors. Gossip about me. He’s attempting to make himself look like the conqueror. That’s all. He’s still waiting for me to bleed. He refuses to raise a bastard. So that has kept him at bay.’
I clawed hands into my hair, snarling silently, wishing my fingers closed on his throat rather than my own scalp.
He was so deeply prideful, he used the bedroom as a battlefield and had to show himself as the victor, the conqueror, as she’d termed it, without any regard for her reputation.
The thought made me tremble.
I wanted him dead. And dead at my hand.
‘Voski… please.’
‘I won’t. I gave you my word. I won’t. But I wish to.’
I was stunned when an image flickered to life in my mind—from her. An image of us together, in the clearing where I’d taken her when we had those days alone. Her fingers curled into my hair at the nape of my neck, she smiled—beamed—at me. Her body arched against mine and her eyes alight.
She stared at me with wonder, and devilment, and joy and…
God. I could barely breathe.
I had to swallow a groan, flattening a hand to the first wall that lay between us and leaning into it as I took the memory she sent and finished it with my own—my fingers in her hair, tipping her head up, taking her mouth, body hot and needy, that kiss deep and longing.
I felt the trill in her, the yearning, the ache—and sent it all back tenfold.
‘Grace… God. I’ve missed you. You have no idea.’
‘But, I do,’ she whimpered in return.
The cold, unfeeling wall in front of me was no replacement for her soft warmth. And the fire of rage, no substitute for her need.
But she was here. And so far, she was safe. I had to remind myself of that.
‘Has that fucker left your chamber, yet?’
‘Yes. My maid always appears soon after we return—she must watch from a hiding place—’ that made me frown, because if she was hiding in this hallway there were very limited options, unless she knew of this passage as well.
‘—and he leaves her to help me. He doesn’t touch me, Voski. He’s just piggish.’
Her unwillingness to swear never failed to amuse me. And here, amidst these people and this danger, it seemed so out of place, it was comical. And yet, beautiful, as well.
‘What? What made you smile?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘You,’ I replied without hesitation. ‘You make me smile, Grace. Every damn time. I’m just so relieved that you’re here and safe. Even with that pig nearby.’
I felt the warmth of her sunny smile in return to that, and it was a balm to my heart.
I backed away from the wall where I’d leaned, let my shoulders come up against the opposing wall, then slid down it, to sit. Knees bent up, and elbows resting on them. Prepared to leap up again at the slightest notice.
‘Rest now,’ I sent, trying to keep the ache out of my voice. ‘I’m here. I’ll watch. If anything happens, I’ll help. Just… rest.’
‘I’m not going to sleep while we can still speak!’
‘You’ll have to. I’m not leaving for hours yet. And even when I do, I’ll be back within hours. We’re coming, Grace. We’re coming. Tomorrow night I will be in the castle and staying until we’ve fixed this, and I can take you home. Do you hear me?’
I felt the pinch of tears in her. The happy weep that wanted to come.
‘I love you, Voski,’ she breathed—and underlined those precious words with heady love and care. It swelled through me from the bond, filling my veins as surely as the beating of my heart. I swallowed a pinch in my throat as well.
‘I love you, too, Grace. And I’m never leaving you. I’ll die first.’
‘I know.’
But even as our hearts celebrated this truncated reunion, even as we fed emotion and need into the bond that linked us, and watched the dragons in our minds, even as we vowed to each other and reassured, I felt her fear.
Her desperation. It was a low trickle of cold under all this warmth.
She tried to hide it, but I knew her, and I knew her heart.
She couldn’t hide that something gripped her. Something she feared would never let go.
And that made me desperate.
I caught myself, turning over strategies in my mind. Ways to misdirect the guards. Diversions I could create. Endless, silent methods of murder…
But I didn’t share those thoughts with Grace, and eventually, in the small hours of the morning, she did drift off to sleep—her last image one of curling into me, lying in bed together, her head on my shoulder, her arm across my chest, her knee resting on my hip.
She huddled into me, and I held her, and both of us smiled.
In the end, it took a stern warning from Kham to get my feet moving—and the only reason I listened was because I knew we would return. This same day, we’d be back. And I’d never leave her again.
Drawing away, I felt sick as Kham flew us furiously—and wearily—back to the estate. And yet, a part of my heart that had ached and shriveled for the past two weeks was alive again.
I kept stretching for her as I had when we were in pursuit, and it took miles before I lost all sense of her.
‘How is it that we’ve connected better after this separation?’ I asked him, marveling.
‘You have sought each other, single-mindedly. Koa tells me they practiced every evening, working on Grace’s strength. And she sought you. She reached. Just as you were.’
‘But we weren’t actually linking!’
Kham shook his head, still flapping, but slowly, allowing himself to glide now and then.
He was tired. ‘The bond isn’t a physical thing, Voski.
It is unity of heart. When you two began, you placed barriers before each other.
Now, you surrender, grow sure. You seek without defense.
Your souls align more deeply every day. And so, your link strengthens—which strengthens ours, also. ’
I swallowed. ‘I made your link weaker, by denying her?’
‘Yes. And she damaged yours by attempting to destroy it. Your beginning was wounded. But now, you are of one heart. It will continue to grow. Just remain.’
‘I will. I’m never leaving her again.’
Kham lifted his head and screamed, and somewhere, far behind us I heard the whisper of a dragon scream in return.
Koa.
‘I’m sorry, Kham,’ I sent suddenly, as clarity—memories of his advice, his urging, his wisdom rushed back to me. ‘I’m so sorry that I hurt you and your mate too.’
‘I forgive you, Voski. I wish you’d never been wounded as you were. The Creator has brought us here to face it, and to heal you. I’m certain of it.’
It was reflex to flinch, to deny, to turn away from that thought. But, I knew he was right. And now I had a reason to face all of this, once and for all.
And she was worth it.
‘Thank you, Kham. I wouldn’t ever have gotten here without you.’
‘I know.’
I spluttered a shocked laugh. Kham screamed again. And I screamed with him. And fervently prayed that this was the last time either of us would ever have to fly away from our mates.