24. Chace #2
Winter lowered his feet to the floor and leaned forward. “What if I consider you one of those problems? After all…” He pulled a crinkled sheet of parchment from his pocket. “You’re sending her poorly encrypted warnings and referring to my home as a cage.”
I lurched forward, reaching for the note, but before I could wrap my fingers around the page and tug it free, he yanked it back. The page ripped. I glanced down at the few written words on the small scrap in my hand.
golden black bird heart
My chest tightened and tore apart all at once. What was I feeling? Fury or fear?
“Now look what you did,” Winter said. “You ruined it.”
I fought the snarl perched on my lips. “Where did you get this?” I waved the tiny fragment. “Did she give it to you?”
The prince’s brow arched. “She showed me where she kept her letters from you.” He smirked. “In her room.”
My chest squeezed tight. So damn tight. Winter had been in Raven’s room. Had she invited him? And if so, how many times?
“So, you see, given your little note-passing activity,” Winter said. “Should I or should I not consider you one of my problems?”
I released my tension with a long breath, then I tugged a devilish grin to my lips. “You do anything to hurt Raven, and I will be.”
“Promises, promises.” The prince sat back, then he stood and began to move through the room, clearly restless.
He paused beside the box of items Aoes had brought down to the room several days ago and had yet to do anything with. The glove still lay on top. I’d forgotten to slip it in with my own stuff out of sight. I silently cursed my negligence.
“Do you think they’ve come and gone yet?” Winter asked, regarding the royal search team.
“You could have been surveying their every move with the abundance of spyware available.” I swung my arm to indicate the collection of vision scopes and listening tubes.
“Ah, yes.” A tired grin pressed to Winter’s lips. “But then we would have been forced into a dull silence, and where would the fun be in that?”
I grunted, my gaze narrowing as Winter reached into the box and lifted the glove. He slowly turned it in his hand, studying everything about it.
Aoes bound into the space from the direction of the underground tunnel entrance. His attention skimmed from me to Winter. “Coast is clear.”
Winter lifted the glove up for all to see. “I believe I have the matching partner.”
“Seriously?” Aoes balked as my body jerked stiff. “Can you bring it to me…I mean, us? The glove belongs to Chace, or Raven, or both, actually.”
Winter smirked. “Based on where I found the glove, it is highly unlikely that it belongs to either of them.”
“Where did you find the other one?” I asked.
“And why should I tell you?” Winter dropped the glove back where he’d found it and then grazed his finger along the box’s edge.
“Tentative truce, remember?” I pushed off the wall but chose not to approach and not to appear threatening. “I thought we were going to try to work together?”
“Right. That.” The prince’s lips pursed, and he regarded me for two seconds. “I discovered the glove among a bunch of the royal healer’s items.”
The royal healer. Winter was referring to Valen.
And since Raven’s father had suggested they contact the male, I was under the impression Valen had been a reaper before getting trapped in the citadel by the curse.
If the deduction held true, then it was plausible that Valen did have the glove.
And maybe they weren’t a pair, but both single for their purpose.
I worried my jaw in thought.
“If the glove is yours,” Winter continued, “what does it do?”
I didn’t have a clue. “You’ll have to ask Raven.”
“Maybe I will.” He sounded like a precocious child.
“You do that,” I retorted and folded my arms across my chest.
“Enough already.” Aoes stepped between us and pushed Winter toward the exit. “You two are like baking soda and vinegar. You just can’t mix peacefully.”
He turned and shoved the prince out of the underground bunker.
He popped his head back in before disappearing. “Maybe later you can help me locate Earl?”
With my new heightened hunter senses, the request seemed reasonable. I nodded, watched the males leave, then grabbed the necessary goods to script my next message. I took a moment to study those four little words: golden black bird heart. Then I began.
Black Bird,
Blue you were when last we met, and although I had hoped the cause was me you missed, I’m told the truth was a seasonal seed within.
Expelled it may be, but man and monster, magic with mayhem, this combination a lovely thing does not make.
Keep your beak and feathers sharp. Be ever ready to fight or fly.
I prefer you fly and stay safe. We still have that bit to revisit.
The golden creature in the cage has the morning message and whispered of a matching glove (You know the one). A kernel that interests? A twig needed for your nest?
Your curious Curse Chaser
The message was flying in the clutches of a crow before nightfall. No reply came from Raven that night, nor the next morning. I didn’t let the immediate lack of a response concern me…much. I had plenty of work to occupy my time while I waited.
I took to the citadel to track Earl’s movements and marked the best locations from which to study the activities, both in and outside, of the palace.
If my soul hunter siblings were somewhere the Killian could not venture—the palace—I would find them. Find them and reunite with them. Then recall and conclude our original mission.
A silent laugh vibrated in my chest.
If only things were as simple as they sounded in my head.