27. Winter #2
Chace stared at him for a moment, then stepped back from the bars and lifted his hands at his sides. “Assistance accepted.”
Winter held up the key to the cell and smiled.
Chace huffed. “What? Can’t use your magic? Need a key?”
He could use magic, but then it wouldn’t take General Beckett long to figure out who had helped his prisoner escape. Winter was already pushing the issue, having used his magic to incapacitate the guards. Although identifying the actual cause would not be so easily done.
He slid the key into the lock. “If I were you”―he swung open the door and ushered Chace out of the cage―“I wouldn’t complain.”
Now to get the guy off the palace grounds and back to the pub without anyone being the wiser.
They slipped out the door and crept along the high palace wall surrounding the compound, Winter leading the way.
“Where are we going?” Chace asked at a whisper.
Winter spared him a brief glance. “I’m getting you out, off the grounds, and to the pub where you will presumably be safe.”
“Why not sneak me into the castle and find me a place to hunker down?” Chace countered. “That way I can be close enough to help and protect Raven.”
Winter stopped. Spun around. “Raven doesn’t need someone to protect her.”
Except when she did. Like an hour ago. Or when Winter was draining every ounce of magic from her.
“She is a strong and capable force of nature.”
“That she is,” Chace replied. “A strong and capable force with a target on her back. Even the strongest and most capable can use a little help every now and again.”
“That thing at the warehouse,” Winter said, referencing the being that had gone after Raven when she was being buried by the afflicted. “What was it? Why does it want her?”
“To the latter, I no longer know exactly.” Chace shrugged one shoulder. “As for what it is, death to our kind. That’s all you really need to know.”
Winter narrowed his gaze. “I disagree, but what exactly is your kind?”
“Need to know basis.” Chace smirked.
The desire to punch Chace overcame Winter, yet he stilled his hand. Ground his teeth. “And I take it I don’t need to know.”
“You really don’t.” Chace shifted his attention to the castle. “So, what do you say? To the palace?”
“No.”
“Can’t stop me.” Chace took a step away from the wall, but before he could get any farther, Winter grabbed his arm.
“Can’t I?” Winter retorted.
Chace spun and slammed the prince to the wall. “I need to make sure she’s safe,” he seethed between clenched teeth.
Winter regarded him for a moment, then released a sigh. “There are no guarantees, even if you are glued to her hip every step of every day. The palace is not the place for you right now.”
A muscle in Chace’s jaw feathered. “And what if something like what happened today happens again?”
Winter’s responding smile was instant. He couldn’t help himself. His physical form became the winter wind, shifting around Chace in a cumulation of air and earthen particles.
He rematerialized at Chace’s back and shoved him to the wall in one swift move. “I will be there. And I am just as capable, if not more so, of handling any threat within the castle.”
Chace growled with clear discontent.
Winter leaned close to Chace’s ear and whispered, “Weren’t you supposed to be locating our favorite pub owner, Earl?”
“Found him.” Chace’s voice sounded terse and gravelly.
Winter released him and stepped back. “Where?”
Chace rubbed at his shoulder. “He was in the warehouse with all the others.”
Winter’s mouth popped open.
“Yeah,” Chace added. “Both curious and concerning, don’t you think?”
“I do think.” Winter’s brow furrowed. “And I believe we need to investigate this further.”
Voices carried their way, halting any further discussion, and both males burrowed deeper into the shadows, hiding from the passing guards. The men strolled past with leisurely strides.
When the guards were beyond sight and earshot, Chace pivoted toward the palace. Winter slammed his palm to Chace’s chest, halting him.
Chace shoved the prince’s hand away. “I need to get inside.”
Winter shoved his hands in his pockets and raised his magic around them, creating a barrier between them and the palace. “Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. But it won’t be tonight. Not when all the guards will be on alert, looking for you.”
Chace rolled his shoulders.
“You know I’m right,” Winter said. “At present, the best thing you can do for you and Raven is to investigate Earl’s situation and that of the others like him who were in the warehouse today. We will be better prepared if we understand the Crown’s intentions with regard to Raven and the afflicted.”
Moments, possibly minutes, ticked by.
Chace closed his eyes as his chest rose and fell. “Fine.”
“Then it is to the pub we now go.” Winter turned and led them from the palace grounds and into the citadel, Chace remaining quiet at the prince’s side.
They glided through the shadows, street after street.
“I still need to search the palace,” Chace said. “Raven told me a banshee is being held there somewhere. I need to see her.”
Winter startled. “A banshee? So that’s what she thinks it is. Curious.” He tossed Chace a questioning stare. “And why do you need to see this banshee?”
Chace rubbed the back of his neck. “To verify that it is a banshee and not something else.”
“What else might it be? It packed one powerful scream.”
Chace shook his head and sighed. “Banshees aren’t the only things that scream. And what I’m looking for, well…”
They turned a corner. To their right, a cat startled, yowled, and raced across their path, vanishing between two buildings.
Winter stared down the street. They were nearing the pub. “What are you looking for?”
“The being I am looking for is pale in complexion,” Chace said. “Have you seen anyone like that?”
“Besides me, you mean?” Winter raked his hands along his body in a manner of presentation.
Chace shot him a scowl, and Winter laughed.
“I have not, but I will keep an eye out.”
Chace shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’d still like to look for myself. I might have a sense about them that would help lead the way.”
“Them?” Winter cocked a brow.
“There is more than one,” Chace offered.
“And you think they are all in the palace somewhere?”
Chace nodded. “I do.”
“Giving you access to scour the palace isn’t such an easy thing to do.”
Neither did he think he wanted to. Helping Chace was like moving against the grain.
Still, after today…
He scratched his temple and shook his head.
A shout echoed at their backs, and Winter grabbed Chace’s shirt, dragged him into the cover of a nearby alley. They watched from within the gloom as a handful of guards jogged past and kept moving without pause.
Winter watched with a keen eye until they were beyond sight. Clearly, Winter and Chace had gone unnoticed. They stepped out of the alley and resumed the trek to the pub.
Winter lifted his chin, indicating where the guards had disappeared.
“Guards and staff are constantly on the move, day and night.” He glanced to the side and noticed the flyers clinging to windows and walls of the local businesses.
“But you know…” He cut the air with a pointed finger.
“There is one night of the year when pandemonium falls upon the palace. That would be an excellent time to at least attempt this search of yours.”
“And when would that be?” Chace sounded less than enthused, disbelieving even.
“During the birthday ball.” Winter couldn’t help but grin at his own brilliance.
Or possible reckless stupidity. Every year, on the night of the big bash, his grandmother and parents were always secretly engaged, pulling a nice chunk of the guards for their business.
“Plus, you can wear a mask like so many others will. That way, you won’t be easily identified. If caught, a ridiculous excuse like ‘I got lost’ just might even work.”
Chace grinned, and as they reached the front of the pub, they made an agreement. Chace would return the night of the birthday ball, when the popular activity would likely keep the guards and key personnel distracted.
Winter pushed open the door, offering Chace entrance.
“Winter!” Aoes yelled from the bar, and Winter waved.
“Almost forgot,” he said to Chace, recalling his promise to Raven. “I brought you something.”
He tugged the glove from his pocket and tossed it onto a nearby table, then turned and walked away, leaving Aoes without a word.
He needed to get back to the palace, talk to the general and his grandmother, and further investigate the supposed banshee.
But more importantly, he needed to check on Raven’s condition.
He needed to see her with his own eyes. Feel her skin beneath his touch.
Note the rise and fall of her chest. And mark her breath and heartbeat.
He needed the puzzling distraction Raven had become.