Chapter 32
Shaking forced Imani’s eyes open.
Bleary, Kiran slowly came into focus above her. She smiled dreamily and reached for him. “Hello, my elf prince,” she murmured, curling her hand around his neck while pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He groaned but abruptly broke their connection. His face was a stone of determination.
“Not tonight.”
Sobered, she nodded. “What’s going on?” Something was wrong, she could tell in his signature and his eyes.
While glancing at the door, a determined yet anxious look on his face, he took out a pile of clothes for her. They included fur-lined leggings, sturdy boots, a warm tunic, and a fur cloak.
Imani stared at the clothes, confused. “What are these for? Did the memory spell not work? Are we being kicked out?”
“Remember the blood burning, when I said you’d need to go with me without question?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“That’s tonight.”
Imani’s stomach dropped, and she could feel the binding burning on her skin. It was demanding she go, impossible to resist without intense pain.
She hesitated, swallowing hard and glancing around the room as if she could somehow escape.
Kiran shook her to wake her up from her daze, his face a sudden snarl. “We’ll leave as soon as possible. Incidentally, if you decide to back out of our agreement at any time during our journey, I will strangle you before the binding can—and enjoy it.”
They were done pretending.
She glared but merely nodded, swinging her legs over the bed, reaching for the clothes. She dressed.
“We can only bring small items—anything that can fit in this bag. Everything else needs to be left behind.” He shoved a knapsack in her hands then crossed his arms, waiting.
Imani had few belongings she cared about, and while she couldn’t fit her entire trunk inside, she could enchant the bag to fit everything important.
It took her a few minutes to gather the items. Kiran eyed the book he’d given her as she placed it carefully inside, its binding already tearing apart.
She ignored him, wondering what other secrets he might be keeping.
Kiran helped her into her cloak then took her hand in his, lacing their fingers together. His strange, mercurial mood was clearly not abating.
As they stepped out into the hallway, Imani half-expected the full guardsmen of the dwarves to be waiting for them. They’d cast so many memory spells, already deceived so many by stealing the book from the library and the maps from the sentinel.
But no one was there.
For a moment, Kiran merely stared down at her, an unreadable mask on his handsome face. Her chest warmed at such a look, but she steeled her cold heart.
He narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly, but then he jerked her forward, leading them through the maze of corridors unnoticed. His shifting mood didn’t go unnoticed by her; whatever patience he had for her these past few days had waned.
She moved forward at his bid and wondered how they were going to make it up the lifts and onto the train.
Yet, when they started going downward, deeper into the mountain, she knew they wouldn’t take the train.
“What will the dwarves think when we’ve escaped in the night?”
“Nothing,” Kiran murmured. “I’ve healed the high sentinel, thanks to your little outburst, and altered his memory. After a little chat, he has now given us express permission to leave immediately through … another means.”
“For what reason?”
“I claimed you were ill and needed to take you away from here immediately. No one will question him or the story—half of it is true, anyway.”
“And that will be the official story to the rest of the kingdom, as well? And your father?”
“Indeed,” he stated darkly. His voice held an air of excitement, yet she felt danger emanating from him. The feeling of safety he’d given her these past few days was melting away.
This was a job he needed her for, and she remembered the cold way he had informed her that it might be a death sentence.
Her hand stiffened in his, and she wanted to tug it away. But he held it firm, guiding her forward.
How in all of the Six Saints were they going to get out of here?
Imani missed a step and tripped when it dawned on her.
Strong hands held her waist steady as she braced herself against the wall. Her eyes shot to Kiran with fire burning in them. “Tell me how we are getting out of here.”
His mismatched eyes gleamed. A dark but familiar type of madness and menace swirled inside them. “Through a stabilized slip. One the dwarves have been hiding from the throne.”
Nausea started to churn in her gut. Memories of the last few slips she’d seen assaulted her. She didn’t even know stabilized slips existed, and she’d all but handed over the information to Kiran with the History of Royal Bloodlines.
It made her grind her teeth together. The Niflheim Kingdom had been dabbling in dangerous magic these past few hundred years. Dangerous, indeed.
She started trembling slightly as fear crept in. What if it sliced their bodies into pieces like it had her parents?
And why would the sentinel simply allow them to use such a well-kept secret?
Imani knew enough about how the world worked that suspicion took root.
“How did you manage to get permission?”
“I can be very convincing.”
She imagined a proverbial noose tightening around the sentinel’s neck, but Imani couldn’t worry about the deal that the high sentinel must have been forced to strike with the Serpent Prince that evening.
Instead, she simply focused on her breathing as they made their way into a small chamber with a pair of large wooden doors.
The vibrations shook her bones. A mass of magic emanated from those doors.
“It’s behind those, isn’t it?” She was breathless.
Kiran barely looked at her, his eyes entirely focused on the doors. With his wand up, he muttered protective charms and cast them around their bodies. Imani could feel the silklike layers of protection wrapping around her and, suddenly, she couldn’t breathe.
With a few steps to the corner of the room, Imani bent over and threw up.
Kiran grabbed her roughly by the arm. His eyes held even more madness and menace in them than they had before. “Pull yourself together,” he snapped. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, and I won’t have you ruin it.” His voice was a low warning.
The pretending was truly over, and the Mad Prince had returned.
All her defenses shored up and locked into place. A fierce glare came over Imani’s face. She tugged her arm away. “How do you know we’ll survive? Unlike doorways, slips are notoriously unpredictable.”
“There’s a chance we splice ourselves, but it’s low,” Zadie’s voice suddenly sounded behind them.
Imani hadn’t even heard her following them.
“Unlike the wild slips you’ve experienced with your magic and with your parents, we’ve managed to stabilize a few across the Niflheim Kingdom.
Of course, we didn’t know the dwarves had their own slips to stabilize, but these safer ones don’t lead to other realms, only spaces within our own, adding to their stability. ”
Imani didn’t bother hiding her surprise at the nymph’s appearance. “This is impossible … How are you here?” she whispered.
“If your kingdom took a more open view of studying magic, then maybe you would have learned this same knowledge for yourself. Alas, Essenheim is stuck in its rigid past, and you, my darling, are quite ignorant,” Kiran announced.
He turned to Zadie. “Although I’m quite surprised our dwarf friends have been hiding this from us for so long.”
Zadie shrugged. “I suspected it for a while. As did you, I’m sure.”
He hummed in agreement. “Esa helped you pass through then?”
“Yes, it’s safe for your precious princess.”
Zadie turned her narrowed gaze on Imani. “Are you ready? Has he instructed you on how to walk through?”
“I haven’t, but I will,” Kiran growled, grabbing Imani by the shoulders. He dipped down to look her in the eyes. His own were wild—practically manic—and she wondered how long he’d waited to wield this power. The power of using a slip.
“It will be open like a tunnel, and the ground should be stable. Hold your breath—there’s no air in a slip.
Hold tight to your wand, and don’t let go of my hand.
Don’t touch the moving edges around the opening—dangerous magic is attempting to tear itself open there, and it’s only just held back by another spell.
Make sure both feet have stepped all the way through before you start to breathe again. Do you understand?”
Imani nodded and locked her fists together to stop her body from shaking.
Kiran tore open one of her hands and shoved it inside his own. It was not as tender as before … another reminder they were done pretending and the Serpent Prince was back.
“Do not let go of my hand, Imani. Stay close. I can’t have anything happen to you,” he said. Of course, he couldn’t. He needed her for his plan, one he’d seemed to have spent years plotting. He was more on edge tonight than he’d been in weeks, more impatient with her, colder.
The thought made her limbs tremble. She took a few breaths to try to calm down.
Had she been such a fool to think some of this was real between them? Now, here she was, about to walk through a slip?
The insanity of it all was almost too much to comprehend, but then, most things were when it came to Kiran Illithiana.
Zadie murmured a spell and swept her wand in an arch around the doors.
A rumbling sounded and a series of locks and mechanisms began twisting and groaning, presumably opening the entrance for them.
The rumbling grew louder and the vibrations stronger as the final locks clicked into place.
Unafraid, Kiran strode up to the door with Imani trailing behind and placed his palm on the wood. He swiped his wand a few times, muttered under his breath, then stepped back several paces, keeping her carefully behind him.
Formidable magic pulsed from him, and he whipped his cloak around to watch the door open, every bit the dark witch everyone said he was.
With a creaking, the door started to open, and the rumbling grew to a deafening level. Imani resisted the urge to cover her ears, and wind blew her loose braid back.
Kiran backed up protectively in front of her. “Stay close to me, Imani,” he growled over the noise.
Only one door opened, but it was massive, wide enough for them to step through. Imani had to crane her neck to see up to the tall ceiling where it ended.
Inside, cracks of lightning zapped around a circling archway of what appeared to be melted Fabric.
It churned and rumbled, lighting up randomly, similar to a Fabric event but contained inside the confines of the tunnel.
A tenuous netting of magic kept the Fabric from touching the cleared path that led to … elsewhere.
Kiran pulled her forward, and he moved without missing a beat, inside the monstrosity of magic. Fearless.
Careful not to touch the edges where the Fabric rumbled and swirled, Imani fortified herself and stepped inside after him.