Dragons Against Them (Kingdoms of Fire and Ice #2)(11)
“Edana Castle indeed has a chamber where such scrolls are kept. And those who possess the skills to read are allowed to do so as they please. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I got bored this afternoon and did some more exploring of the castle. And I found this room with all these crudely bound scrolls. So I opened one collection and tried reading them. The script was hard to read, harder than yours, even,” she added with a wink. “But after a while, I realized they were just poems. Stories. Or so I thought.”
A flicker of excitement shone in Adelaide’s eyes as it so often did during her times of exploration and discovery.
“Go on,” he said.
“Well, I should probably back up a bit and mention that the scrolls were kept in a room I don’t think I was supposed to be in. And then I heard voices coming, so I panicked and hid. It was two of our handmaidens, and when they saw the scrolls out, one made a comment that it looked like my father was ‘studying the prophecies’ again.”
“The prophecies?”
A wave of unease washed over Zayne. He knew of no prophecies recorded within his castle walls, only historical notations and dreamt-up stories passed from generation to generation in his family to amuse their youth. Did Forath’s high wizard possess secrets Berinon did not?
“Yeah. The one I’d been reading when they startled me was called The Legend of Fire and Ice. It was really cool, but it looked like some of it was missing. Which totally stank, because I really want to know how the rest of it goes.”
“Well, it seems in this kingdom,” said a low voice from the mouth of the cave, “whatever Her Highness wants, Her Highness gets.”
Addie bit back a startled squeak. If he’d been any other of her father’s guard, she would simply have been irritated by his uninvited appearance. But this was no ordinary guard—Quinn Blackstone was the brute who her half sister had sent to kidnap Addie just a few weeks ago. So his presence both irritated and terrified her.
In Rosalind’s defense, she hadn’t known then that she and Addie were related. But Blackstone had no defense. He’d taken Addie against her will, secured her on a medieval torture rack in Forath Castle’s dungeon, and then prepared to have his way with her. It’d been sheer luck that he’d seen the resemblance she held to her twin and gone stumbling away, wide-eyed as though he’d seen a ghost. To him, she had been. But now the tables were turned, and he was the one haunting her at night, tainting her slumber with nightmares involving glowing red eyes and harrowing, blindfolded flights.
Nightmares she hadn’t shared with Zayne for fear he might lash out at Quinn and jeopardize their wedding. Later, maybe. But for now, she’d rather suffer in silence than risk him freaking out about it.
“Cover me,” she whispered as the beast stalked nearer, scrambling to tug on her confounded undergarments.
Zayne reached for her gown and shifted so that his body blocked her from Blackstone’s view. As she hurried to dress, he remained in that same protective stance, poised to defend without bothering to cover his own naked self. Embarrassment fanned fire across her cheeks at being caught in the act—or rather, shortly after the act—and yet her fiancé sat as though this was all perfectly normal. Maybe in his world, it was.
Her world too, she reminded herself. There was no going back now.
“You, better than anyone, would know how demands of the female Forathian royalty have been met, Blackstone,” said Zayne. “Tell me, did Tristan request you and Rosalind be chaperoned as well, or did your guise as her escort serve to fool all the royal Bennett men?”
Addie had wondered about her sister’s relationship with Quinn after their coordinated efforts on her kidnapping, but when she’d asked Tristan, he insisted they were just long-time friends. A lie, or was Zayne correct in his jab about the cluelessness of her brother and father? Judging from Quinn’s momentary look of surprise followed by a dark glower, she’d guess the truth was closer to the surface than he wished it to be. She tugged the gown over her head to hide a smirk.
“As never did you attempt to carry Princess Rosalind off against her father’s orders, the request was unnecessary. I see now, however, we had no need to worry as you prefer to steal from the peasant colonies rather than from another castle.”
At that, Zayne’s body did tense. Addie placed her hand upon his forearm and spoke up, unable to bite her tongue. “It’s hard to steal what’s freely given. Or is that all you know? Stealing?”
“Given freely? Have you no honor, woman? Your actions disgrace your father’s crown.”
A growl rose within Zayne’s chest, his voice venomous. “Be careful how you address my future wife, warrior. And your kingdom’s eldest princess.”
“She is no princess to my people, Prince Zayne. As for her future as queen, your subjects shall be the judge of that.”
Zayne rose and came to stand a few feet from him, muscles taut with anger. Quinn’s eyes took on a dim red glow and Addie had to look away, afraid the view might amplify tonight’s assured nightmares. Zayne, however, stood his ground. In the buff.
“My people, it seems, are more open-minded than those in this kingdom, if what you speak is true of Forath’s many subjects. Or perhaps what I hear are merely the embittered words of a man whose lover has run off without him.”