The Bound (Ascension #2)(59)

“Kael, I wasn’t kidnapped.”

“You let her address you like that?” Jesalyn asked, raising her nose.

Kael’s blue-gray eyes bored into Cyrene, like he was trying to tell her something, but she didn’t know what it could possibly be.

Did he worry that since Cyrene really hadn’t been kidnapped, there would be an issue with the fact that Byern had sent all these guards onto foreign soil for no reason? Well, that was not her concern.

“You’ve spent a long time in the company of your kidnapper. Your judgment must be impaired.”

“My judgment?” she asked, taking a step toward him. “What happened to Prince Dean? Is he okay?”

When Kael didn’t speak up, Jesalyn sighed. “He’s fine. He brought you in himself.”

Cyrene’s hand went to her mouth. No. She had trusted him. And he betrayed me? Well, at least he was alive, and she hadn’t sent him to his death.

Jesalyn huffed. “By the Creator, you are annoying. Why does Edric even want her back?”

Cyrene sagged slightly with relief. She had thought Dean was dead. Knowing he was alive seemed to lighten her, ease some of the tension in her heart, even if he had betrayed her and given her over to Kael.

When she met Kael’s eyes a second later, she was shocked by what she saw there. Uncertainty and confusion, and then a second later, there was red-hot jealousy.

She didn’t even know how to respond to that when Kael turned on his heel and stormed out of the room. Jesalyn stared after him in confusion. Clearly, this was not part of their plan.

“Well then, tomorrow, I’ll have you out of my city,” Jesalyn said with a smile before slamming the door shut and locking it.

Cyrene twisted the handle and searched the room to see if there was something she could pick the lock with. But there was nothing. She was trapped in a windowless room, alone, without any hope of finding her friends and escaping to Eleysia after all.

She paced back and forth across the carpet, trying to figure out a puzzle that had no solution.

It was the only reason she heard the click of the doorknob. She took a step back and waited to see what Kael had to say this time. A few endlessly long minutes later, the door cracked open, a torch was thrust into her room, and a familiar face sprang into view.

“My lady,” Dean’s friend Darmian said, bowing at the waist. He pushed the door the rest of the way open, revealing Faylon and Clym.

Cyrene’s eyes searched for the person she was hoping to find, and a second later, Dean appeared, whole and intact with little more than a small bruise on his cheekbone.

“I said I would find you again,” Dean said with an enchanting smile.

Cyrene backed away a step. “You betrayed me to Prince Kael.”

Dean frowned. “After I dispatched the Braj, I was overrun by Aurum guards. I had to make it seem like I was handing you over. But I was always coming back for you. You can have asylum in my country. In Eleysia. No Byern guards would dare try to take you from there.”

Cyrene nearly wept with joy. “You mean it?”

“Of course. You were not kidnapped. That much is clear to me. The rest of the story is your own, but I am free to take you safely away from here, if you will join me.”

“Yes,” she said with a nod.

Darmian pursed his lips. “Then, let’s make haste.”

“My friend Maelia is being held next door.”

Two of the men dashed to the room next to hers, and soon, Maelia was with them.

“But I have to get the rest of my friends, and I fear they are in the dungeons,” Cyrene said.

“Then, we will do what we can to get everyone out of here,” Dean said.

“Servants stairs now. As quietly as possible,” Darmian said, ushering the girls down the stairs.

Cyrene remembered their mad flight out of Strat only a couple of weeks ago. This time, she swore she wouldn’t leave anyone behind. They wound down the stairs until they reached the bottom level and rounded the corner to the dungeons. Darmian, Clym, and Faylon immediately engaged the guards who stood at the entrance, and just then, Cyrene felt a magical pull at her center.

Avoca.

A few seconds later, her friends were barreling out of the dungeons and straight toward her.

“Cyrene!” Avoca cried when she saw her standing at the entrance. “What happened?”

They embraced as she approached.

“We’ll talk later,” Cyrene answered.

When Cyrene pulled back, she counted all of her companions. She had sworn that she would not leave unless she had everyone.

Orden. Maelia. Ahlvie. Avoca. Ceis’f.

All accounted for.

Dean touched the small of her back. “We should get moving if that’s everyone.”

She nodded, telling herself that the thrill of his touch was from the adrenaline of the escape. That was all.

Orden knew the hallways better than even Darmian and overtook him for the lead. They took a sharp corner and then another, scaring servants and pushing them out of the way. They didn’t have time for pleasantries, not when they had just been imprisoned by the Prince of Byern and the Queen of Aurum.

The hallway revealed a wide opening. They dashed toward it, heedless of where they were going, and ended up at a guarded entranceway that led out of the castle.

Darmian and Orden made quick work of the men who had the misfortune of standing duty, knocking them out and leaving them to be found in a nearby room.