Frozen Tides (Falling Kingdoms #4)(104)

“I will kill you!”

“Deal with her,” Kurtis said, shoving her at a guard who then struck her in the head with the hilt of his sword, rendering her unconscious. The guard picked up her limp body and tossed her over his shoulder.

Magnus ran at them, but suddenly found himself flat on his face, the wind knocked from his lungs. Someone had tripped him. He looked up to see a Kraeshian guard looming over him, his sharp sword pressed to Magnus’s chest.

Magnus raised his arms to his sides. “I surrender.”

The Kraeshian eased back on the sword, and Magnus clasped his hands on either side of the blade and rammed the hilt into the guard’s face, breaking his nose. As the guard reeled back in pain, Magnus leapt to his feet and slammed his fist into his face, knocking him to the ground.

Then, without any hesitation, Magnus yanked the sword from the guard’s grip and drove the blade down into his chest.

Sword in hand, he rushed along the hallway, desperately searching for Cleo. She was nowhere to be seen, but he spotted Kurtis, alone, headed for an exit.

“You better have answers for me.” Magnus pressed the tip of the sword between Kurtis’s shoulder blades, just as the kingsliege reached for the door handle. “Where is Cleo?” he hissed.

Kurtis froze in place. “I don’t think that’s quite the right question to ask right now.”

“Oh? And what’s the right question?”

“The right question is, who was it I was meeting with at the gates earlier today?”

“Well, you’re a coward, so it had to have been a Kraeshian. One who bribed you, told you he’d spare your life if you did as he asked.”

Kurtis let out a dry little laugh. “Close,” he said, “and yet so far. It wasn’t a Kraeshian. It was a king. Your father, to be specific.”

Magnus’s blood grew cold and his face went slack.

“Yes, Magnus. Your father has arrived.”

“And he took the princess. Why?”

“Why do you think? Honestly, Magnus, use your head.”

Magnus stiffened and pressed his sword harder against Kurtis’s back.

“All right, no need for violence,” Kurtis bit out. “Your father took Princess Cleo because he wishes to personally finish the job that should have been done in Auranos, had you not intervened.”

“He’s going to kill her.”

“Of course he’s going to kill her.”

“Where has she been taken?”

Kurtis shrugged and gave Magnus a smirk over his shoulder.

“Where?” Magnus pressed the blade down even harder, until he saw a spot of blood bloom out on the kingsliege’s tunic.

“Kill me and you’ll never know,” Kurtis growled.

“You and me, Kurtis, we’re all alone up here. No councilmen, no guards are going stroll by and help you out.” He sliced downward along Kurtis’s spine, making him whimper in pain. “You will tell me what I need to know swiftly, or I promise I’ll have you begging for death when I start carving off body parts.” Magnus grabbed a handful of Kurtis’s hair, yanked him backward, and brought the sword’s edge to his cheek. “I think I’ll start with your nose.”

“No, don’t! Please!” Kurtis shrieked. “If—if I tell you, you will promise to let me leave the palace, alive and unharmed.”

“Very well. And if you lie, I will hunt you down and make you suffer like one of the stray cats you adored so much as a child.”

Kurtis swallowed hard. “The princess has been taken to my father’s castle, where Amara and your father are staying.”

“Much gratitude for the information, Kurtis.”

“Now let me go.”

Magnus pulled his sword away. “A promise is a promise.”

Kurtis reached for the door handle, but before he could turn it, Magnus interrupted him.

“That’s the hand you used to strike her, isn’t it?” Magnus said.

“What are you—?”

Magnus swung his sword, severing the kingsliege’s right hand at the wrist. Kurtis screamed, his eyes wide and wild with shock and pain.

Magnus grabbed him by his shirtfront, turned him around to face him, and slammed him against the wall. “By the way? I lied about not killing you.”

Just before he could plunge his sword into Kurtis’s soft belly, a servant appeared in the hallway, shrieking, pursued by a Kraeshian guard. Magnus turned to look, and Kurtis slammed his head against Magnus’s forehead before tearing off down the hallway, dripping blood in his wake.

Magnus roared with anger and immediately ran after him, but when he turned the next corner, Kurtis had disappeared.

He charged down the stairs and pushed through the palace doors, frantically searching outside for his enemy. The light snowfall of this morning had now become a storm, the skies thick with dark clouds, making it difficult to see more than twenty paces away.

The Limerian palace had been captured. Amara’s army was in control, her guards swarming the grounds like ants. And Magnus was trapped.

He knew he had to fight for his people, to destroy his father and Amara, to take back his kingdom before it was too late.

But right now, at this very moment, all he could think of was Cleo.





CHAPTER 29