Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(118)

I pushed open the door. Hanna raised her tear-stained face from the bed, and her gaze widened when she saw me. “Caldren!”

I touched my fingers to my lips, trying to silence her, but she’d already raced across the room and threw her arms around me.

“You have to help Honor!”

“That’s what I’m here for,” I promised. I gripped her slender upper arms, gave her a squeeze. “And you. I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Where are the rest?” she asked, her eyes wide and hopeful.

Shit, she thought the rest of the royals should be with me. That rankled, but I smiled anyway. “We don’t need them. Any idea where Honor is?”

“I heard her screaming, then… she stopped.” She chewed her lower lip frantically.

A chill ran through my blood, then turned to ice. Henrick and Alis would pay for whatever happened tonight. “I’m going to find her. Can you get out of here? Go to the academy and…” The words soured in my mouth. “Find Prince Jaik. He’ll come help her.”

Jaik was a worthless asshole… for me. For Honor, he’d try to be decent. Protecting her mattered more than my pride.

She glanced at the wall of windows behind her, and I realized they’d all been nailed shut. They’d tried to trap her here, and even with the door unlocked, she’d have to escape past the guards.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I thought I escaped before, but they always wanted me to… I’ll try.”

“You can do this,” I assured her. “I have a lot of faith in Hannaby girls.”

She smiled wanly. “This is all my fault.”

I shook my head. “Not the slightest bit. This is on Henrick, and Alis, and they’ll pay.”

I saw Hanna to the window, stood guard as she carefully lowered herself out. I watched as she ran for the fence, then I intended to shift to find Honor.

“Hey,” one of the guards called. “Stop!”

He’d sighted Hanna.

I barreled into him. He never saw me coming until I slammed into him, landing hard on top. He tried to get in a punch across my jaw, but I pressed him down to the ground, slammed my fist across his jaw hard twice. His head fell back against the grass, his eyes dazed.

The next moment, three guards fell on me all at once. I knocked out the first one, grabbed for my sword, pulled it loose just before something slammed hard into my head. I fell to my knees as pain exploded across my vision, tried to get my legs beneath me and pitch myself up.

They fell on me, kicking and punching me mercilessly. The world went red, wobbly.

“I doubt his father will miss him,” one of the guards said.

“I don’t want to run that risk, do you?” The other one demanded. “Let’s throw him in the well with the other one.”

The other one. Honor.

They grabbed my arms, and I tried to cling to consciousness, but pain swallowed me.





Jaik

“Lucien seems to be missing,” I said the next morning, glancing around the amphitheater, when training had started. He vanished often, despite Branok and Arren tailing him as much as possible. They were quite adept and yet somehow Lucien often gave them the slip. “I have to wonder if he’s finally been murdered.”

“Don’t look at me,” Branok raised his hands as everyone’s gazes shifted his way. “I’d tell you, wouldn’t I?”

I’d debated letting Branok and Lynx kill Lucien at the start, given what he’d done to Alina. But we needed every dragon shifter for the war. As Lucien proved useful, though, I’d made it clear that their revenge campaign was almost at an end.

“Perhaps you went rogue when you realized I wouldn’t give into your homicidal whims,” I suggested.

He scoffed at me. I knew Branok wouldn’t be that foolish.

“We’re going looking for him.” I stood.

Damyn frowned, in the midst of addressing students about our upcoming trip north, but he didn’t acknowledge the way we suddenly filed out into the academy’s quiet hallway.

“You cannot be serious.” Branok said slowly, even though he’d followed me; obviously I was serious.

“Look, I know you hate the man.”

“Am I supposed to just get over what he did to my sister? Just because it turned out he’s a pretty decent fighter?” Those were words Branok would never have said in front of Lucien.

“No one’s asking you to forgive him, just to work with him. You don’t have to hold hands and skip into the sunset.”

“For now,” Talisyn added, “all we have to do is find him. Make sure he’s not drunk somewhere.”

“With Honor,” Lynx offered crisply.

My heart froze in my chest at the mention of her name. I hadn’t seen her lately either. Staying away from her was tearing me apart.

“It would make sense to check the servants’ quarters.” My tone came out cool. I could almost make it sound as if I wouldn’t want to murder Lucien myself if I found him fucking Honor.

I made my way down the back stairs into unfamiliar territory. It was purely by luck that I ran into Calla.

She glared at me as if I had done something terrible to Honor.

I demanded, “What is it?”