Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(119)

The anger on her face softened. “You don’t know where she is either.”

Worry spiked in my chest. “When did you see her last?”

“She hasn’t been at work. She never came back to our room last night.” She raked her fingers through her hair, pulling random little wisps from her bun. “She comes and goes all the time. But she always lets me know. She always comes back.”

“I’ll find her,” I promised.

We had to search for both her and Lucien. The thought that the two of them might have run away together nagged at me, filling me with a mix of rage and foreboding.

For Honor, the logical place to go would have been her house.

When I went there, I was met by servants who showed me into a drawing room, where Alis smiled at me as she greeted me from the couch.

“What an honor, Prince Jaik. It’s been a pleasure to see so much of you lately.”

I said polite words by rote, no matter how little I meant them, until enough time had passed to demand, “Have you seen Honor?”

For a moment, there was a flash of fear in her eyes. Then she said, “No, I haven’t.”

I cocked my head to one side, studying her. She was uncomfortable, but was it because I was interested in Honor or because she’d done something to hurt her?

My nostrils flared, trying to find Honor’s scent, but like all dragons, I wasn’t any good at tracking by scent. I could’ve sworn her sugar-and-sun scent had been here recently, but it had faded since. There was a faint tang of blood in the air, and… gods, was that Caldren? What the hell had Caldren been doing here?

I wanted to tear the house apart. I nodded to my royals, and they spread out, searching every inch of the house.

Alis shook her head. “Did you lose something? This is most unusual, Prince Jaik.”

Everything that happened in my life since Honor came into it was most unusual.

Had Alis handed Honor over to my father?

There was only one way to know for sure.

I’d have to go see the old bastard. Some involuntary instinct drew me to glance at the mirror hanging above the fireplace, at the faint yellow bruising that still clung to my face.

Pend would want to know about a missing dragon shifter, if the twins’ father hadn’t made Lucien disappear with my father’s permission. I was curious to gauge his reaction to Lucien’s disappearance….and to Honor’s.

Rage darted like ice through my veins.

If he’d hurt Honor, I was going to destroy him.

Sooner than planned.





It wasn’t that fun for me to walk back into the same room where I’d had my last meeting with my father.

“To what do I owe this pleasure, Jaik?” He sounded polite, but he was annoyed I was here when he hadn’t requested my presence.

“I wanted to talk to you about Lucien.”

“Oh? What’s he done now?”

“He’s gone missing.”

He looked mildly surprised but not concerned. “Well, that’s one problem sorted, if he’s abandoned the academy or died. You’ll need to find him, of course.”

“Yes.”

“If he’s deserted, kill him.”

“He doesn’t seem the type.” But I had a niggling sense of doubt. He might have run with Honor.

It had certainly crossed my mind.

My father gave me a pointed look as if I were being dismissed.

When I looked at my father, I tried not to look at him like I was thinking about murdering him for threatening Honor’s life.

“Anything else?” My father’s tone was mild.

Caldren’s scent in the house was still on my mind. Maybe Caldren and Lucien and Honor had all run away together. Maybe the house had been where they met.

Or maybe something worse had befallen all of them.

“Do you ever miss Caldren?” I blurted out.

My father gave me a familiar, dismissive glance. “Who?”

Fuck him. “I’ll find Lucien.”

“See that you do.”

I turned and strode from the house.





Honor



The only light came from the flickering flames in my palm, illuminating the narrow circle where Cal and I were held. The flames seemed to be dying, as if this phase of torture began to leach away my magic.

I shifted in exhaustion, trying to keep my shredded back away from the hard stone wall, and shivered like I’d never be warm. I’d been alone for so many hours down here, and I watched eagerly as Caldren stirred.

Caldren’s eyes fluttered slowly open.

“There you are,” I said, running my fingers through his dark hair. I’d cradled his head in my lap when they first dumped him down in the well with me. His face was swollen from the beating, and he groaned as if waking were miserable. I chided him gently, “And here you say I always get in trouble.”

“I was wrong.” His voice came out a rasp, and he coughed, his arm crossing his chest as if he’d had some ribs broken. Then he managed, “You don’t get into trouble. You are trouble.”

“Regrets? Coming to find me turned out to be a disappointment?” I asked lightly.

“You stood me up.”

“I wasn’t aware it was a date.”