Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(120)

“Perhaps I just hoped it would be.”

I rested my palm lightly on his forehead. “Are you sick with fever? Delirious?”

His brown eyes met mine. “I’ve never seen clearer.”

No matter how bad things were, he still lit a warm glow in my chest. If only we could survive long enough to have this conversation in a more pleasant setting. “I don’t know how Alis and Henrick are going to get out of this now. They can claim this was all just part of my punishment, but… now you’re here. and Alis came to see me earlier, and I heard her tell Henrick the royals had been here earlier.”

“And my idiot brother didn’t find you?”

I laughed, a bit shakily. Their bitter sibling rivalry didn’t take a time-out for anything, apparently. “We’re pretty well hidden. We’re in the old well, the one my father built the conservatory over. Apparently there’s a trap door. Look.”

I raised my hand, and the light scattered and glinted over the gold coins surrounding us. My father had apparently dumped treasure down here as if he were a dragon himself.

“Apparently, as a child, I was afraid of the dark,” I said. “They locked me in complete darkness, and I was terrified… they don’t know that now, I make my own light.”

Cal frowned. I was rambling.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’ve been alone with my thoughts for a while, and they’re not the most chipper.”

Light cracked through the trap door above, and I folded my fingers, smothering the flames in my palm.

If Henrick knew me as a child…did he know what I truly was?

Alis stared down at me, along with half a dozen guards. Two of them held crossbows on us, and an eerie feeling crept up my spine at the sight of the arrow ready to fire.

A rope with a small wooden plank knotted to the end—just enough to stand on—landed beside me.

“Both of you, come up,” Henrick ordered, somewhere out of sight. “Any nonsense and you’ll get to watch the other die.”

Caldren gave me a wink, although it was hard to see when one side of his face was a massive bruise. “We’ll get you out of here,” he whispered, giving me a hand onto the board, ever gallant.

I gripped the rope as the guards began to haul me up.

We? Who was Caldren’s we? It didn’t matter and yet, it gave me something else to think about.

Henrick caught my arm and helped me off the board before they sent it down again for Caldren. They’d basically rolled his unconscious form into the well to begin with, and I’d screamed, afraid he’d been hurt even worse.

Two servants were struggling in the door, trying to bring the cross in. It must have been hidden when the royals were at the door.

My knees buckled, and I fell heavily on the rose rug. The scent of vinegar rose to my nose; the floor must have been cleaned, but I could’ve sworn there were still spots of my blood on the same rug where I’d once stretched out to read while my mother played the piano.

“I don’t remember anything but being hurt,” I whispered.

But Henrick just smiled down at me. “Patience.”





Caldren



The guards had to wrench me away from Honor. I started to fight back, desperate to get back to her, then realized I needed to keep from being knocked unconscious again more than anything else. I let them bind my hands. Honor was on her knees, but her gaze met mine, her wide, vivid eyes still defiant, even though her face was blotchy from distress. She was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

She winked at me, and warmth swelled in my chest.

Two guards gripped my arms, a third walking with a crossbow aimed at me as they took me to a carriage waiting on the white stone walkway outside the front doors.

One guard sat opposite me, the crossbow still aimed at my chest. The carriage rattled into motion, stopped at the gate, then moved again.

“You know they’re never going to get away with this,” I told the guard across from me. “Prince Jaik will have everyone involved killed.”

He had a weathered face, a soft brown beard. Was he familiar? Or was I seeing familiar faces?

He scoffed, but there was something uncertain in his dark eyes. “Prince Jaik’s not likely to care much about you turning up dead, Caldren. If anyone ever finds your body.”

“Maybe,” I said, shrugging as much as I could with my hands bound. “But Honor… that’s a different story. He loves the girl.”

He laughed at that. “Royals don’t fall in love.”

I cocked my head, certain that I did know him. The cynicism of that statement made me think he’d glimpsed my mother and father, too, once upon a time. Then the memories clicked together for me. “You used to guard the summer palace. When I was a boy.”

He looked uncomfortable at the thought. “You know me?”

I didn’t remember his name, damn me. I’d never been good at names and faces. “I remember you.”

He hesitated. The carriage was still rolling along. I glanced out the window. We were nearing the city gates.

“You went mercenary?” I asked.

He hesitated. “Freelancing. Your father doesn’t pay all that well.”

Suddenly, he leaned forward, throwing aside the crossbow and drawing his knife. My heart raced, but he sawed through my bonds. He seemed to hesitate even then. “Henrick is a bad man to cross.”