Page 88 of The Serpent Prince

“I don’t have proof.” Kiran stared at him coldly, unblinking. “That’s why I’m here, you idiot. I have good intel that a scouting party recently returned with interesting information that I know is locked in this office.”

“Well, you can’t have it. Gau⁠—”

Kiran moved his wand, but Imani was faster. She’d moved directly in front of the high sentinel and leaned over, her hands on his legs so that she could look him in the eyes.

“You won’t be calling anyone,” she purred, that layer of glamour distorting her voice a little.

With his wand still outstretched, Kiran glared. “What are you doing?”

“Put your wand down. We don’t need it.” She shot him a sidelong glare of her own.

He scoffed but slipped it back up his sleeve.

As she ran her hands over the high sentinel’s face, he had a far-off, distant look as he reached to touch her. Imani wound her shadows around his arms, locking him to the chair. “Ah, none of that. No touching.”

She turned back to Kiran. “While I’m pleased to see you not immediately using me for my power, this will be far easier and more effective than anything you had planned.”

That book was hers, and she wasn’t giving up getting her hands on it because they couldn’t procure the information Kiran wanted.

Kiran’s clenched jaw was all the answer she needed.

She grinned and turned back to the high sentinel. He seemed to be fighting the magic, wiggling and blinking repeatedly, as if to clear his head.

Imani struck.

“Where are the maps of the slips in your territory?”

The sentinel darted a glance at his desk drawer but clamped his jaw shut against the magic.

Kiran ran his hands through his hair. “He has a heartmate,” he said to Imani. “That’s why I didn’t ask you to use your power. But the shadows are handy.”

“This magic is weak on me,” the high sentinel said through gritted teeth then grinned.

With a soft touch to Kiran’s arm, Imani leaned up, her mouth brushing his ear. “The maps are in a desk drawer somewhere, I’m certain.”

The prince seemed to relax visibly and nodded his agreement but still didn’t take his eyes off the male elf.

When Imani turned back to the high sentinel, he was more focused, but her shadows held him strong in the chair.

Kiran tapped the man’s knee, signaling Imani’s attention. “Your draw on him is fading. Keep him where he is, my love—I have other ways of getting resistant people to talk.”

The dwarf cleared his throat again but stammered, “If-if you or your heartmate⁠—”

“If we what?” Kiran stood a little taller. He curled the fingers on his right hand while holding his wand in his left, pointing it straight at the elf.

The high sentinel writhed in the chair, suddenly gasping. His mouth hung open, and his skin grew redder with each passing second.

Is Kiran choking him somehow? She stood stock-still, unsure of what to do. If Kiran wanted to kill this man, she wouldn’t stop him. But she hoped he wouldn’t. Unlike her killing the common female elf, the messy fallout from a high sentinel murder would be a political nightmare.

“I’m learning that I don’t react well when my heartmate is threatened,” Kiran said matter-of-factly at the dwarf again.

“Your Highness, please,” the dwarf choked. “I’ll give you the papers.”

Imani’s eyes sparkled as she finally found a stack of papers mentioning exactly what they needed—several clearly drawn maps with slips clearly marked across the mountain. They weren’t in a drawer, but instead right on the desk.

“Stop playing around. You’re killing him,” Imani muttered, pushing Kiran to move away from her so she could grab the papers.

She gasped as a wall of power from the high sentinel slammed into her, and it took all she had to keep the shadows locked around him. “Dammit! He’s almost free of the shadows,” she ground out, trying to keep him restrained a little longer. High sentinels were strong, and she was still learning to master her shadows.