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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
LUCIA
PAELSIA
Downstairs at the inn, Lucia forced herself to eat some bread and honey, chewing each piece slowly and methodically before swallowing.
