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I sniffed. “What? Haven’t you heard of Indigo, Prince of High Cliff?”
The High Clifter arched me a
surprised glance but didn’t dispute my lie.
Kalendria, however, squinted suspiciously. “Prince?”
I nodded. “Oh, aye. One of the younger, less important ones, to be sure. But still a worthy enough prize to ransom, I’d wager.”
Taking my words to heart, the queen turned to Indigo with interest, eyeing him speculatively as she approached. “A High Cliff prince, hmm? How interesting. And a handsome prince at that. Maybe I’ll just marry you and force my own alliance with your kingdom.”
Nicolette’s bodyguard sniffed degradingly and gave her such a mockingly conceited once-over that he might as well be royalty.
“I’d rather die,” he answered.
“Resistant, huh?” The queen smiled. “I like that. But I’m afraid it means you’ll have to reside with the other two in the dungeon until you change your mind.” And with that, she shooed us along. “Take all three down now.”
So, they took us away, Nicolette’s captor prodding her ahead of me and Indigo.
“This way, my lady,” he heckled. “We’ve a nice comfortable place for you to stay, full of rat bones and moldy decay.”
His cackle grated on my nerves, making me wish the bastard had been one of the dozens that were dead and splayed on the floor around us, killed by my steel.
Nicolette tripped forward through the bodies of the fallen soldiers as her captor brutishly nudged her along, only to come to Sable’s corpse. She jerked to a halt, gaping a moment before her gaze swung to me. Shock and disbelief marred her features as she realized I’d failed my mission.
Sable hadn’t made it.
And so, my world went dark.
29
Nicolette
Rusted, dank metal screeched as a guard pulled open what appeared to be an iron, grate lid that covered a hole in the floor.
“In you go, princess,” he said.
I peered into the darkened pit, horror filling my veins. Then I jerked back, shaking my head aggressively. “You must be joking.”
There could be any number of things down there, and I had no idea how deep it went. My God, the dungeons at home were a million times more pleasant than this monstrosity.
How could anyone be so inhumane?
“I’m always joking, my lady,” the guard sneered. “And I’ll be laughing your entire trip down, too.” Grabbing me roughly, he shoved me into the hole and let go.
I screamed. Indigo shouted my name from above. And then I landed, slamming into the bottom of the cell so abruptly I wrenched an ankle.
Sucking in a breath as pain seared its way up my leg to my bottom, I winced. “Ouch.”
Cold, black, damp stone entombed me into my new cage. On the other side of a row of vertical bars, Indigo appeared, landing with a crack, followed by a curse. And Farrow came next, dumped into the cell on the other side of me.
He made no noise and didn’t move when he hit the floor.
I watched him intently, seeking him with my mark. His screaming emotions were what had led me to the castle in the first place. From the moment Indigo and I had entered Blayton, I’d been able to sense Farrow’s presence again.
When a spark of fear and apprehension erupted from him, I knew he was in trouble, and I took off running, only knowing I needed to get to him. Not too long after that, another wave of sensations blasted me. For a moment, I thought he’d been mortally wounded, because pain. Suddenly, there was so much pain and loss I could barely breathe through it.
Now, I understood that must’ve come from the moment he’d lost Sable, because an onslaught of anger followed. Waves and waves of pure rage.
