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Sins of the father indeed.
Perry glanced at her, a slight tightening of the skin around his eyes the only sign he might’ve had similar thoughts.His dad’s exile paled in comparison to her father’s rampages.
Mykata moved ahead of them, and Vori ignored the blatant disregard of rank.She had more important problems.
Perry leaned close.“What’s with the lights?”
This access tunnel looked a lot like the London Underground subway with sleek round walls minus the perfume advertisements in the Tube that usually featured Vori’s face.Natural rock with veins of glowing crystals made up the castle’s walls.
“Kradnovtl’s stones hold their own magic.”Like the cursed amethysts on her wrist under her sleeve.“We don’t have active powers like your witch females.”She stressed the last.Let the guards believe him to be nothing more than a consort, a pretty face.
Mykata didn’t bother to turn.“Royal blood triggers the lighting flares.”
“Huh.”Perry didn’t elaborate.
Vori narrowed her eyes at him, hoping he’d stop talking.The lights flickered a bit brighter with Mykata’s passing, but they shone and sparkled above their goblin princess.
A guard raced to meet the captain, wearing the same dark-red uniform that matched the new crests.The longer the two guards talked, the more suspicious Vori became.“What is it?”She put all the haughtiness she didn’t feel into the demand.
“We’re to show you to your former suite.King’s orders.”Mykata didn’t sound as if she’d wanted to answer.Or maybe she hadn’t wanted to givethatanswer.“You’ll stay there until the presentation is arranged.”
She didn’t offer more information, and Vori didn’t press.If she was lucky, her old suite still had its hidden compartments—the ones where she’d kept her prized possessions as a child, including secrecy-spelled jewels so she and Perry could regroup on their plans to catch a killer.
He’d set his jaw in a tight line, scanning their surroundings with a wary gaze.The tunnels leading into the goblin court twisted and turned with false leads.
“We’re almost there,” she said.“The claustrophobic tightness is only for the access paths and cargo rails.It’ll be easier to move in the more formal parts of the castle.”
He shot a meaningful glance at Mykata.“Will it?”
True.She’d meant physically.Palace intrigue was its own hellish maze to navigate.Once, she’d known all the players and her position on the playing board.Now, she wasn’t so sure.Mykata snapped at a guard to open the doors to the royal suite.
Vori stepped into her old rooms and stopped so quickly that Perry slammed into her.
“You okay?”he asked.
“It’s all the same.Exactly as I left it.The furniture, the layout, everything my mother deemed to be suitable for a princess.It hasn’t changed.”With a four-poster bed draped in gauzy fabric and white bedding, crystal chandeliers that dripped with gold to cast warm reflections on the gray stone walls, and violet accents to match her eyes, the rooms had been fit for a future queen.It was as if the room had been trapped in a time warp.
Scents of lemon and flowers hit her as if she’d been gone a day, not a decade.Her textbooks lined the shelves, and her framed portrait with her mother still hung.The sight of her mother’s eyes staring out of the picture stole her breath.It was the first time she’d seen her mom’s face since that night.A face that looked exactly as Vori did now, except for the color of her eyes.
“Your consort must remain confined at all times,” Mykata spoke, as if talking to Perry was beneath her.“With or without you.”
“My consort and I stay together.”Vori wouldn’t leave him.
He slid a look her way, one of appreciation.
“Very well.”The captain sounded doubtful of her choice.Let the woman think what she would.
Vori didn’t object when the guards closed the door, sealing her in with Perry away from the rest of the world.Her pulse thudded in her ears, and her chest tightened as memories she’d pushed away every day for the last thirteen years paraded before her in vivid, living detail.
“Is it safe to talk in here?”Perry asked.“Or should we resort to passing notes and using hand signals?”
“Cute.Why don’t you check the basket on the table?”She kept her tone light enough to throw off anyone who might have lingered at the door.Thank the powers her consort possessed the skeptical presence of mind to ask before speaking.
“There are clothes, and something baked that smells amazing.Tell me this isn’t a ‘don’t eat the food in the underworld’ situation.”
“This is real life, not myth.”
“All rooted in truth.I would’ve believed in an underworld before a mountain castle with magic lights.”He waved a hand at the room cut from stone cave walls.He pulled fabric from the basket.“Wow.What is this?”
