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Artanya ignored her, speaking only to her sister.“Find her.”
The urgency in her tone cut through the captain’s shock.Mykata ran from the room, pointing and yelling at guards as she did.
The red uniforms forced their way through the well-dressed crowd, a bloodstained line cutting through the half-changed mob.
“We have to go.”Vori grabbed his hand and took off through the crowd.
He limped behind her because what else could he do amid booming shouts and crashing dishes?The two little girls in goblin form who’d been playing earlier held each other now, hiding beneath a table.The older child, maybe six or seven, cradled the other while rocking side to side with rounded eyes.Madness swirled around them.
Vori let go of his hand, raising her chin and stepping back.She was going to slip her skin.The intent flashed in her eyes—part powerful princess who should be queen, part plea for his forgiveness.
But there was nothing to forgive.
Magic wrapped around her, shadows and light rippling over her as her muscles expanded and her body changed forms.A rip of threads and a pop of fabric split her sleeves and hiked the dress’s slit higher.
Within seconds, his supermodel slipped to her goblin skin.She paused, staring at him.He wouldn’t let hesitation steal this chance from him.He took her hand again—long fingers, claws, and all.Screw this separation shit.They would stand together in this.
She was still the same Vori.He wouldn’t let her face this alone.Not with a queen consort who seemed to hate them both, a killer out there, and the king roaming half-cocked.She curved her lips into the slightest twist of appreciation, not a smile but something equally valuable.
The pandemonium rolled into slow motion around them.As if someone had pounded a gavel for order, the confusion distilled to reverence.Voices announced the presence of a “true golden crown.”Some dropped to their knees.Others prostrated themselves on the ground.Above, the lights warmed to a rich amber.
A whimper cut through the silence—one of the cowering kids.
His princess wasn’t having it.
She held his hand as if she needed it to anchor herself.“You can come out now, children.You’re safe.”She raised her voice.“You will all be safe if you stay together and remain calm.”Spoken like a true queen.“My consort and I will join the king in his search.Stay here until we return.”
Artanya glowered from her throne, gripping the polished silver armrests until the metal groaned.
“By the blood!”someone yelled.Others echoed the cheer, adding “golden-born.”These people loved her.No matter her father’s history as the mad king or her being away for a decade, his princess had been missed.
She dipped her chin once, a regal move so engrained, it must’ve been learned as a crown princess and possibly perfected on runways in another realm.
In the next moment, she ran—unhurried for her but so fast his breathing burned his lungs.Pain in his bad leg shot from his hip to his ankle.They sprinted down the hall and into a narrow one before ducking under an arch, not slowing as she rounded corners.
“Where are we going?”he asked.
“The library.”She headed into a darkened room with shelves that stretched to a cathedral ceiling.Crossing to an alcove, she pressed her palm against one of the glowing stones.A door swung open.
“A secret passage.”He wanted to explore how it worked later—when they weren’t chasing a killer.“Like out of a fantasy novel.”
“If it’s a weird castle fantasy.”Her eyes and crown glinted in the light.
“You’re my fantasy except…” He couldn’t say it.No way.He’d be the one rejected this time.
“Goblin,” she finished for him.
“Real.I was going to say real.”
She studied his expression.“When this is over, we have a lot to discuss.”She pushed ahead, her tattered sleeves trailing behind her like a cape.The cuff around her wrist gleamed against green skin.
The corridor’s ceiling loomed short enough he had to stoop in places or risk slamming his head into stone.It was damp and cool, but their quick pace kept him warm.
Electric lights gleamed far apart here, every twenty feet or so.The voltage running between them called to him, tickling at the edges of his powers.Come play, the castle seemed to say.“Someone installed electricity in hidden passages?”he asked to keep his mind focused and his magic to himself.
“These are emergency escape routes.This is the one my mother and I used the night I fled, the night she was killed.”
His pulse hammered in his ears.These tunnels must evoke the worst memories of her childhood.“I’m so sorry.”
“My uncle shouldn’t have taken off like that.”She switched subjects, as though trying to ignore the pain of her past.“He truly believes the divine power nonsense about us being near indestructible as royals.”
“Except by other royals.Which our killer is.”
Vori widened her eyes, violet reflecting in the dimming glow of the stones.The castle seemed to shudder.A spray of sheared rocks bounced against the walls with loud clacks, rattling to the stones beneath.
A chill raced over him, having nothing to do with the cold wind sweeping through the tunnel.Earthquakes and rock slides killed in California.Mother Nature—the supreme bitch that she was—or whatever she was called here had to be able to do the same in Kradnovtl.
“We need to go.”He gently pushed Vori to move.“Before we’re trapped in here.”
But a shrill scream stopped them both.
