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ChapterEighteen
Perry ignored the pounding in his chest, the same feeling he’d had before every big verdict—only this was a thousand times stronger.Vori was in danger, yet here she was teasing him after kissing him.As though letting him go was the worst part.
He stared, waiting for the trick.One racing heartbeat later, she stood before him.
The next?She was gone.
Only shadows and darkness filled the space where she’d been.His breath caught in his throat, and his skin went clammy.Terror clawed at his throat.
Where’d she go?His ability to make sense of the seemingly impossible failed him.All he could see was his one chance at having something real with her disappear.Into nothingness.
What had she said?Her mother’s shadow magic?What was that?Where had it taken her?
“Vori?”Her name came out strangled around his fear.Had the castle stolen her?She’d been right in front of him.
The shadows swirled fast, taking shape as long lines and curves.“It’s okay.”Her voice came through clearly, but she was a dark mist, different from the haze that surrounded her when she slipped skins and infinitely more terrifying.She’d become no more than the absence of light, a shade.A blink later and she was there again.
“You were gone so fast.”She’d left him, gone beyond anywhere he could rescue her.Not that she needed it.If she left now.She was racing goblin guards, and he’d delayed her.Guilt curled in his gut, sour and heavy.
“I’ll be back.”
This time, he watched the slower fade.A shadow circled around his wrist, warm and soft like her slender fingers wrapping around him.The darkness pulsed with energy before blurring into the room’s shadows.A second later, the passage door closed again.He rushed forward, trying to find the opening she’d used so he could follow if she needed him.So he could find the killer.So he could do something, anything to help.But there was nothing there.
She was gone.
He pushed on the same portal door, but it wouldn’t move.He considered blasting it with electricity and rejected the idea in the next moment.It wouldn’t bring her back or fix anything.It could only make things worse.
Worse.He was locked in a foreign realm with a king-killing murderer, separated from the only woman he wanted.
Without her, the room felt empty.
He cared for her.
Trusted her.
Maybe loved her.
The ground tilted as if the castle had decided to shift, but no…this knocking way off center was all in his head.Or his heart.He couldn’t let himself think about love.He put his hand out to steady himself.A tiny leaf with a violet flower bloomed where she’d smeared her blood.Her royal blood.
He didn’t deserve Vori.No matter the fantasy she’d played out in which they could pretend his past didn’t exist.The one where they lived happily ever after like some storybook princess and her criminal consort.
He bumped against the textbooks cluttering shelves.
Goblin history.Goblin law.Goblin policies.
If he was stuck in this room without her, he might as well learn something that could help them along the way.Law and argument and planning were his strengths, but only when he had the knowledge to back them.He nudged the magical book, but it didn’t respond.Guess it’d shared all it would tonight.
Gathering a stack of the textbooks, he winced at the stabbing hurt in his chest and arms where he’d struggled with the guards.Kissing Vori had been an all-consuming anesthetic.Now, the pain killer was wearing off with no charms to treat him.He’d have to go old-school on studying the law and treating his injuries.
He would fill his time with both until his princess returned.It wasn’t as if he could sleep until he knew she was safe.Sure, she could pick locks, escape dungeons, travel at an incredible speed, and magic herself into shadows—he was still processing the last—but she could still be hurt or caught or killed.
His throat burned, and his head throbbed in time with the fading lights that had lost their glow after Vori left.A killer was loose in the castle, one with his name on her list of men to be ripped apart, and he was trapped here.
For hours, he read until the words blurred.
Grit stung his tired eyes.Someone banged on the doors.He hid the privacy stone and slammed the compartment shut.
Outside, a muscled goblin in a crimson guard uniform stood.“The queen commands your presence in the throne room.Now.”
