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“Did the Royals really never realize how dangerous you were to them?”
“I was very loyal,” Damyn moved stealthily ahead of me into the dining room. “The magic guaranteed it.”
There was another piece of his past that I needed to unravel. But for now, I just followed him; he pressed the panels of the deep blue wall until one swung open, revealing a secret passage.
What a delightful secret. “Really? A secret passage? I am so annoyed I didn’t know this was here!”
“We’re trying not to get murdered, Honor,” Damyn reminded me, pushing me into the passage.
“That’s no reason not to appreciate the castle’s secrets. I can multitask—not getting murdered and enjoying a sense of wonder.”
Damyn sighed under his breath as he closed the passage behind us. We were submerged in darkness. The passage was narrow, and Damyn’s broad shoulders barely fit.
The next second, the door slammed open to the dining room and the sound of tromping boots filled the room. Both of us froze, not daring to move a muscle in case we alerted the guards on the other side of the wall.
The table crashed into the wall as if they were searching the room. The sound made me jump as it sounded like it would break through the panels between us and the guards, and Damyn’s body pressed against mine, his arm circling my waist. His jaw pressed against my temple, and I leaned back into his body, drawing comfort from how near he was. My heart was hammering, but it began to slow.
I’d always seen life as an adventure, and I’d always been reckless. But lately, surrounded by constant danger, I found myself wanting to live in a deeper, more intense way than I ever had before. For Hanna’s sake, but also… for my own.
I wanted a happy ending with these men.
“They must have gone on into the hall,” a rough voice said. “Split up and find them.”
Long seconds drifted by, and the guards ran out of the room. At least, some of them did. In the heavy silence, I had the feeling someone might still be on the other side of the wall, listening.
Damyn must have the same fear, because he stayed utterly still too, his arms locked around me and his cock hard against the curve of my ass. I smiled in the darkness; no matter how much danger we were in, he longed for me.
The warmth of his arms seemed to flood my body. I caught the briefest glimpse of his thoughts—he longed to protect me, he could easily imagine himself killing our way out of here with his sword and me safely behind him, and he longed to kiss me like that again… when there was time for more to unwind.
Finally, Damyn said in my mind,“We need to move.”
I glanced up at him in surprise, grateful to hear his deep, resonant voice in my mind—both because it would make it easier to fight and because it meant the bond between us was growing deeper. But I couldn’t see him in the darkness. The two of us edged slowly along the corridor, moving stealthily.
It seemed to take forever to creep through the narrow passage, though I didn’t think we were covering very much ground. We reached a narrow flight of stairs, each step uncomfortably deep, and we began to feel our way down them.
“Twenty-three steps,”Damyn cautioned me, and I counted on my way down because I was afraid I’d stumble when I reached the bottom.
I had to reach my foot out each time to get a sense for where the step was, because it was barely big enough for my foot and each one seemed an uneven height.
“They’re in the walls!” Someone brayed in the distance, back in the dining room.
The sound of chaos erupted from that room. I threw caution to the wind and rushed down the steps, feeling as if I were going to plummet to my doom at any moment. I frantically counted the steps, not wanting to miss one or slam into the landing at the end.
With Damyn behind me, I rushed forward in the dark passage, holding my hands in front of me since I couldn’t see. Cobwebs clung to my face, sticky and horrifying, but I didn’t dare swipe them away.
Then a door swung open in front of me. Sudden light pierced the passageway.
A man with a triumphant face rose in front of me, carrying a torch. I yanked my dagger free and rushed toward him; there was no going back now, and he was in the way offorward.
His face changed into one of shock that I was attacking him, and he thrust the torch toward me. I ducked it, slamming myself into his legs, and the torch went flying.
He fell backward, cushioning me as I landed on top of his legs and boots.
Damyn leapt over both of us, ready for a fight.
The guards in the room came toward him. His lone dagger and fists seemed like no match for half a dozen guards with swords and shields and helmets.
The next second, two guards in the back moved in unison, stabbing two other guards. As they screamed, the guards facing Damyn whirled, uncertain what to do.
