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He glanced out the single, mullioned window but couldn’t see anything from his angle inside the house. While he could confront the fools, confident he knew who was outside making a racket, he needed them to break the spell. He wanted Azleah awake, and it seemed they knew how, having made it through the hedge. He would slip away, leaving Azleah to know he’d found her and infiltrated her defenses.
He smiled.
When she realized he’d taken back what belonged to him, she’d know she’d lost.
Running out of time, he carried his missing heart down the stairs and snuck out the back of the cottage—just as the front door opened. The hedge parted for him once more, allowing him passage with his precious cargo.
But part way through, the hedge began to shrink around them. The passage where he stood remained arched high above them, the original spell still answering to the thread of Baba, but soon the hedge collapsed altogether in a final, heaving puff, leaving him in the open with his still sleeping daughter in his arms.
Hurrying, he stepped into the roadway, then hesitated a moment, looking down at her beautiful face pressed against his chest, intending to spell her back to sleep. Only she didn’t stir.
“Beauty,” he said. “I’ll take care of you now.”
She didn’t move.
It was a boon at the moment, for she couldn’t struggle as he carried her. Getting her ferreted away to his enchanted manor was his first priority. He didn’t know how to break the spell still on her, but when had something like that ever stopped him from getting what he wanted?
With a quick glance around—the roadway free and clear—he stole down the lane toward the manor he’d taken to calling his own, cradling the treasure he’d sought all these long years, gloating that he’d finally won.
36
Johesha Malinor, the second son of Jomiah and Rozzi Malinor, the first captain of the Prince of Jast’s royal guard, had taken to prowling around the godforsaken hedge. Without his prince to watch, Johesha felt unsettled, even though Lachlan had slipped into the monstrosity without meeting his end as others had.
How long had it been? Days? House? Time didn’t seem to being following the natural laws. He was losing track.
So faith was what was required of Johesha, only he wasn’t a man of faith but of action. He paused and leaned against a tree, taking a deep breath, but grunted out his frustration. He was terrible at waiting. But he waited because it was his duty. And when Lachlan returned, Johesha would be there, tried and true. He’d taken a vow.
“Captain.”
He turned his head and watched Jude move toward him using the shadows to obscure his presence. “Brendsen? The others?”
“Still at their posts, but I saw something–”
Johesha straightened at the sound in Jude’s voice. “Lachlan?”
“No, sir. This way.”
Johesha followed Jude back through the shadows of the woods. “A man,” Jude whispered. “He opened up the hedge and disappeared inside.”
“How?”
“Magic. Like the witch from the woods.” Jude stopped.
“Fucking magic,” Johesha swore.
“There. He went in there.” The guardsman pointed, but the hedge looked like it did everywhere else. Massive twisting and gnarled branches, hulking broad leaves, humongous thorns.
“How?”
“It just… opened.”
Johesha, who’d never been one to believe in such fantastical things, couldn’t deny them any longer. He’d seen too much recently to remain doubtful. “And did he come back out?”
“Not yet. Not that I saw.”
From the cover of the trees, Johesha watched a few more moments with Jude, then decided he needed to return to his quadrant. But just as he moved, something changed. A crackle of energy burst across the roadway, hitting him with a jolt.
“What the fuck was that?” Jude asked.
